JERUSALEM -- A few weeks ago, Timo Friedmann, the automobile correspondent of the German newspaper Bild, arrived in Israel. Nothing exceptional, you might say, except that Friedmann came all the way from Hamburg with his Volkswagen Tuareg, finishing a trip that took him cross Europe to Turkey, then via Syria and Jordan to Israel. His verdict on fellow drivers he met on the road was damning: ``Except for the Syrians, Israeli drivers are the worst. On the road, everyone is fighting.''
With all due respect, I don't need Friedmann to come all the way from Hamburg to tell me what everybody here knows. Driving in Israel reflects the dire situation of the country: war, anxiety, tension. The best place to relieve your stress -- except for a football stadium -- is the road. And like in the Middle East, vae victis, as they used to say in Roman times -- woe to the vanquished.
It so happened that on the same week, I took the opposite direction and went to Hamburg, for a conference titled Beyond Peace: Israel, the Mashreq and Europe -- Prospects for Cooperation. It was arranged by the Zeit Foundation, celebrating the 70th birthday of its chairman, Manfred Lahnstein, former finance minister of Germany.
Joschka Fischer, former German foreign minister, reminded the audience that Europe had other concerns besides the Middle East: Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan. As for the nuclear threat of Iran, he said that despite the recent intelligence reports, he still believed it was real. Turkey, in the eyes of Fischer, was a chance to prove that Islam can reconcile with democracy. And Pakistan was a mess.
Then he turned to the Middle East, and said that President Bush's commitment to have a peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians by the end of 2008 ''was not so realistic.'' I didn't have to come all the way from Jerusalem to Hamburg to hear this: Everyone in the Middle East knows that.
My fellow Israeli speakers were interesting, but I was really intrigued by the Arab ones. Mahdi Abdul-Hadi, chairman of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs in Jerusalem, said that when Europeans helped the Palestinians, they were doing no more than just improving their conditions in prison. I couldn't hold my tongue, so I reminded him that sometimes even paranoids like the Israelis have real enemies. The Palestinians could have turned Gaza into a launching pad to establish a sovereign and prosperous state. Instead, they empowered Hammas and started shelling Israel. To which Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al-Quds University and a professor of philosophy, sighed. ''Why can't we get out of our cocoons,'' he lamented. ``Why, instead of being Palestinians, Israelis etc., can't we just be human beings?''
Abdel Monem Said-Ali, director of Al-Ahram Center for political and strategic studies in Cairo, told us how peace paid off. Since 2001, Jordanian companies have been able to export to the United States duty free, if there is Israeli input involved.
Following the trade agreement signed between Egypt, Israel and the United States in 2004, Egyptian companies enjoy the same benefit. Textile exports from Egypt to America rose from $300 million to $1.2 billion, and Egyptian businessmen are queuing to join in, despite the fact that it involves contacts with Israel.
It took me less time to cover the distance between Hamburg and Jerusalem than it took Timo Friedmann, but it was the same old Middle East, with Arabs and Jews clawing at each other's throats. What a far cry from the charms of that tranquil European city.
Was this a waste of time, an exercise in futility? Definitely not. The conference was a striking reminder that at the end of our bloody tunnel, in Europe and elsewhere, there lie generous countries and people, willing to help, once Arabs and Jews put down their swords. After all, Europe has managed to overcome centuries-old feuds, and even the hard-headed Irish have finally seen the light. Surely we, in the Middle East, have something to learn.
Uri Dromi is a columnist based in Jerusalem.
