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“Were you able to speak to the president?” the king asked.

“I did, Your Majesty,” said Dayton. “Actually, we all did.”

“How did he respond?”

“Very favorably —he’s ready to help in every way he can.”

“Does he understand that I have not wavered in my views at all —that the Arab Peace Initiative is the right way to go forward, that the Palestinians deserve a sovereign state with East Jerusalem as their capital, and that the Israelis should pull back to the 1967 borders?”

“He does,” Dayton confirmed. “And I told him that while you believe his plan reflects the spirit of the Arab Peace Initiative, you believe it is deficient in a number of important respects.”

“This did not bother him?”

“Not at all. He said he expected as much. He said he never expected the Palestinians or you or any Arab state to embrace and approve every word of his plan. He recognizes that it doesn’t comport precisely with the Arab Peace Initiative, but he argues that the initiative is two decades old and has not produced peace and therefore needs to be updated. Still, he said the initial goal of his plan is to jump-start the process and get the parties back to the table.”

“Do you believe him, Senator?”

“Your Majesty, I do.”

“Even though you’re running against him and have had such harsh words for this president?” asked the king.

“Even so.”

“Because I must say, my sons and I have been following the early stages of the presidential campaign in your country very closely. We have watched you both hit each other very hard. We also know we don’t have many friends on your side of the aisle. Then again, as you so candidly articulated during our last visit, we have lost many friends on the president’s side as well.”

“Your Majesty, I’ve always tried to be honest with you, so I will be candid with you now as well. I do not have much respect for President Clarke personally or for his economic policies or his domestic and social policies. That’s why I put together a presidential exploratory committee. That said, I do believe that he genuinely wants to forge a lasting peace between the Arabs and the Israelis and that he is committed to building an alliance in this region that can stand solidly against Iranian aggression. Perhaps more importantly, the Israelis trust him, and no one more so than Prime Minister Eitan. So if you convince President Clarke that you’re sincere about making peace, no one is better positioned to convince Eitan.”

The king looked over to his eldest son, then at his intelligence chief. Marcus noticed that neither spoke nor made any gestures that might indicate what they thought. Then the king looked down and folded his hands across his lap.

“I must say, I am deeply disappointed with my old friend Ismail Ziad,” the monarch said softly, almost wistfully. “He has sat with me in this room many times, right in that chair where you sit now, sipping tea and telling me his troubles. So many times I have pleaded with him to get back into negotiations and secure the best deal he can, and I told him I will help fund the costs of building a viable, vibrant Palestinian state.”

The king continued to stare down at his wrinkled hands.

“True, we once saw the Jews as interlopers, colonialists, occupiers, oppressors. But the Arab dream of driving them out of the region has not worked. The Israelis have built an impressive state, a powerful army and air force, and an even more powerful economy. And they’ve done it without a drop of oil and only recently with large discoveries of natural gas. I have told Ziad the Jews are not going anywhere. Israel is a fact of life. They are part of this region, this neighborhood, and it is time to accept this. Israel cannot be defeated. It cannot be wiped off the map. Nor can it be wished away. It is here and it is real and it is strong and getting stronger. Every day that passes, Israel grows mightier and the Palestinians grow weaker. ‘How much longer will you resist reality?’ I’ve often asked Ziad. I’ve told him, ‘The longer you wait, the less you will get. You had the chance to have half of the Old City —the Muslim and Christian Quarters and the Haram al-Sharif. Olmert offered it all to you on a silver platter and you turned him down.’ Ziad thinks he can get more. I say, ‘No, you’ll never get more than what Olmert offered. Now you’ll get less. But at least you’ll get something. I’ll help you pay for it. And I’ll persuade the Emiratis and the Bahrainis and the Omanis to chip in as well.’”

“What does he say?” Dayton asked.

“What can he say? Ziad is a stubborn old man,” the king replied with no apparent malice in his voice. “He speaks endlessly about Israeli settlements and their expansion. I tell him, ‘Yes, and the settlements could all stop expanding tomorrow. But only if you make a deal with the Israelis. You have to say yes to something —anything,’ but he refuses to listen to me. He is determined to go to his grave as the man who refused to surrender to the Zionist occupiers. I will not judge him. I have not walked in his sandals. But nor will I wait for him. My kingdom has supported the Palestinian people for an entire century. No Arab nation has done more for them than the House of Saud. But we have other, urgent priorities —the Iran threat, the Muslim Brotherhood, the rise of a hostile new sultan in Ankara, and our own domestic challenges. Our oil is running out. We must fundamentally transform our economy. We must use our wealth, while we still have it, to build a high-tech superpower here in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula. We can do it. We want Israel as a partner. Now is the time, and we must move very quickly, before it is too late.”