Make Peace Come True，For Good
演讲人：Queen Rania 拉尼娅王后
President Levin，Dean Lorimer，faculty，students...thank you so much for making me feel so welcome here at Yale.I"ve wanted to come here for many years，and am so grateful to everyone for the hospitality and kindness you"ve shown to me and my staff.
I"ve really been looking forward to seeing the Yale landmarks that I"ve been hearing about for so long the Beinecke Library...Harkness Tower...Old Campus...Peter Salovey"s moustache.
Oh，I"m sorry I didn"t make it quite in time for that last one！But everything else is even more impressive than I had imagined.This is a spectacular place.
Indeed，I have to admit，as I was preparing for this visit，I wondered what on earth I could tell you that you don"t already know.Yalies have won 17Nobel prizes，6presidential elections，and even 2Heisman trophies.You can choose from more than 2，000courses...browse morethan 12million books in the libraries...make friends from more than 110countries...and，as far as I can tell from the posters on campus，try out for 3，000a capella singing groups！
So，rather than try to compete with all that，I thought I"d speak from my own experience.
I thought I"d offer an Arab perspective on my part of the world，and our hopes for peace and progress especially with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
And I"m guessing，since you made the time to be here today，when you could have been doing something really important like researching a paper，or visiting a professor，or calling your Mom to tell her how much you love her-that this is an audience that already cares about international relations.
But I realize that foreign policy isn"t typically a top concern for the American public and especially not in a time of economic hardship at home.A poll earlier this year found that 75percent of Americans agreed "terrorism"should be one of President Obama"s top priorities...but almost no other foreign policy issues made it to the top 20list.
So I don"t expect that the Arab-Israeli conflict is foremost on most people"s minds.
Yet，in many ways，that conflict is at the core of U.S.-Arab relations or，at least，at the core of Arab public opinion of America.When Arabs were asked，in a poll this spring，what two steps by the United States would improve their views of the United States the most，more than 40percent said a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine.The same poll found that 99percent of people put the conflict in their top 5priorities...and one in three say the Palestinian issue is their number one concern.
That"s because for us，the occupation is a hurt we feel each day.In Jordan，nearly a third of our population are Palestinian refugees.Look at the people sitting on either side of you.Imagine one was a refugee forced to seek haven in your country because her family had been driven from their own.In Jordan we have to be concerned with the conflict because we"re living with its consequences.We don"t have the luxury of shifting our focus away.
We know as well that the crisis in Palestine does not exist in a vacuum.What happens in Palestine is related to what happens in Iraq，in Lebanon，in Syria.The longer the conflict in Palestine persists，the weaker the moderate majority becomes...the more extremists gain leverage they can exploit...and the greater the risk of instability throughout our region.
So we appreciated President Obama"s outreach in his Cairo speech.We appreciated his acknowledgement that the conflict remains a major source of tension between us...and his pledge to pursue a two-state solution with patience and dedication.
We appreciated the appointment of Senator George Mitchell as special envoy.
But we are impatient.When it comes to Palestine，time has not been a friend.To the contrary，sometimes Palestine seems like the land that time forgot.
You know，when I started college，back in 1988，Europe was divided.The United States had an existential foe called the USSR.Much of Latin America was ruled byjuntas；South Africa by apartheid.Civil conflicts had been raging for decades from Guatemala to Northern Ireland.Nelson Mandela lived in a cell.And Palestine was under occupation.
These were the problems we used to describe as intractable，even insoluble.Yet hatreds have given way to handshakes.Prisoners have become presidents.
But not in Palestine.In Palestine，walls are going up，not coming down...four hundred kilometers to be precise.The decades have brought what feels like an endless parade of starts and stalemates...missed opportunities...shattered hopes...and diminishing returns.
And I"m not here to talk about blame.That doesn"t get us anywhere.It"s like tracing your finger on a Mobius Strip，going round in an infinite loop.
But coming from Jordan，I feel I must speak for those voices that Americans rarely hear...to describe the sense of "identity theft"that Palestinians have endured for over 60years.
Because their pain is about more than the loss of their land...their olive trees...their livelihoods.Their grief is about more than being kicked out of the homes in which their families have lived for generations.As one scholar put it，land is the "geography of the Palestinian soul".Their very understanding ofwho they are is deeply rooted in the context of their environment.So each new claim on their ever-shrinking space feels like a blowto their very existence.Having no place to call their own is like having no identity at all.
Think about it：When you enroll here at Yale，one of the first things you receive is your ID.It allows you access to residential colleges...dining halls...the library stacks.
It opens doors.It gets you in.It shows that you belong.And when you leave Yale，you get a piece of paper to carry with you：a diploma that gives you status before you ever have to say a word.
