In the business of peace

IN THE BUSINESS OF PEACE: U.S. BILLIONAIRE PURSUES HIS DREAM OF MIDEAST PEACE.

By Akiva Eldar

22/08/2008

Between meeting in the Knesset with Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon and visiting his friend, President Shimon Peres, S. Daniel Abraham felt like pouring his heart out. The 84-year-old billionaire, who visited Israel earlier this month, says that for the last seven years, since meeting Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Saud - who has since been crowned king - he has not known peace. Abrams' eyes become dewy as he talks about the meeting in Riyadh. That was when he heard the great news: 22 Arab countries had agreed to recognize Israel within the June 4, 1967 boundaries, and were offering it normal neighborly relations, as part of what became known as the Arab Initiative. Abrams recalls that he was moved to tears and told the prince that, being a Jew, he was at loss for words to describe how wonderful it was to hear such a declaration from an Arab leader of his standing. The successful businessman, who made a fortune from Slim-Fast diet food (in 2000 he sold the company for $2.3 billion), bargained with the crown prince. "There's a problem," he told the Saudi royal. "We can't evacuate the large cities [during the entire conversation Abrams spoke of himself as an Israeli]. But we can give the Palestinians a 100-percent equivalent. He [the crown prince] said within a second: 'That's fine.' I'll never forget that statement," says Abrams today. For Abrams this conversation was a real eye-opener. After all the years of going from one Middle Eastern capital to another, the U.S. businessman says, he had the privilege of being a witness not only to what he thought would be the end of the Israeli-Arab conflict, but to the acceptance of Israel as a legitimate country.

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