Secret 1993 Peres-Hussein meeting helped pave the way for Israel-Jordan peace, revealed documents show. The Peres Center for Peace and Innovation described the historic exchange as a kind of “testament for peace” by two leaders who sought to change the region for its good with the preliminary contacts that ultimately led to the peace agreement signed in 1994.

Newly revealed documents from a secret November 1993 meeting between then-foreign minister Shimon Peres and Jordan’s King Hussein show how the two leaders helped lay some of the early groundwork for the Israel-Jordan peace treaty, the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation revealed on marking the 10th anniversary of Peres’s death. The documents were released on the day of the state memorial ceremony for Peres and the naming of the Jerusalem International Convention Center in his honor. They include excerpts from the minutes of the meeting, which was held at the king’s palace in Amman under strict secrecy.

According to the records, Peres’s appearance was even altered to prevent identification. The Peres Center now describes the exchange as a kind of “testament for peace” by two leaders who sought to change the region toward peace. During the meeting, Hussein spoke candidly about the urgency he felt and his desire to use the time he believed he had left to advance an agreement for peace. ”Perhaps I have only a year or two left; I will put everything on the line,” king Hussein said.

Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam has a powerful eschatological strain. It anticipates the end to the world as we know it; a final Last Day confrontation between good and evil (Armageddon); after which, with God’s help, human life will be rewarded and transformed into the Messianic Age of peace and prosperity.

As the Qur’an states: ”Verily! Those who believe and those who are Jews, Christians, and Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, and do righteous good deeds, shall have their reward with their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.” (2:62 and 5:69) Notice that the Qur’an specifically stresses religious pluralism applies on God’s judgment day.

As ibn Babuya writes in Thawab ul-A’mal, “The Apostle of God said: `There will come a time for my people when there will remain nothing of the Qur’an except its outward form, and nothing of Islam except its name, and they will call themselves by this name even though they are the people furthest from it. “The mosques will be full of people but they will be empty of right guidance. The religious leaders (Fuqaha) of that day will be the most evil religious leaders under the heavens; sedition and dissension will go out from them and to them will it return.”

This sounds, and indeed is, terrible. But, those who trust in God know that the night is coldest in the last hours before sunrise. Secularists believe that these apocalyptic visions of a future (Armageddon) are absurd, although many........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)