Peace dinner for the Middle East

* BARACK OBAMA | Friday September 3, 2010 00:00

Tonight, I'm pleased to welcome to the White House key partners in this effort, along with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the representative of our Quartet partners, former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

President Abbas, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Your Majesty King Abdullah, and President Mubarak -- we are but five men.  Our dinner this evening will be a small gathering around a single table. 

Yet when we come together, we will not be alone.  We'll be joined by the generations -- those who have gone before and those who will follow.

Each of you are the heirs of peacemakers who dared greatly -

 Begin and Sadat, Rabin and King Hussein -- statesmen who saw the world as it was but also imagined the world as it should be. It is the shoulders of our predecessors upon which we stand.  It is their work that we carry on.  Now, like each of them, we must ask, do we have the wisdom and the courage to walk the path of peace?

All of us are leaders of our people, who, no matter the language they speak or the faith they practice, all basically seek the same things:  to live in security, free from fear; to live in dignity, free from want; to provide for their families and to realize a better tomorrow.

Tonight, they look to us, and each of us must decide, will we work diligently to fulfill their aspirations?And though each of us holds a title of honour -- President, Prime Minister, King -- we are bound by the one title we share. We are fathers, blessed with sons and daughters.  So we must ask ourselves what kind of world do we want to bequeath to our children and our grandchildren.

Tonight, and in the days and months ahead, these are the questions that we must answer.  And this is a fitting moment to do so. For Muslims, this is Ramadan.  For Jews, this is Elul. It is rare for those two months to coincide.

But this year, tonight, they do. Different faiths, different rituals, but a shared period of devotion -- and contemplation. A time to reflect on right and wrong; a time to ponder ones place in the world; a time when the people of two great religions remind the world of a truth that is both simple and profound, that each of us, all of us, in our hearts and in our lives, are capable of great and lasting change.

In this spirit, I welcome my partners.  And I invite each to say a few words before we begin our meal, beginning with President Mubarak, on to His Majesty King Abdullah, Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas.

* These remarks were made by the US President, Barack Obama to mark the beginning of the Middle East Peace Talks yesterday. The headline was added by the editor