Idealism on the Rocks

It took a bit of doing, but at last it had come about--a Mediterranean peace conference at which Europeans, Israelis and Arabs would demonstrate their unity through "their common faith in one God." For months La Pira, 54, the dedicated but visionary former mayor of Florence, who once brought his city to the edge of bankruptcy by his lavish program of public works, had worked night and day to compile his volatile guest list. When the conference began in Florence's 600-year-old Palazzo Vecchio. just about everyone invited was there, including eleven ambassadors. Even Italy's Premier Amintore Fanfani and President Giovanni Gronchi agreed to show up to dramatize Italy's self-appointed role in the Mediterranean as a bridge between the Arabs and the West. In the opening address, the chairman of the conference, Crown Prince Moulay Hassan of Morocco, spoke "from my heart" of his hope that the delegates would deliberate "freely and fraternally on the problems common to the Mediterranean."

Delegates did speak freely, but hardly fraternally. First off, when the Arabs saw that Israel had sent an official from its Foreign Ministry, they threatened to withdraw if the Israelis were seated. Conference officials scurried back and forth between the Arabs in the Hotel Excelsior and the Israelis across the square in the Grand, finally got a compromise whereby the Israelis would attend the conference as observers, not as delegates.

No sooner was this settled than delegates from Algeria's rebel F.L.N. marched in, and all but two of the French delegates marched out. In vain did the learned president of the Tunisian National Institute of Arts and Archaeology sing the praises of the Mediterranean, "this happy sea." Italy's Communist Senator Velio Spano, whom nobody could remember having invited, somehow got the floor, delivered the customary party-lining rant against the West. Next day a Moroccan delegate angrily demanded that the Americans, French and Spaniards pull out of North Africa. A French Senator rose to protest that he had not come all the way to Florence to hear a "systematic critique of my country." Cried an F.L.N. delegate of the war in Algeria: "A colonialist war! An unjust war!"

"Idealism," sighed one delegate as the conference broke up, "has been wrecked on the rock of reality." Last man to learn of the wreckage was Organizer La Pira himself. At the very first session, he collapsed from overwork, for two days lay exhausted and comatose, while his delegates talked on but found no peace.

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