Red Crystal, Korea, and the firefighters

It has been exhausting. But the the long, long hours I have spent, the fraught meetings I have endured, the intense negotiations, the dashes to Geneva and the final, marathon journey to Korea have generated an extraordinary result. Many lives will be saved, and I know I have written my name upon a page of history.

After months of debate, horse-trading and sometimes acrimonious wrangling, the international Red Cross and Red Crescent associations are ready to welcome the Israeli branch. After almost 60 years of exclusion, facing naked hostility from several Arab countries, this is a massive step for Israel — a political gesture that could turn the tide and bring peace to millions.

It will also save the lives of countless people, since Israeli paramedics under the Magen David Adom — Israel’s ‘red cross’, or red star of David — will be able to work in Palestinian territory.

As chairman of the Friends of Magen David Adom, I feel I have achieved an impossible ambition. When I was approached in the summer to head the committee, I pledged to use all my influence to change hearts and minds in countries that have been implacably opposed to Israel since the Jewish state was founded, in 1948. You don’t need to be a historian to know how deep the bigotry and hatred run on all sides: I felt as though I had been asked to end world poverty by personally serving dinner to every human being on the planet. It was a wonderful dream, but it seemed unworkable.

I couldn’t promise to do it — but I could promise to try, and to apply every ounce of positive mindpower to the task. Israel’s allies felt I would represent the hope and potential within all the negotiations. My job was to show the delegates: if I can make metal bend, see pictures inside your head and make seeds sprout, using the untapped energy in my brain, what can you achieve? Can you reach across a table and shake a hand? Show me.

I quickly found a supporter in the Swiss Foreign Minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, a respected voice in the Red Cross. “This move is long overdue,” she told me. “There is a new, improved attitude among many nations because Israel has withdrawn from land in Gaza, and I believe we have to take full advantage of that fresh atmosphere.”

A compromise was found over the name. Arab negotiators insisted the Star of David was a provocative symbol to many Palestinians, and of course Jewish medics wouldn’t want to work under either a cross or a crescent. Think of it this way: you might have great respect for modern America, but would you want to drive to work in a company car painted with the US flag?

In a flash of genius, someone suggested a Red Crystal. I wish it had been me, because crystals have been my personal symbol throughout my career, but I was delighted by this solution. Crystals represent pure energy, transcending religious dogma: they are earth’s most perfect creation, and they stand for the highest human attainment.

My diplomatic instincts were strained to their outer limits by the political infighting. The flipside of my positive outlook is the short span of my attention, and I sometimes found that my prayers during endless speeches were no longer for success — I just wanted God to grant me the patience to reach the next coffee break without screaming out loud.

The crunch meeting, the 15th Session of the General Assembly of the Council of Delegates, came in Seoul, South Korea. In Seoul I caused a bit of a stir. My last visit was 23 years ago, for a TV show, but plenty of people hadn’t forgotten it, starting with the immigration men who greeted me with gaping mouths. South Korea has come light years in those two decades, and I was staggered by the purpose-built island where the airport stands, and by the flawless English of so many people who shook my hand and told me of the cutlery they’d bent as kids after seeing my show.

At the talks I learned to admire the Israeli representative, Dr Noam Yphrach, more than ever, and to both like and trust Dr Younis al-Khatib, heading the Palestinian team. Outside these negotiations, the delegate who impressed me most, with her intelligence, elegance and sheer charm, was the head of the American Red Cross, Bonnie McElveen-Hunter.

Not only is she the head of a publishing giant, Pace Communications, and the woman picked by George Bush to be US ambassador to Finland, but she is a deeply spiritual person. Her message to me filled me with confidence: “Your gifts are not paranormal,” she said. “They exist for a profoundly practical reason, to bring people together.”

I was touched and moved. When all the papers are signed on our historic agreement, I shall look forward to taking Hanna to meet Bonnie and her family, in their home in Georgetown, Washington DC.

During the flight home across Russia, I chatted with Tottenham Hotspur star Lee Young-Pyo, who was on his way back from an international game.

I told him about the team of youngsters near Reading I’m helping to motivate. Maybe it’s my pep talks or maybe it’s their magnificent name — Real Milan — but the lads are proving unstoppable this season. They visited my home the other day to show off their latest trophies.