Washington, D.C., May 10 -- The American Task Force on Palestine
(ATFP) and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars held a half-day conference today entitled 'Politics and Diplomacy: Next Steps in Arab-Israeli Peacemaking.' The conference featured two panels of Palestinian, Arab and Israeli former senior government officials in addition to a member of the Israeli media. The conference concluded with a keynote speech by H.R. H. Prince Turki al-Faisal, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United States.

Ambassador Joseph Gildenhorn, Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Woodrow Wilson Center welcomed attendees to the conference, followed by ATFP president Dr. Ziad Asali who cautioned that 'we are at five minutes to midnight' in terms of the issue of Israel-Palestine. He urged all those attending and all those of goodwill to re-intensify efforts towards a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on two states, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace.

The first panel's speaker, Ziad Abu-Amr, Palestinian Legislative Council member and former Minister of Culture, warned that the Palestinian Authority (PA) was on the verge of collapse due to international aid cuts, the Israeli economic siege and the deteriorating internal Palestinian situation. Abu-Amr said the Palestinian people "feel that they are being subjected to collective punishment." He advised that the U.S. and European Union (EU) find a different way of engaging the Palestinians. The next panelist, Nahum Barnea, Kreiz visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center and columnist and senior political analyst with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, analyzed the origins of Israel's unilateral policy beginning with Ariel Sharon, who had adopted such a policy to avoid outside solutions being imposed on him. He said that new Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert had obtained a specific mandate from the Israeli people for continued unilateral withdrawals by 'consolidating' Israeli West Bank settlers into settlements abutting Israel's border and inside Israel.

Following Barnea was Nabil Amr, former Palestinian Minister of Information and former Minister for Parliamentary Affairs. Amr warned of the consequences of a collapse of the PA due to international aid cuts, in terms of fostering extremism both among Palestinians and regionally, and creating a favorable climate for those who call for continuing conflict and confrontation. He gauged Palestinian and Arab frustration as being "at an all-time high." Amr urged the international community and Mideast Quartet to resume efforts towards peace. The final panelist was Zalman Shoval, former ambassador of Israel to the U.S. and former member of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Shoval held the Palestinians responsible for the rise of Israeli unilateralism. He stressed there had been and remained no Palestinian partner, with the election of the Hamas government only affirming that. He concluded that historically Israeli withdrawals had not brought about Palestinian moderation, but had increased Palestinian intransigence and exacerbated the conflict.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, led off the second panel. Abed Rabbo stressed that it was in U.S. interests to promote Israeli-Palestinian negotiations "to give U.S. policy credibility in the region, address fundamentalism, and promote democracy." He stated that it was not in Israeli interests, including security ones, to engage in a unilateral solution. Abed Rabbo warned that combating Hamas with international financial pressure would not lead to the collapse of Hamas institutions but PA ones, most of which are Fatah and are also the institutions of a future Palestinian state. He concluded: "To strengthen Palestinian moderates and create a Palestinian partner is the way, rather than weakening him and using that weakness as a pretext for unilateralism." Following Abed Rabbo was Shlomo Ben-Ami, former Israeli Foreign Minister. Ben-Ami explained that a West Bank withdrawal for Israel could not be done unilaterally, adding that Israel needed to negotiate with the Palestinians or an international interlocutor. He stressed that there would be no international backing for a unilaterally declared Israeli final border. Ben-Ami concluded that there was no time for direct Israeli-Palestinian talks, suggesting instead "turning the Israeli plan of a violent disengagement to a benign one leading to a final settlement."

Ahmed Maher el-Sayed, former Egyptian Foreign Minister followed Ben-Ami. Sayed attributed the rise of Hamas to Israel's weakening of the moderate Palestinian leadership. He stressed that only negotiations and not unilateral solutions will lead to peace. He urged Israel and the international community to engage Hamas and thereby encourage them to moderate. Boycotting Hamas and punishing the Palestinian people on the other hand "will only foster extremism and the resorting to violence," he added. The final panelist was Marwan Muasher, former Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. Muasher identified the missing element in all peace plans to-date as 'implementation.' He dismissed any talk that Hamas had disrupted and ongoing peace process, that Hamas won elections because of its anti-peace platofrm, or that unilateral solutions serve Israel's interests. He urged efforts be made towards getting both Israel and Hamas to agree to the already established framework of negotiations.

Concluding the second panel was its moderator Aaron Miller, Public Policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center. Miller explained that negotiations work only when there is a balance of interests between the two parties, with the Israeli-Palestinian track having failed because of the skewed symmetry of power between the two sides. He stated that current conditions prevented the reaching of a final settlement on the core issues. Instead, he urged that efforts be directed towards sustaining the calm, preventing Palestinian economic collapse and using unilateralism to keep the two-state solution alive.

The final presentation of the conference was a closing keynote speech by Prince Turki al-Faisal. In a comprehensive and exceptionally well-constructed speech, Prince Turki summarized Saudi Arabian and Arab efforts to offer Israel a comprehensive peace agreement with all Arab states in exchange for a full withdrawal from all lands occupied since 1967 and an agreed-upon resolution to the Palestinian refugee issue, beginning with Saudi King Fahd's plan in 1982 and culminating in the Saudi Peace Initiative of 2002. Prince Turki offered that Saudi Arabia had counseled Hamas to accept previously signed agreements and renounce violence. He urged the international community not allow further Palestinian suffering, and Israel to implement measures to improve relations with the Palestinians such as releasing prisoners and facilitating freedom of movement and commerce. Prince Turki concluded by saying that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian issue would go a long way towards stemming extremism and terrorism.