Transcripts For CSPAN2 Former 20240705

Cspan as a Public Service ong with these other Television Providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. Coming up, former israeli egyptian investors taking part in a conversation on tuesday solution in palestine. Gaza, conflict between israel and iran and solutions for palestinians in the west bank, jerusalem and gaza among the topics to discuss. Middle east policy council. Hello, everyone. Nley, and i m the president of the middle east policy council. I want to welcome our audience from around the world for this discussion. As we know, a terrible cycle of violence began october 7th, when hamas launched a brutal and horrific attack against israel, but this is just the latest round of appalling death, and so far, upwards of 20,000 people men, women, and children, from both sides have lost their lives. The world, aghast, has called repeatedly for a ceasefire. There is grave doubt that israel can reach its stated military goals, and hamas threats of repeated attacks against israel verge on nihilism. Palestinians and israelis must return to the negotiating table. There is no military solution. This current round of destruction endangers the entire region and beyond, but it has also brought our attention firmly back to the necessity of a negotiated settlement a the necessity of a negotiated settlement, a twostate solution. Today well hear from the authors for a thoughtful and informed frame for how we get to this settlement. Both are experienced diplomats steeped in the regions issues. Former egyptian ambassador abdar rahman salahadin and former israeli ambassador Michael Harari will discuss their proposals for establishing a palestinian state. Im pleased that todays discussion will be moderated by mepcs executive director, a proud palestinianamerican. Israeli and palestinian voices must be centered in any discussion of their future. There are hard choices and hard steps ahead for both todays for both. Todays discussion is designed to help bring light to those choices, choices that will help move todays tragedy to tomorrows history. Lets get started. I will turn it over. Greetings, everyone. Im the executive director of the middle east policy council. I am pleased to also welcome all of you to this incredibly important and timely discussion. Before i turn over to our panelists, i would like to say a few words about our organization. We are a 501c3 tax exempt nonprofit Educational Institution based in washington , in washington, d. C. The council was established in 1891 for the purpose of strengthening us minor relations by promoting open dialogue and education. In order order to accomplish this, we have three foundational pillars. Our first pillar is our policy products and programming series which provides administration officials, members of congress and their staff and diplomats and other relevant stakeholders with timely, accurate, and concise information regarding breaking news issues. Two, out worldrenown quarterly journal middle east policy which features in depth analysis from experts around the globe on ongoing longterm issues of interest to u. S. Mina policy. Our journal is proudly circulated to over 16,000 Educational Institutions worldwide, in addition to being available through an online subscription which you can find a link to on our website. Our third and final pillar is our educational and professional Development Pillar which is designed to engage the entire school to Leadership Program and invest in tomorrow today. Our programs include teach mideast cater to secondary School Students and teachers and our 40 under 40 rising leaders in u. S. Mina relations professional develop program. Today we are honored to speak with the former egyptian ambassador and the former israeli ambassador Michael Harari regarding the recent article. Peace needs a new bellow declaration, a biden declaration. In this piece the ambassadors assess that there is no military solution for the israelipalestinian conflict and advocate for u. S. President joe biden to make a decoration outlining a one year plan that would end with launching the negotiations for the established rent of an independent and viable palestinian state based on the territories occupied by israel in 1967. We hope that evaluating this recommendations and its specifications will educate and empower this highlevel audience with a potential next step proposal that may be integrated into policy solutions. And with that, id like to invite ambassador abdul rahman salahadin to provide his opening remarks. Thank you very much. Thank you, ambassadors, both of your very kind introductions. Both my dear friend ambassador harari and i have many things in common. We both served for four decades as dedicated diplomats to defend our country, our respective countries interests, but through diplomacy. We both, too, have grandchildren about the same age. And we both are aspiring for those grandchildren to live in a better and safer middle east than the one we lived in. And our kids lived in. Our idea is to invite the u. S. President , president joe biden, to take a leading role in setting the endgame of a negotiating process that would lead to the establishment of a palestinian state. The same way the famous British Foreign secretary at the time, lord [indiscernible] about 100 years ago promised a National Homeland for the jewish people. What we are calling for is actually for this u. S. Leading role to make up for the absence of a ready body politic on both sides. Neither the Israeli Government nor the palestinian leadership now ready palestinian leadership are now ready to make this historic commitments for obvious reasons. And because the lack of any political progress in the last quarter of a century or so, only radicals and religious fanatics were empowered on both sides, and the result is what we see today. In gaza, the massacre of civilians on both sides. Innocent israeli civilians and innocent palestinian civilians, women, children, are now as we speak losing their lives in thousands in the thousands. What october 7th and the aftermath taught us was that no military or technological superiority would guarantee israel its security. We also learned the hard way that weakening the National Palestinian leadership and empowering the religious fanatics would only turn this political conflict into a religious irreconcilable dispute that could only be resolved by weapons. And i think this war showed us that there is no military solution to this dispute. And ihink, contrary to the claims of both sides, victory is very illusive and could hardly be defined for any one of them. And we could continue to lose thousands of lives, of innocent lives without achieving any military target by both sides. The last and final lesson to my mind of october 7th and its aftermath is that the continuation of the Israeli Military occupation of the Palestinian Land that Israel Occupied since 1967, and the control of millions of palestinians will never be sustained, and this is why we need to find a political solution for this problem. And our eyes are now on the u. S. Leadership. I know its an Election Year. We know know that it is difficult, but our target audience actually both, actually, both michael and i, are the American Public opinion. The American Jewish organization. American arabs, we would like all of those who would like to see peace happening to support our call for President Biden to launch this negotiating process but to declare beforehand the end the game so it would be quite different than any previous processes. Lastly, we would hope that the u. S. Would push for a united resolution setting the a United Nations resolution setting the parameters for a United Nations Security Council resolution that would set the parameters for this palestinian state and to make sure that it is viable, contiguous, and independent. Of course, in the parameters, it needs to be highlighted that security arrangements, to guarantee the security of the state and the people of israel, as part and parcel of this package. I will stop here. Thank you. Ambassador harari, over to you. Thank you. Thank you very much for hosting us. In your think tank. Its brilliant to see you again. Though only on screen for the time being. It is a privilege of course to be with my dear friend ambassador salahadin. He expressed in an Excellent Way basically what we are aiming for. But i would like with your permission to share with you some of the lets say preliminary points of discussion that basically lead us to this idea or to this article. The first point is that we tried to think what can be done in order to end this war in a way which basically serves most of the interests of both sides. Clearly of course israel and the palestinians. And we had a few points that we took in a way as a kind of as kind of assumptions or starting points. First one, was hamas is not in power in gaza. Dismantling their military capability. The second one is israel does not stay in the gaza strip. It does not reoccupy the gaza strip. The third one, no vacuum should be there, because as you know vacuum is basically produces chaos or more radical elements to be there. And of course to keep on regional stability and to avoid wider escalation in the region. Now, in order to do it, i suppose we need to have a few things done one, we have to have an address an alternative address for gaza, which means that if we do not want hamas, we should have an alternative. And spoiler. The only alternative, the only relevant alternative, the only legitimate alternative is the Palestinian Authority. Of course i will elaborate a little bit more about that. The second point, we need an International Force in order to be able to dismantle or to collect weapons and to enable the idf to enable israel to withdraw from gaza strip. We need to release of course hostages and we need huge, intensive white humanitarian assistance and reconstruction of the gaza strip and we need a political horizon absolutely. Now, we are not very we are not naive of course and we are very much aware of the difficulties and challenges on the israeli side. The Israeli Government is not very much enthusiastic about lets say the political horizon. Not to mention the two state vision. Not to mention lets say the Palestinian Authority itself and on the palestinian side as ambassador sahin mentioned of course we have the palestinian Public Opinion now and the elections since 2006. The first point to emphasize is to emphasize to all relevant actors that the only legitimate respected, the only acceptable address to rule gaza is the process its the Palestinian Authority. Definitely there isnt a necessity of course to strengthen its capabilities. In the last few days it was discussed between the u. S. And the pa. There is a necessity of political horizon. Political horizon is needed because, a, this is the only way we will be able to convince or to be able to include the pa back to the gaza strip. This is the only way. Correct me if im wrong. To convince regional and International Actors to be involved to support this process. To finance, etc. , etc. And actually this is the only alternative. If we say no hamas, who is going who is it going to be instead of hamas . An alternative means. There are no military solutions to this conflict. So we have reached this point where the only player, the only actor who can push for a political horizon which will enable this lets say achievement to be achieved is of course the u. S. Now, the idea of the Balfour Declaration model was introduced by my dear friend ambassador salahadin and i did like it very much because basically what it says is that there is an International Obligation to go forward for solving this israelipalestinian conflict. Im not going to comment about how much it is possible in an Election Year or not. The point is not if we want to end this war and the most productive way in the most productive way, but in a way that enables us to move ahead, this is what we need, a bite and declaration. Paradoxically, we should we we should make enormous efforts that october 7, that its aim was to restore or not to enable any Peace Process, actually, open the gate for a Peace Process and maybe, maybe bring the palestinianisrael conflict to its solution. Thank you. Thank you, ambassadors salahadin and harari for those extremely eliminating remarks. Now before i begin the moderated discussion portion of our event today, i would like to invite audience members to submit a question to the organization by sending an email to infom mepc. Org. Again if you would like to submit an audience question for either of our panelists, please submit it to infom mepc. Org. I will now move on to todays predetermined questions. Gentlemen, in your piece, you both ensured there is no military solution for the israelipalestinian conflict. And you argue that most arabs and israelis also agree. Despite this assessment, israel has continued to expand its air and ground operations in the gaza strip, killing close to 20,000 palestinians. Sadly, 70 of which are women and children. Drawing on your experience in the Israeli Foreign ministry, ambassador harari, can you please speak to the longterm goals of the Israeli Government that contribute to their willingness to continue this military operation in the face of both international and domestic backlash . Sure. Well, the short answer is that october the seventh basically produced this tragic, very tragic of course military operation. Which basically to be honest up to now enjoys enormous support by the israeli Public Opinion and i suppose we can understand it. The tragic thing about it is that it does have enormous tragic price on the palestinian side. Absolutely. But what we have emphasized, and i think that it is clear and israel, nevertheless it has not become to public, and never the lengths the government in israel lets he prefers to see october 7 a different way, that no military solution to this conflict. Yes, there is a need or a necessity for a military campaign in order to dismantle hamas. Yes, you are right or whoever is right by raising question marks, how much it is achievable and what does it mean to dismantle hamas . But this is what we emphasize that in order to dismantle hamas and put aside would it mean put aside what it means, in order to dismantle hamas and enable peace and end this tragic loss of life on both sides, we need to have the political element, the political horizon. I hope i did answer the question. Thank you. And this question is now for both of you. Do you think it is possible for israel to achieve its stated goal of eradicating hamas . Could i start or ambassador . Go ahead. Once again, the question is if israel can achieve its goals concerning hamas . Yeah. Ok. Well, i think that israel can achieve most of it, to be honest, most of it militarily. It will take much more time. It will take much more casualties. But in order to achieve the results that israel itself does want to achieve, we need to have this political envelope. Bear in mind that we have nowadays, or in the least in the last few years, quite rare and fascinating common interest in the region between almost all the actors moderate actors of course that we cannot enable hamas or radicals to achieve or win this game. So in order to not enable those radicals to achieve their endgame or to spoil a Peace Process, we need to dismantle, militarily, as much as possible lets say hamas capabilities but as well and sooner than later push for the political element, even if the relevant actors, including israel, are not very much enthusiastic on that right now or today. This is i think very much important. Excellent, thank you. Go ahead, ambassador. If you want me to respond to the same question, i also answer that it is very easy to measure losses in military hardware. Even in the count of people who will die and how many would die on both sides. But the problem with Many Organizations like hamas is that they have both the military side and also the social side, the idea side. And as far as resisting occupation, as long as as we will have Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Land, whether in gaza or in the west bank, there will be support for an organization like hamas, there will be support for resistance, and the right way to solve this problem is to end the occupation. And this actually was the premise of both michael and myself. We started thinking of the egyptianisraeli model. The egyptianisraeli model of peace, of 40 years of solid peace between the two countries. It provided both countries and both people with the best formula for security. While the absence of such peace on the israelipalestinian front made it impossible, this is not the first war that we have between israel and hamas or israel and gaza. This is the sixth war, actually, we have similar wars that went on in the north as well with hezbollah, etc. And we dont want to empower those in the arab world who would say, israel would understand only the language of force and the using of force. We will be playing in the hands of radicals. Our radicals are telling us, you peace advocates proved to be a failure. For 40 years you were not able to produce such a piece for the palestinians. We would like to prove them wrong once and for all. I like very much what ambassador harari said that we should turn this war into an opportunity of peace, exactly like we did 50 years ago when we turned the 1973 war between israel and egypt into this marvelous launchpad for peace that we are today enjoying its benefits. And there are many lessons to be learned from the egyptianis really peace that could be applied to the israelipalestinian peace and could be incorporated and such parameters that could be announced by President Biden. Excellent, thank you so much, ambassador salahadin, for adding your input to that very critical question. That is a great segue to my next question. So as we all know, the United States continues to supply weapons to the idf during their Current Operations in gaza. My question for you all is one, as u. S. Leadership teacher progress or should other states, for example egypt or jordan, take more of a leadership role in mediating the conflict . Secondly, if so, how would other states who are engaged in the conflict, for example, qatar, be integrated into this plan and does the fact that we continue to supply weapons to israel elevate jordan, egypt, or qatar or another country as a primary partner in mediating this conflict and finding a peaceful solution . Well, i would be happy to take that first, if you want me to. It is because of the u. S. Supplies of weapons, economic support, and this special relationship that connects the United States with israel. It is because of this relationship that we look to the u. S. To make the difference and to influence israel in a positive way, to encourage it first to stop the war and second to commit to this transitional period that would fulfill its security in one hand and would also open the way for the palestinian implementation of their national aspirations. The same happened, if you remember, 50 years ago, with egypt. It was because of those supplies, military hardware supplies, economic assistance that the u. S. Had the leverage with several Israeli Governments, not one. And ultimately, it worked. Of course, we need to have active regional participation of the peace partners, egypt and jordan are the two peace partners of israel today. A very Successful Partnership actually. Our initiative here is one kind of, we are not government, we are not representing our government policies, but we are inspired by this peace experience that we would like to apply some of the lessons in the u. S. And the u. S. Have these lessons ready to be used. Such as the same implementation of the israeliegyptian peace. It took us five years to get our land back after the israeli withdrawal. And some of it, actually, we got it back to arbitration. Not only negotiation and mediation, but arbitration, and it took us 40 years to revise the security arrangements in sinai. There were parts of sinai demilitarized, other parts with reduction of forces, it took us 40 years of confidence building and solid peace in order to get the israelis to invite us to send back our tanks and helicopters and f16s to fight terrorists, a Common Threat to both countries. I can foresee a similar experience between israelis and palestinians. Both in gaza, in the west bank, and also lessons on how to share jerusalem. I fully agree with what the ambassador has said. Absolutely of course. I would add very briefly that the beauty of the israeliamerican relationship is that they are rich, wide, deep and long term and both sides are able lets say to be supported by each other and to convince each other even on unagreed topics. I think that the fact that President Biden came to israel just after the attack, that President Biden during the hanukkah lighting said very honest and open, and about israel only emphasizes this unique relationship. These unique relationships should be i wouldnt say used but should influence lets say both and the region for peace. Absolutely. Excellent, thank you. Thats a great segue to my next question. Which is, last week, the United States president , joe biden, warned israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the indiscriminate bombing of civilians may erode International Support for israel. In a subsequent statement, netanyahu shared that there is disagreement between the us and israel about the day after hamas. Where might the u. S. And is really priorities diverge and put your proposal be a potential solution to this could your proposal be a potential solution to this . This only emphasizes what i would say is the beauty of americanisraeli relations. Yes, it is not a secret that there are some disagreements. It is not a secret that President Biden is not very much enthusiastic about the composition of this government in israel. Some israelis are not as well. But we need to work with what is workable in order to move ahead. This is why we came up with this biden declaration. This is why we we believe that taking advantage of this relationship with or without agreements, nevertheless, some of the disagreements or public, it does have an urgency i would say to initiate such a political move. Im not very much worried about this disagreement because, basically, if we agree about everything, its well im not trying to beautify the present situation. But to say that nevertheless, these disagreements, since washington and jerusalem and so deep a long fruitful relationship, washington does have the ability and in a way the responsibility or even i dont want to say the obligation but yes, i mean, the u. S. Cannot i would say escape its, how do you say it . Its role or the expectations of others. And in this is reallyarab conflict, i think it is very much needed. Excellent, thank you. May i add a followup on michael . Yes. I fully agree with what michael said. I just want to followup on it, because there are other dimensions other than the bilateral relations between israel and the United States. There is the tragedy of what is going on in gaza today. And actually in the west bank, there are many who are killed with no crime. So im worried that all this killing would make it very hard for any peace effort to be successful later on. We are turning many people into orphans, and these are the natural recruits for any frustrated effort of terrorism. And i really warn against this, and this terrorism is not going to be only against israel. Its going to be against everyone. I would dare to say beyond that everyone in the region and beyond that. Th is one aspect and one motivation, one extra motivation for the u. S. To move and. Second is the escalation possibilities. Today the u. S. Is forming a new naval force to try to protect the traffic in the red sea. And our economy is hardly hit in egypt because of what the who sees the houthis are doing against shapes that are going into the red sea, going to israel or to the suez canal. Escalation could happen in a second, and we are all exposed here. And our cities are exposed, our civilians are exposed. American soldiers who are in the region, and there is about 40,000 of them, are exposed. And this is another incentive for the u. S. To intervene and to intervene expeditiously. As soon as possible. Excellent, thank you, gentlemen. I do want to let you know that we are getting quite a few audience questions coming in. So id like to include them as best i can. And so, one of the audience members has asked, you both have emphasized the importance of International Support for the return to peace and the lasting construction of a palestinian state, what form should this International Task force take and how could it be made permanently representative and equidistant between the two parties . The lack of political continuity or commitment among mediators especially western and in previous Peace Processes has indeed been one of the reasons for their failure. Who would like to speak to that . I can try. And im sure michael will have his own ideas, as well. As for the International Force, i think we projected two kinds of forces or one force with dual function. One that has some security functions to it to make sure that gaza is not going to turn to be a source of military threat to israel and its population. And there is another aspect of that force or International Team or whatever, its how to help gaza reconstruct, how to help gaza return to normal life. I think, in many areas, we will need to start from scratch and we will need International Help from everywhere. As far as the structure of the force, we have many examples successful examples, both, sponsored by the United Nations or a Multinational Force and observer like the one in sinai. So this is not as for previous effort to produce agreements through negotiations and mediation, etc. , the Peace Processes that turned to be a a real bad word, because of the uh because of their failures in our region, this is exactly where we suggested that biden declaration. So the end goal still ahead. So the endgame would be the endgame will be clear from the very beginning. Lead to would be very clear in the minds of those especially palestinians in the west bank, in jerusalem, in gaza, on how this process would end. Excellent. An audience member submitted a question. And that is a followup specifically regarding the biden declaration. The question is the question is, would biden declaration be the equivalent of a belfort declaration in the sense that u. S. Troops would need to be in both gaza and west, and the west bank as more than just a possible part of an International Peacekeeping force . British troops left 30 years later and embarrassing circumstances, but they partly assisted the formation of the Jewish National home on the ground duringn that time. Without the proper use military presence, then the proposed peacekeeping force might seem like powerless. What your thoughts andth reactin to this . Well, you yourself entered this question. Hiwhen you said that the special relationship between the United States and israel, the supply of weapons, biden says it the war, this special relationship would not require any military presence on the ground. They have good leverage with their friends in israel. Believesr me, and if they would like to stop the settlement attack activities in the west bank, they can weigh in at least during the negotiation. If they would like to start a serious negotiating process, they can do something in this regard without military presence. But the palestinians do not mind at all if the u. S. Troop are there, and they do not might even if nato is there. Ok, go a. Very briefly, ok, no military troops. Absolutely, the balfour model, the formula, the use of the balfour name, let us say, is to emphasize in a way that moral and political obligation of the International Community to go ahead. This is absolutely very clear. For the International Mediation intervention, it is quite clear the only way to go ahead is negotiation by both sides. What both sides need is someone grownup enough, lets say, influential enough to assist them. And this is what happened in almost every israeli israeliarab conflict. A successful one. So please, no necessity for this. Wonderful, thank you. You both touched on the fact that while that might be possible for israel to eradicate hamas in its current form, military operations are not going to end extremism. So hamas could disappear but another Extremist Group could easily pop up. But lets say that sometime soon israel did eradicate kill the final living hamas member, if they did achieve that objective in the short term, does israel have a road map for the socalled day after . Well, israel for the time being does not give too much details about its roadmap for the day after. But i think its very clear in israel, to be honest, lets say, that even if you kill as you said the last hamas terrorists, hamas is beyond it, hamas is i mean, as my dear friend said, correctly, they are within the palestinian arena. In order to be able to defeat hamas or in order to be able to strengthen those who are in favor of reaching a peace agreement, lets say, we need to emphasize the alternative. So, a, yes, we need to dismantle hamas capabilities in the gaza strip, okay, not to the last terrorist to put it this way, but in parallel, and this is not of less importance, in parallel, let us say to emphasize the push forward, the political alternative. So only this culmination of the military campaign right now, hopefully it will end sooner than later, as you put it very clearly, let us say with too many civilian casualties, and in parallel with the political element. Well, the israeli numbers the israeli declared numbers of their estimate of hamas fighters is around 15,000, 16,000 fighters. And israel announced recently i think last week th they might have been able to kill about 6000 of them. To do that, they kild 20,000 civilian pestinians, innocent people who have and as you said, many of them are women and children. So with this ratio, they could be killing a quarter of a million of civilians. So at what cost . At what cost . And there is no guarantee, as you know. Israel was not even able to release one single hostage through military operations. It was able to release them through exchange of prisoners. Through truces, through cease fire. This is why everyone is asking hurry cease fire. We, mike and i, are asking for more than a ceasefire. We are asking for the end of this war and asking for a political horizon. A third element that we need to Pay Attention to is beyond the killing. There is a humanitarian situation developing on the ground. In gaza. And it is really it could very easily come clo we genocide. Come close to a genocide. I am warning everyone, including the people o israel, that this is reallbesieging the palestinians and denying them war, food, and energy could really turn into a genocide and a crime of war. So all these together, put together, need the civilid world to jump in and try to put an end to this war. Excellent. Thank you for those remarks. And it is tragic definitely, and the article recommends a potential solution which is obviously so needed at this time. In it, you advocate for a oneyear transitional period to end with an invitation for the plo or pa to form a governing body and gaza. In gaza. Can you give us your assessment of whether this political transition might be accepted by the plo, paa and also by the population of gaza . Is it realistic that existing hamas members would willingly relinquish power . Please shed more light on what this transition would ambassador salahadin, you stated that in order to create a viable palestinian state, nearly 200,000 of the 700,000 Israeli Settlers in the west bank would need to relocate. Could this relocation be achieved, if so, what would the potential avenues for implementation look like . Well, the answer is yes. A definite yes. And my prove to this is, first of all, 200,000 israelis were evacuated from around the gaza envelope. And in the north, near the southern lebanon border. Because of war. I think a similar number could be relocated for peace. When we talk about 1967 borders, with equitab swap of land, that means actually, everyone understands that israel is going to keep about 10 of the west bank, where 80 of its settlement is located adjacent to the green light. In return, israel would need to give up on an equitable piece of land, and wt i am suggesting but it may be in a different article is that we should expand gaza. Gaza should be triple the size of 306 to five kilometers that we have toda that would bring it closer to the west bank and would make a digging would make digging a tunnel between the two wings of the future palestinian state possible. Whether this happened before or not, yes, maam, it did, in sin ai, it was another general at the time who pulled out by force the settlers from sinai. And he did it again in gaza in 2005. So it is possible if we have peace and if this piece enjoys the support of the majority of the population, you will see them winning. We only have a few minutes left and i have a lot more questions to get through. I dont think im going to be able to get through all of them, so thank you for that analysis, but can you please speak as well to a three if the plopa is a viable party. Are they popular or not . Will gaza recognize their leadership . Can they cooperate . Are they actually an option in this oneyear transitional period that you describe . I dont think it is very much popular, but this is why we emphasize, this is why we think the International Force in gaza is dated. If he is willing to go into gaza pending a political process, pending our endgame of a palestinian state, this is why, as i said before, we have to have in parallel these two things. If we have a life Peace Process, the pa will be strengthened, and of course, it has to go through results. I want to say one other short comment. I think we should not be too naive to believe that it is possible to dismantle settlements the day after tomorrow or next week. What we need in this political horizon is to convince both sides that we are back in doing our utmost to achieve it. If you ask me if the majority of Public Opinion is for peace or if the majority for Public Opinion has confidence with the pa, the answer is no, of course not. Because we had no Peace Process. So they are a viable solution as long as we first empower them to be. That makes sense. You both specified that a Global Campaign would need to be launched to rebuild gaza and transform it into a flourishing economic example of regional and International Peaceful cooperation. November reports estimate that reconstruction in gaza could cost 50 billion, and destruction has only continued since then. What circumstances must be in place for regional partners to commit to providing these funds and also recognizing that it is the legal obligation of an occupying power to provide for the protection and wellbeing of the population under its control . What should the International Community expect from the Israeli Government during this time . What demands should the International Community put on israel to ensure the occupation is as brief as possible, and what responsibility does the International Community have to help restore gazan Critical Infrastructure . Please be quick because i have one final question after. The idea should be to revive a Peace Process, eventually only a Peace Process which is negotiated by both sides, if we like it or not, which is influencedsupported, whatever you want to say. Once there is a process, there will be [indiscernible] including israeli money. The real issue is revising the political process and weakening the opposition elements. We need a short answer through this political process and political horizon, assurances that there will be we need assurances to this political process and political horizon, assurances that there will be no more war. We waged an International Campaign to raise money for assistance and reconstruction of gaza, and all we have rebuilt during the last 15 years or so have been destroyed in this war, so we need some assurances on one side. On the other, because of this political horizon and because of the change of atmosphere, we also would like to see how to allow and help assistance go into gaza for the palestinians. Not only gaza but the west bank as well. I have one more final question and i want to get it in. Both of you are well aware that u. S. Domestic consideration shaped our foreign policy. 2020 foreign 2024 is an Election Year in the United States which will be a persistent factor in decisions made by political leaders. What information can congressional or administrative staff who are listening to you now bring back to their offices to demonstrate that these steps toward peace are congruent with their own office, political objectives, and campaigns . It is a great question. The Biden Administration up to now has managed this crisis in my humble opinion in a very great way, to be honest. I suppose all will agree that if President Biden can produce i would say and endgame for the war, opening the Peace Process out of this war correct me if im wrong, this is a success story. We need to emphasize [indiscernible] but if the results are ending the war, opening the window for Peace Process, i suppose this is a sense of achievement facing and election. But again, i have less expertise about american policy, but i suppose this is correct for any politician who runs for election. I worked with congress for about 17 years. I advised congressional leaders and staffers to highlight to their constituency that a biden effort to end this war and create a political horizon is something in the keen interest of the United States. It would definitely stabilize a region that is vital to the interests of the u. S. One. Two, it would definitely gain him the support of both the American Jewish community and the american arab and Muslim Community so in areas like michigan were support is critical, he would get the support when it is now in question mark. Third, he would be very responsive to the change of Public Opinion that happened during the last few weeks in the u. S. And in the rest of the western world that is now clearly calling for an end of this war. So he would be very responsive to his own Public Opinion demand. While at the same time he would be serving the interests of the u. S. And its closest allies in the region, including israel. Excellent. Now, we help decisionmakers tackle the World Biggest challenges by having very important discussions like these around potential solutions and paths forward. And for that reason i ask all of you who have joined the call and participated in todays discussion to please consider makingd a donation, to continue support this important work at our website. Thank you, everybody for participating, and please continue your good and hard work to make the world a better place. Thank you. The u. S. Senate is back today at 3 p. M. Eastern for first vote of the year. Laaks are expected to vote later at 5 30 5 30 p. M. Eao advancedent bidens nomination of a u. S. Istrict court for southern texas. 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