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 NationsSecurity 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