G10: Israel v. Palestine - Paths to peace between Israel and the Islamic world...

Is peace possible? Yes, but there are significant headwinds that stand in the way. Territorial disputes, political instability, and vast cultural and religious differences are just a few. Bloody confrontations go back 5,000 years. Since the signing of the Versailles Treaty in 1919, intended to end all wars, there have been no less than 42 wars in the Middle East – and a much more deadly World War Two. The current war between Israel and Hamas stands alone in its level of depravity and brutality. It is prudent to examine the modern-day Zionist movement with its embryonic First Zionist Congress in 1897, in Basil Switzerland, and why there are common threads linking the very first conflict to the current Israel-Hamas War. The British Mandate between the world wars, the 1947 United Nations Partition Proposal, and many cease-fires foreshadowed many other failures and efforts to find a way to peace. However, the 1979 Camp David Accords, the 2020 Abraham Accords, and recent normalization efforts between Saudi Arabia and Israel offer us rays of hope not to be ignored. Where do go from here?

Purpose: Examine all possible paths to peace and not shy away from the difficult questions

Facilitator: Mike Quinlan