Yousef Munayyer: Like many of his predecessors, Secretary of State John Kerry is currently working tirelessly in an effort to restart a peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. In recent weeks and months, he has traveled frequently to the region, meeting regularly with leaders. However, also like his predecessors, he too will fail to achieve anything without drastically breaking with the failed approaches of the past.
Iyad Burnat tells the stories of Bil’in in the occupied West Bank and discusses strategies for nonviolent popular resistance with a goal of peace and prosperity for all people. His presentation is accompanied by photos and video clips, many of which are in the Oscar nominated film “5 Broken Cameras” by his brother Emad Burnat.
Yousef Munayyer: We’ve seen it time and again. Pollsters frequently query Palestinians and Israelis asking them about their views, priorities and ambitions and then present their responses as a sort of map of the political landscape that shows which path to peace is possible.
Yousef Munayyer: Jeffery Goldberg is clearly irked by the fact that it is becoming increasingly difficult to defend Zionism in mainstream American discourse today. He seems to take it personally, as if that’s his job or something.
Yousef Munayyer: It’s unclear when it died, but it’s most definitely dead. The Israeli-Palestinian “peace process” was born with a fatal flaw, and its defects have been on full display in recent weeks as Israel conducted yet another war on Gaza, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) sought – and won – upgraded status at the United Nations last week against the will of the United States and Israel.
Yousef Munayyer: Sooner or later, hopefully sooner, the all-too-familiar scenes of violence in the Gaza Strip – the sight, on Sunday, of children’s bodies being pulled from a flattened house; the rocket launches – will temporarily stop. As after every round that preceded this, a ceasefire will eventually be reached. The question is what we will have learned.
Taking Stock in the Arab Uprisings: Where are we headed with Dr. Nathan Brown, Mr. Adel Iskandar, and Dr. Kristin Diwan. Moderated by Mr. Yousef Munayyer.
Yousef Munayyer: Why is the “peace process,” which so many American Presidents have invested time in, dead? Answers to this question could fill volumes of history books but a recent episode from this week serves as a perfectly illustrative microcosm of the larger problem.
Yousef Munayyer: How will the Israeli/Palestinian question evolve over the next ten years? It is hard, actually impossible, to predict the future. However, it is possible and important to analyse trends and extrapolate trajectories given well-established facts.
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