The International Israel Allies Caucus Foundation (IIACF) will host on Thursday a groundbreaking event entitled “Oslo 20 Years Later,” which will bring together a panel of journalists, policy experts and government officials who are shaping the future of peace in the Middle East, for a candid conversation about the prospects for peace in the Middle East in light of the failed peace process.
Participants will include members of Congress, former Knesset member and Oslo architect Yossi Beilin, former Minister of Tourism Rabbi Benny Elon, writer and academic Mudar Zahran, and the Deputy Managing Editor of The Jerusalem Post Caroline Glick. The conference will be held on Capitol Hill in Washington.
IIACF noted in a statement released on Monday, “Next year in September the world will commemorate 20 years since the signing of the Oslo Accords in Washington, D.C. Today the peace process is at a standstill that has lasted for 20 months. Leaders and experts have declared the Middle East peace process to be ‘clinically dead.’ Despite the many indications that the peace process - with the two-state solution as its end goal - is beyond recovery, the question is whether or not alternatives exist.”
The statement noted that “no meaningful negotiations have taken place in almost two years, yet the death of the peace process remains a taboo topic in Washington.”
It added that voices in both the Palestinian Authority and Israel have bemoaned the lack of progress, noting that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is rumored to be, once again, flirting with the idea of dissolving the PA. The statement noted that even Yossi Beilin, one of the architects of the Oslo Peace Accords who will take part in the conference, has said it is time to move on.
“After 20 years and little positive progress, the time has come to reevaluate our thinking and try a new approach, which is the only hope of moving towards a lasting peace,” said IIACF.
“In light of the impasse surrounding the peace process, the International Israel Allies Caucus Foundation is presenting an innovative forum designed to address the future of the Middle East.”
Yossi Beilin is the originator of the Geneva Initiative which offered a return to pre-Six Day War borders with small adjustments, a Palestinian Israeli-free state to which the "refugees" could return and the division of Jerusalem. Benny Elon authored the Israel Initiative which posits that Jordan is Palestine and supports Israel's annexation of Judea and Samaria while giving Jordanian citizenship to Palestinian Arabs and rehabilitating the "refugees" with Western aid.