Middle East peace
1 January 2025
The only rational future for the Middle East is to create a nonterrorist Palestinian state that coexists with Israel. This is quite a challenge since most Palestinians today will not publicly reject terrorism and the current Israeli Prime Minister opposes this. However, I support the organization ROPES as a way forward and urge you to support them too.
This email message is from one of their founders:
I wanted to thank you all for helping make this ROPES's most impactful year yet. Some 2024 highlights...
In May and November, with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Israel, we held two intensive five-day conflict-journalism courses in Cyprus for nearly 30 up-and-coming Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab female media professionals.
In August, at a time of maximum tension between Israel and Iran/Hezbollah, we gathered 30+ emerging leaders from across the MENA region for ROPES's sixth summit in Baku, Azerbaijan (covered in this Times of Israel article).
In February, in the wake of October 7th and the initial stages of the Israel-Hamas War, we gathered 20+ Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab emerging leaders for our "Emergency Summit" to map out joint actions in response to the crisis. (Shortly thereafter, we gathered another 70 Arab and Jewish peace-builders in East Jerusalem for our 2nd interfaith Iftar.)
The European Union awarded ROPES a 150,000-euro grant to launch Phase II of its education-exchange initiative, beginning shortly in Morocco with an eight-day program for 30 top Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab university and graduate students (one of three planned 2025 installments).
We continued amplifying the voices of Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab moderates through our podcast and webinar series, including expert panels we co-hosted with the Dubai Public Policy Research Centre and the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
For those who missed it, I also wanted to share with you the video of the virtual event we held last Sunday featuring Dennis Ross and courageous ROPES alumni from Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and Gaza (4 of the 15 Arab and Muslim nations now represented in the ROPES network). Thank you again for helping us continue lighting candles in the darkness. I wish you all a Happy Hanukkah and a blessed New Year. May 2025 bring you (and those dearest to you) continued happiness, health, and success.
Ben Birnbaum
The index to my prior essays (mostly post 5 November 2024) is here.
I have another blog on Cancer and Medicine.
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Email me at Nat@PathologyOutlines.com.
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