Dear Friends,
On October 31, I represented the TRUST WIN CC at a discussion on the publication of "A Middle East without Weapons of Mass Destruction" at Notre Dame Center in Jerusalem, sponsored by the Palestinian-Israel Journal and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
This was another conference of relevance to the URI and especially our MENA region. “Voices for A World Free of Nuclear Weapons” is a URI Multi Region CC led by Rev. Swing focused on this important topic which affects all of us worldwide.
The program included veteran warriors in the struggle against WMD in our region and in the world:
* Prof. Frank von Hippel, Princeton Program on Science & Global Security
* Prof. Daniel Kurtzer, former US Ambassador to Israel & Egypt
* Dr. Reuven Pedatzur, S. Daniel Abraham Center for Strategic Dialogue
* Peter Weiss, Co-President International Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms
* Ziad AbuZayyad, PIJ Co-Editor, former PA Minister and PLC Member
Prof. Frank von Hippel presented a comprehensive and inspiring program to end WMD in our region. Most of the comments were very pessimistic that such an eventuality could happen based on the past record of no progress in this direction and the current issues with Iran and with Israel.
I asked them to comment on Israeli press mention here that same day saying that senior Israeli officials just held a rare meeting in Switerland with representatives from regional states including Iran, and from the US, Russia, UK, and Finland to discuss convening an international conference on making the Middle East a region free of weapons of mass destruction. Ambassador Kurtzer used this as an optimistic manifestation of slow but sure progress in changing the attitudes towards such discussions - which were unthinkable several years ago - especially in view of the current turmoil and changes in our region.
Blessings and love,
Elana
