The Jerusalem Conference

Session Summary

Ancient maps and manuscripts portray Jerusalem as the center of the universe. But for centuries, the Holy City was a site of desolation, decay and ruin. Jews, who had always longed for their holiest city, began to return, and by the mid-1800s had become a majority of its residents. Tragically, between 1949 and 1967, Jerusalem was divided by barbed wire after Jordan’s army occupied the eastern part of the city. After the 1967 Six Day War Israel reunited the city, guaranteeing freedom of religion for all three religions.

Today, there are calls to re-divide the city, to deny Jews’ rights to live in all parts of Israel’s capital, and even to refute the historical narrative of Jewish life in the city dating back 3,000 years to the days of King David.

Session Summary

In November 1967, in the aftermath of the Six Day War, the United Nations Security Council established the principles for a “just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security.”

These principles included “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;” and the “termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.”

More than 40 years later, and after wars, terrorist rampages, and myriad peace plans, accords, and special envoys’ recommendations, the Middle East is again the focus of peace-makers.

Session Summary

Ever since Israel’s intelligence services delivered a Soviet-made MiG-21 to the United States at the height of the Viet Nam war, American-Israeli strategic cooperation has continued to grow.

But today the bi-polar U.S-Soviet confrontation has changed to a multi-polar challenge to the United States with the Russians re-establishing a naval presence in Syria, Iranian bases sprouting in South America, Chinese weapons making their way to Iranian arsenals, North Korea and Iran developing nuclear weapons, and resurgent Taliban threatening Afghanistan.

Israel’s cooperation may be more important than ever.

Session Summary

Combat, violence and acts of terrorism are erupting around the globe – in Gaza, Afghanistan, Iran, Mumbai, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Darfur, and Columbia. Nuclear proliferation has never been as threatening.