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"Last Chance" for Peace, Israeli Professor Says

Naomi Chazan, a former member of Israel's parliament, urged Americans to pressure the government to make peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a top priority

Former Knesset member Naomi Chazan talked about peace prospects in the Middle East Wednesday at the Freeman Center.

At a talk Wednesday at Duke's Freeman Center for Jewish Life, a former member of Israel's parliament said Israelis and Palestinians now have an opportunity to negotiate a peace agreement, but they and the international community must act quickly.

"This is the last opportunity we will have to cement a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Professor Naomi Chazan told an audience of about 50 people. "And I want to be very emphatic about that -- this is our last chance."

A peace accord is "not going to happen by itself," Chazan said. "There has to be a very sophisticated, coordinated effort, which will be conducted be the Israelis and the Palestinians and the international community if this is going to take place."

Chazan is a professor of political science and African studies at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is currently a visiting fellow at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was a member of Israel's parliament, the Knesset, from 1993 to 2003.

"I am more hopeful than I have been in many years," said Chazan, who noted she is two years older than the state of Israel (but asked the audience not to "do the math.") "We've always known where we have to go; we got stuck on how to get there. We can do it."

However, she predicted that if steps toward peace are not taken by both sides within two years, the conflict will worsen and peace talks will no longer be possible. She said she counted Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to disengage from Gaza and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' call to end violence as possible first steps.

Her final plea to the audience was to support Middle East peace negotiations by not mirroring on campus the animosity in the region. She also urged Americans to pressure their government to make Israeli-Palestinian peace a top priority.

Afterward, Duke sophomore Nick Renner called the talk "really hopeful," which he contrasted to the defiant campus climate he observed last semester during and following the Palestine Solidarity Movement conference.

Renner, who is Jewish, is beginning a student group called Arab and Jewish Students for Dialogue, along with his friend Mikey Muhanna, a Duke sophomore from Lebanon. The group aims to promote friendship between Arab and Jewish students as a basis for political discussion.

Duke senior Barbar Luxenberg said she appreciated Chazan's position that advocating for a two-state solution is not "anti-Israeli."

Duke religion professor Eric Meyers, director of the Center for Jewish Studies, said Chazan is "one of the most reasonable people on the left" who "reaches out to both sides of the fence."

"That's the kind of person we want our students to hear," he said.

The lecture was sponsored by the Freeman Center and Duke's Center for Jewish Studies.