2009-06-02 WASHINGTON http://www.cmep.org/2009_conference/index.htm
7-9 giugno 2009 The Kellogg Conference Center at Gallaudet University.
Illuminati ed ispirati da oratori del calibro di Amjad Attalah, Daniel Levy, Hagit Ofran, Trita Parsi, Shibley Telhami, and The Right Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton. La conferenza è garantita quale strumento per diventare "difensore efficace per la pace in Terra Santa" e per "dare ai propri rappresentanti politici informazioni sul bisogno di arrivare ad una soluzione giusta e duratura del conflitto israelo-palestinese". Ed ancora: "Il 111° Congresso e l'Amministrazione Obama offrono una nuova opportunità per aiutare Israeliani e Palestinesi a fermare il tragico ciclo della spirale della violenza ed uscire dalla situazione di stallo per imboccare finalmente il sentiero della pace". Gli organizzatori sono convinti che i politici hanno bisogno di "sentire da parte dei Cristiani Americani ai quali sta a cuore il benessere dei due popoli in Terra Santa ed aspettarsi una robusta azione diplomatica americana nel 2009".
Il tema della conferenza di quest'anno, "Pace Israelo-palestinese: Speranza per le cose che non si vedono" è tratto dal testo biblico di Ebrei 11:1: "Ora la fede è certezza di cose che si sperano, dimostrazione di cose che non si vedono". La conferenza è anche un'occasione per riflettere sulla complessa situazione in Terra Santa. "La cronaca è solo motivo di scoraggiamento e lascia poche speranze all'ottimismo. Difatti molti dubitano che si possa arrivare alla pace. La fede, però, ci porta verso una speranza che ci fa vedere la realtà oltre l'ottimismo. La fede afferma il nostro ruolo di difensori di una pace giusta e duratura - due stati, uno accanto all'altro con dignità e sicurezza per tutti i popoli della regione".
Meet the 2009 Advocacy Conference Speakers
AMJAD ATTALAH
Amjad Atallah is the Co-Director of the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation.
Mr. Atallah is also a Senior Affiliated Expert with the Public International Law and Policy Group. Prior to working at the New America Foundation, Mr. Atallah headed Strategic Assessments Initiative, a not-for-profit organization committed to providing legal and policy assistance to parties involved in negotiations in conflict and post-conflict situations. Mr. Atallah's efforts included running the international policy and advocacy efforts of the Save Darfur Coalition, advising the Kosovar constitutional process, and preparing scenario planning exercises for the Palestinians and Israelis. Prior to that, Mr. Atallah advised the Palestinian negotiating team in peace negotiations with Israel on the issues of international borders, security, and constitutional issues. He was also responsible for liaising with U.S. government officials in Washington, D.C. on these issues. Mr. Atallah received a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Virginia and received his J.D. from American University's Washington College of Law.
(From The New America Foundation at http://www.newamerica.net/people/amjad_atallah)
DANIEL LEVY
Daniel Levy is a Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the Middle East Task Force at the New America Foundation and a Senior Fellow and Director of the Prospects for Peace Initiative at The Century Foundation. During the Barak Government, he worked in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office as special adviser and head of Jerusalem Affairs, following which Mr. Levy worked as senior policy adviser to then Israeli Minister of Justice, Yossi Beilin. In this capacity he was responsible for coordinating policy on various issues including peace negotiations, civil and human rights, and the Palestinian minority in Israel. Mr. Levy was a member of the official Israeli delegation to the Taba negotiations with the Palestinians in January 2001, and previously served on the Israeli negotiating team to the "Oslo B" Agreement from May to September 1995, under Prime Minister Rabin. He also served as the lead Israeli drafter of the Geneva Initiative, a joint Israeli-Palestinian effort that suggests a detailed model for a peace agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. From 2003 to 2004, he worked as an analyst for the International Crisis Group Middle East Program.
Mr. Levy received a Bachelors and Masters with Honors from King's College, Cambridge; he was awarded prizes in Social and Political Science. He left the UK for Israel in 1991 when elected Chair of the World Union of Jewish Students in Jerusalem, a position he served from 1991 to 1994, after which he was Projects Director for the Economic Co-operation Foundation, a policy planning think-tank in Tel Aviv. He has published extensively in a broad range of publications including The International Herald Tribune, Ha'aretz, The Jerusalem Post, The Boston Globe, United Press International, The American Prospect, The Washington Monthly, and more.
Mr. Levy was a founder of the Israel-Palestinian Peace Coalition and is on the Advisory Board of the recently established J Street organization and of the global campaigning group, Avaaz. His blog is www.prospectsforpeace.com and he posts regularly at TPM Café, the Huffington Post, and the Guardian Unlimited.
(From The New America Foundation at http://www.newamerica.net/people/daniel_levy)
HAGIT OFRAN
Hagit Ofran is the director the Settlement Watch project of the Israeli Peace Now movement (Shalom Achshav). Widely-recognized as Israel's foremost expert on the full range of issues related to West Bank settlements, and as a leading expert on settlement-related developments in East Jerusalem, Hagit's reports on settlement construction and planning trends are considered the primary resources on the topic. The bulk of Hagit's time is spent on the ground in the West Bank and East Jerusalem monitoring settlement-related developments, as well as analyzing aerial photos and scrutinizing official Israeli documents. In this way Hagit maintains the most thorough, detailed insight possible into the current state of the settlement enterprise. In addition, Hagit takes part regularly in public forums and private meetings, serving as a highly sought-after resource for Israeli politicians and analysts, the diplomatic community, international media organizations, and - first and foremost - the Israeli public.
Hagit, who comes from a religiously observant family, is the grand-daughter of one of Israel's most famous philosophers, Yeshayahu Leibowitz. She formerly worked for the Geneva Initiative and was Yossi Beilin's personal assistant when he was the Minister of Justice. She lives in Jerusalem and received her B.A. in Jewish History from HebrewUniversity. The National Journal, in a glowing March 28, 2008 professional profile of Hagit, quoted her as saying: "I was born into occupation in 1975, so it's the only reality I know. But I also know that it's the main obstacle to Israelis having a good and normal state with full equality for everyone, and I want to believe that's still possible."
TRITA PARSI
Trita Parsi is founder and president of the National Iranian American Council and an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian politics, and the balance of power in the Middle East. He is the author of Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States (Yale University Press 2007), for which he conducted more than 130 interviews with senior Israeli, Iranian and American decision-makers. Treacherous Alliance is the silver medal winner of the 2008 Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations.
Parsi was born in Iran but moved with his family at the age of four to Sweden in order to escape political repression in Iran. His father was an outspoken academic and non-Muslim who was jailed by the Shah and then by the Ayatollah. He moved to the United States as an adult and studied foreign policy at Johns Hopkins' School for Advanced International Studies where he received his Ph.D. He founded NIAC to provide a non-partisan, non-profit organization through which Iranian-Americans could participate in American civic life. NIAC is a vocal proponent of dialogue and engagement between the US and Iran, which Parsi consistently has argued would enhance our national security by helping to stabilize the Middle East and bolster the moderates in Iran.
Parsi has followed Middle East politics through work in the field and extensive experience on Capitol Hill and at the United Nations. He is frequently consulted by Western and Asian governments on foreign policy matters. Parsi has worked for the Swedish Permanent Mission to the UN, where he served in the Security Council, handling the affairs of Afghanistan, Iraq, Tajikistan and Western Sahara, and in the General Assembly's Third Committee, addressing human rights in Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Iraq.
Parsi studied for his Doctoral thesis on Israeli-Iranian relations under Professor Francis Fukuyama at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. In addition to his PhD, he holds a Master's Degree in International Relations from Uppsala University and a Master's Degree in Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics. He has served as an adjunct professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University SAIS. He is currently an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute.
He is fluent in Persian/Farsi, English, and Swedish. Parsi's articles on Middle East affairs have been published in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Jane's Intelligence Review, the Nation, The American Conservative, the Jerusalem Post, The Forward, and others. He is a frequent guest on CNN, PBS's Newshour with Jim Lehrer, NPR, the BBC, and Al Jazeera.
(From http://www.tritaparsi.com/biography.htm)
SHIBLEY TELHAMI
Shibley Telhami is the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, College Park, and non-resident senior fellow at the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution. Before coming to the University of Maryland, he taught at several universities, including Cornell University, the Ohio State University, the University of Southern California, Princeton University, Columbia University, Swarthmore College, and the University of California at Berkeley, where he received his doctorate in political science.
Professor Telhami has also been active in the foreign policy arena. He has served as Advisor to the US Mission to the UN (1990-91), as advisor to former Congressman Lee Hamilton, and as a member of the US delegation to the Trilateral US-Israeli-Palestinian Anti-Incitement Committee, which was mandated by the Wye River Agreements. He also served on the Iraq Study Group as a member of the Strategic Environment Working Group. He has contributed to The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times and regularly appears on national and international radio and television. He has served on the US Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World, which was appointed by the Department of State at the request of Congress, and he co-drafted the report of their findings, Changing Minds, Winning Peace. He has also co-drafted several Council on Foreign Relations reports on US public diplomacy, on the Arab-Israeli peace process, and on Persian Gulf security.
His best-selling book, The Stakes: America and the Middle East (Westview Press, 2003; updated version, 2004) was selected by Foreign Affairs as one of the top five books on the Middle East in 2003. His other publications include Power and Leadership in International Bargaining: The Path to the Camp David Accords (1990); International Organizations and Ethnic Conflict, ed. with Milton Esman (1995); Identity and Foreign Policy in the Middle East, ed. with Michael Barnett (2002), A Decade of Reflections on Peace, ed. (forthcoming), and numerous articles on international politics and Middle Eastern affairs.
He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the boards of Human Rights Watch (and Chair Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch/Middle East), the Education for Employment Foundation, and several academic advisory boards. He has also served on the board of the United States Institute of Peace. Professor Telhami was given the Distinguished International Service Award by the University of Maryland in 2002 and the Excellence in Public Service Award by the University System of Maryland Board of Regents in 2006.
(From University of Maryland at: http://www.sadat.umd.edu/people/shibley_telhami.htm
THE RIGHT REV. EUGENE TAYLOR SUTTON
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton was elected the 14th Bishop of Maryland on March 29, 2008, at St. James' Episcopal Church, Baltimore, and consecrated at Washington National Cathedral on June 28, 2008. He was officially seated at the Cathedral of the Incarnation, Baltimore, on June 29, 2008.
Prior to his election, Bishop Sutton was canon pastor of Washington National Cathedral, and director of the Center for Prayer and Pilgrimage. A frequent leader of retreats and conferences on prayer, preaching, spirituality and mission, he directed the cathedral's national and local programs in building spiritual community through pilgrimages, gatherings and courses.
In addition to having served parishes in New Jersey and Washington, DC, Bisho p Sutton taught homiletics and liturgics at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, New Brunswick Theological Seminary and General Theological Seminary. He also served as assistant to the bishop in the Diocese of New Jersey. The author of several articles on spirituality and preaching, he is a contributor to the book The Diversity of Centering Prayer.
Bishop Sutton's professional involvements have included serving as president and board member of the Washington Episcopal Clergy Association; chaplain and board member of the Global Episcopal Mission Network of the Episcopal Church; board member of the Episcopal Evangelical Education Society; and lifetime member and frequent workshop leader and speaker of the Union of Black Episcopalians.
Bishop Sutton earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Hope College in Holland, Mich. in May 1976, from which he also received the Distinguished Alumni award in May 2003. He attended Western Theological Seminary, also in Holland, where he graduated with a Master of Divinity degree in May 1981. Graduate school honors included the Pietenpol Award for Senior Excellence, the Mays Fellowship, and the Makely Award in worship.
He pursued post-graduate studies at the Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, N.J., from 1986-1992. His doctoral studies earned him several honors, including teaching fellow in Practical Theology and president of Ph.D. Students' Association. He did his Anglican Studies at the University of the South, School of Theology in Sewanee, Tenn., from 1992-1993.
Married to Sonya Subbayya Sutton, their family includes four children and stepchildren.
From The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland at: http://www.ang-md.org/sutton/sutton.php
