A thorough examination of the impediments to and opportunities for Middle East peace will be presented by Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt, and the S. Daniel Abraham Professor in Middle Eastern Policy Studies at the Woodrow Wilson School, and former Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL), president of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace in Washington, DC. will take place beginning on Monday, February 6, at 4:30 p.m. in Robertson Hall.

Over the course of two public lectures at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, “Is Peace Possible?” will explore the gap between each side’s position on the four core issues of the conflict – borders, security, Jerusalem, and refugees – and evaluate some of the innovative proposals to bridge them. The lectures are being co-sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School and the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace.

The first session will take place on February 6, 2012, and will focus on border and security issues.  Deborah Amos, a Middle East correspondent for NPR and a visiting Ferris Professor at Princeton University’s Council of the Humanities, will moderate the discussion.  The second lecture to be held on March 6, 2012, will focus on issues relating to the future of Jerusalem and refugees.  Both discussions will begin at 4:30 p.m. and will be held in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall, on the Princeton University campus.  A public reception will follow each discussion in the Shultz dining room.

About the panelists:
Ambassador Kurtzer served from 2001-2005 as the United States Ambassador to Israel and from 1997-2001 as the United States Ambassador to Egypt. He served as a political officer at the American embassies in Cairo and Tel Aviv, deputy director of the office of Egyptian affairs, speechwriter on the policy planning staff, deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, and principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Intelligence and Research. He crafted the 1988 peace initiative of Secretary of State George P. Shultz, and in 1991 served as a member of the U.S. peace team that brought about the Madrid Peace Conference. Subsequently, he served as coordinator of the multilateral peace negotiations and as the U.S. representative in the multilateral refugee working group.

The Honorable Robert Wexler served as a Democratic member of Congress for seven terms, representing Florida's 19th district in the U.S. House of Representatives before retiring in 2010 to lead the Center. During his tenure in Congress, he served as chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and as a member of the Middle East Subcommittee. Wexler was named one of the "50 Most Effective Legislators in Congress" by Congressional Quarterly, and in 2008 was named to the Forward 50 list as one of the most influential leaders in the American Jewish community. In 2008, he served as an advisor on Middle East and Israel issues to then presidential candidate Barack Obama.   Wexler frequently travels to the Middle East and has met with the leaders of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Kuwait, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Morocco, Oman, and the Palestinian Authority.

This event is free and open to the public.  It will be archived online for later viewing on the Woodrow Wilson School’s web media site – http://wws.princeton.edu/webmedia.