The intention of this Special Edition on the Two-State Solution for Israel and Palestine is to help all interested actors and particularly all political decision makers to get the emotions, facts, figures and developments right.
This rather special publication starts with the last written message on Gaza and the West Bank of the late Pope Francis (p4). We are deeply grateful to him for his key message: “God and future generations will judge us not by how many enemies we defeated, but by how many lives we saved.” It also features contributions by the Omani enabler between the US, Iran, and the Houthis, Foreign Minister H.E. Sayyid Badr Albusaidi (p6), the Chair of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, MEP David McAllister (p8), by Dr. Ido Rosenzweig and Emilie Moatti of ‘The Hostages and Missing Families Forum’ (p20), and by Dr. Rula Hardal and May Pundak of ‘A Land for All’ (p14).
Key representatives of The Elders, former Irish President Mary Robinson and former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland – promotor of the Oslo Accords – also feature, (p10), as well as former Dutch Defence Minister Prof Joris Voorhoeve (p24), former Norwegian Health Minister Werner Christie (p22), former High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Josep Borrell (p17) and UNICEF Director Jean Gough (p12). Former Editor-in-Chief of The Jakarta Post Endy Bayuni highlights the emerging engagement of Asia and particularly of Indonesia (p26), while the last two texts try to complete this edition for a thorough analysis and, of course, effective EU decision making (p30). The journey to this Special Edition started with the passing of a unique Arab, Maqbool Hameed Al Saleh. His life, as described here, started in Muscat at the end of World War II, and ended showing that nothing is impossible.
Rio Praaning Prawira Adiningrat
Secretary General, PA International Foundation