Enabling Difficult Conversations: Old Cabell Event Examines Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

In their roles as former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority and as the longtime foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times, Salam Fayyad and Thomas Friedman bring decades of experience to the obstacles impeding a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian people. They shared their expertise on those thorny challenges in a wide-ranging public conversation held in the University of Virginia’s historic Old Cabell Hall. 

The Jan. 28 event was the third in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences’ “Enabling Difficult Conversations” series and was co-sponsored by UVA’s Jewish Studies Program, the Miller Center, and the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures. The series invites individuals with expertise and differing perspectives to UVA for public conversations on challenging topics that warrant nuanced and informed discussion.  

Nearly 400 people filled Old Cabell Hall’s auditorium to hear Fayyad and Friedman field questions from Jennifer Bair, A&S senior associate dean and professor of sociology, about the negotiated Gaza cease-fire and the chances of a lasting peace between Israel and Hamas. 

Friedman and Fayyad both said any lasting peace strategy must be centered around imaginative, goal-oriented leadership. Without a commitment on both sides to overcoming the challenges to a two-state solution, “the alternative is not a one-state solution or a half-state solution, or a small two-state solution,” the three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Friedman noted. “It’s actually no states for two peoples, because you will just have this eternally grinding ‘forever’ war.”   

Echoing Friedman, Fayyad said both sides need actual strategies of action, without automatically resorting to absolute positions of "yes" or "no" in response to negotiations for ceasefire.  

Now serving as a visiting senior scholar at Princeton University, Fayyad pursued a reformist agenda as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority that included improving security, strengthening the economy and reducing corruption during his six-year term (2007 to 2013). After Fayyad’s resignation, Friedman wrote that Fayyad had overseen “the best Palestinian peace partner Israel and the U.S. ever had” and called his departure from Palestinian leadership “another nail in the coffin of the two-state solution.” 

Noting that he was speaking at the university founded by Thomas Jefferson, Fayyad added later that any realistic, lasting solution must include space for a legitimate, representative government for the Palestinian people.  

“It’s not government for the people if it’s not government by the people,” he said.  

Asked by Bair to offer advice for young people in the Middle East and elsewhere who are interested in shaping the future of their communities, Fayyad encouraged UVA students in the audience to “invest in themselves.” 

“As an educator, I say this to my students. The most important thing for you is to take advantage of being in a place like this. Learn. Expand your network. Expand your abilities. Interact with others, learn from others as best as you can. And be ready. No matter what you do, it would be good if you get a chance to engage in public service. It doesn’t have to be government, but there are many ways in which you can contribute.” 

Friedman concluded the hour-long conversation with an appreciation for leaders and movements committed to building institutions that serve to increase the capacity and possibilities for the people they serve. 

“When you build capacity and institutions for your people, you’re not only strengthening the possibilities,” Friedman said. “You’re sending a message to the other side.” 

The “Enabling Difficult Conversations” series debuted on April 30, 2024, with A&S Dean Christa Acampora moderating a conversation with Dartmouth professors Susannah Heschel and Tarek El-Ariss about their shared experience teaching about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and bringing students together for conversations. The fourth event in the series will be a Feb. 26 public screening of The Path Forward, a short film documentary on a growing chorus of Palestinians and Israeli Jews working together for peace. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the film’s directors, Julie Cohen and Mo Husseini.