October 16th

Opening Remarks by Ziad Asali at ATFP Fourth Annual Gala Speech by Ziad Asali at Ritz Carlton, Washington DC - October 16, 2009 - 12:00am Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my pleasure to welcome you to our Gala tonight, the theme of which is “Palestine Alongside Israel: Liberty, Security, and Prosperity.” These are our goals as an organization, and are also the foundations upon which peace can be built and sustained. Security and prosperity are the essential components and deliverables of peace. They are the facilitators of the quest towards peace and they are the fruits that all the people in the region will enjoy once it is reached. » Read more

Ziad Asali Introduces Gen. Jim Jones at ATFP Fourth Annual Gala Speech by Ziad Asali at Ritz Carlton, Washington DC - October 16, 2009 - 12:00am And now ladies and gentlemen it is my distinct pleasure to introduce our keynote speaker for the evening. ATFP is deeply honored to welcome the National Security Advisor to President Obama, General James Jones. General Jones has just joined us after attending another function, so he is not wearing a black tie. » Read more

March 13th

Beyond Revenge: Support Peace, Tolerance, & Reconciliation Speech by Ziad Asali at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - October 21, 2004 - 12:00am We are here today to pay respect to members of the families whose lives have been shattered by the untimely and violent and death of their relatives. They are here today, not just to share their grief, but also to share it publicly so other parents will be spared this unspeakable pain. » Read more

March 12th

Remarks by Ziad Asali at Congressional Middle East Coexistence Conference Speech by Ziad Asali at 2325 Rayburn Building - February 12, 2004 - 1:00am The Holy Land, a tiny sliver of the landmass of this earth, has generated emotions of unbridled intensity. It offered sublime guidance to mankind and made unparalleled contributions to the best in civilizations and cultures while at the same time releasing wayward passions that bred violence, death and destruction. It appealed to the most noble of instincts as it did to the most base and banal corners of people's souls. It has been an open wound whose healing has defied the wisdom of the best minds for a century or more. » Read more

Arab-American Perceptions of U.S. Policy Toward the Middle East Speech by Ziad Asali at U.S. Dept. of State - March 26, 2002 - 1:00am The tragic events of September 11th have had a profound impact on the relationship between the United States and the Arab and Islamic Worlds. The war on terrorism in Afghanistan is the first phase of a long, opaque and complex engagement that will define international relations for decades to come. Arab Americans, both Christians and Muslims, have had the unique experience of being doubly impacted by this tragedy: first as Americans, and secondly as people of Arab heritage. We will be in this unique position, filled with dangers and opportunities, for the foreseeable future. » Read more

The Past, the Present and a Better Future Speech by Ziad Asali at Carnegie Mellon University - October 18, 2004 - 12:00am This is my first visit to Pittsburgh and it is quite a pleasure to be here. In the mid-seventies my son, barely four years at the time, became a big fan of the Steelers and Bradshaw, so I became one too. I watched more football games with him than I would by temperament, past the glory days of his beloved Steelers, to shift my loyalty, after my son’s, to our home team, the Chicago Bears, through their short lived glory in 1985, but we stuck with them. We still support a struggling team. » Read more

On the Historic Compromise Speech by Ziad Asali at Cornell University - November 4, 2004 - 1:00am Last year, my wife and I had the pleasure of visiting Ithaca and enjoyed the hospitality of Watermargin. The idyllic surroundings, which I assume most of you take for granted, and the kind and inquisitive reception by your students as I addressed them, has created in my mind an association of Cornell with pleasant and soothing memories. So when Professor Michelle Campos asked me to come to Cornell, all we needed to discuss was when, because I could not resist visiting these gorges again. » Read more

What is to be done? Speech by Ziad Asali at Newark, New Jersey - October 18, 2004 - 12:00am A consensus, that is, nearly a consensus, about the contours of the final agreement for a genuine and lasting peace is known. It is a variation of the themes of Clinton’s Taba proposal, The Geneva Initiative, Nusseibeh- Ayalon, One Voice and most importantly, the Road Map. Polls and surveys of Palestinians, Israelis, American Jews and Arabs, as well as the general American public, indicate support for a Two-State solution based on what has come to be called the Historic Compromise. » Read more

Palestine and Israel: Unkind History, Uncertain Future Speech by Ziad Asali at Cornell University - September 3, 2003 - 12:00am For a conflict that has been described as intractable, insoluble and “centuries old”, the most dramatic feature about the Palestine/ Israel conflict is the near unanimous agreement about the contours of its final resolution. Think about that. The majority of the Palestinians, Israelis, Arabs, Jews, Americans, Europeans, and people all over the world as well as global institutions and bodies are in support of an outline that goes as follows: » Read more

In Pursuit of Peace Speech by Ziad Asali at Tikkun Conference - June 2, 2003 - 12:00am The march of events of humankind that we call history has been unkind to the Jews and Palestinians this past century. Europe, the seat of the pinnacle of world culture and western civilization, was seized with convulsive fits of hatred and barbarism that culminated in the Holocaust and made the defeat of Nazism the highest moral order of the time. The Palestinians, caught in the ensuing whirlwind, were eviscerated, displaced, denigrated and driven to desperation. Israel was established on 78% of the land of Palestine in 1948, and occupied the rest in 1967. » Read more