On Tuesday, January 28, UVA's College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences hosted another event in the Series on Enabling Difficult Conversations, which was co-sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program. Hundreds packed historic Old Cabell Hall to hear from New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman and former Palestinian Authority prime minister and economist Salam Fayyad. Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Sociology Jennifer Bair moderated their conversation about the future of peace and democracy in the Middle East.

Both Friedman and Fayyad centered their peace strategies around imaginative, goal-oriented leadership. As Friedman noted, neither nation has projected an explicit and attainable goal for the war, and as a result, neither nation has an exit strategy. Fayyad agreed and emphasized that both nations need actual strategies of action, not just positions of "yes" or "no" in response to negotiations for ceasefire. 

Friedman and Fayyad agreed that a two-state solution is the only way to settle this conflict, despite being an extremely difficult goal. They expressed hope that new, young leadership might be imaginative enough to create real strategies for peace amidst such a bleak situation. 

The next installment in the series on Enabling Difficult Conversations will take place on Wednesday, February 26.