June 5, 2007

In the Six-Day War 40 years ago (June 5-10, 1967), Israel overwhelmingly defeated the armies of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, and then "occupied" huge swaths of new territory. Since then, hatred, fighting, and killing in the region has continued more or less unabated.

The bloodshed and losses of the last four decades can, however, end if Israel engages in genuine diplomacy with the Palestinians, creating an independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.

I take hope from the recently announced Arab League Peace Initiative, through which the Arab world would normalize its relations with Israel in exchange for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the fact that the Bush administration may have emerged from six years of diplomatic neglect, sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Syria, where she determined that that country's overtures to Israel are sincere.

Only genuine negotiations leading to a lasting settlement, with vital U.S. leadership, can move this forward.

Israel and America will be served best by using these opportunities to revive peace talks. I hope that 40 years from now, we'll be able to celebrate 2007 as the year Israel and its neighbors finally started on the path to peace.