The international conference held by the Israeli National Institute for Security Studies is celebrating its seventh edition as it focuses this year on the new approaches to the political challenges in the Middle East. Although the INSS is comprised predominantly of retired high ranked Israeli security officials, it was very noticeable at the conference that it was extremely important for the organization to have a balanced conversation on issued raised with having both sides of an issue speaking out their minds.

Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:

The international conference held by the Israeli National Institute for Security Studies is celebrating its seventh edition as it focuses this year on the new approaches to the political challenges in the area.

Gilad Sher, who is a former Chief Negotiator with the Palestinians on behalf of the Israeli government and today runs the Center for Applied Negotiations within the INSS, who organized the conference, wants people to go home from the event with new ideas of how things can be resolved in the Middle East.

Gilad Sher, Institute for National Security Studies (INSS):
What we have is an objective, is to think, to assess, to analyze and then to produce something that will serve the decision makers. Generally speaking, I never venture to know what a leader thinks or what is his space for maneuvering, but what I know is that the interest of the State of Israel lay in a very very clear solution and that is a solution, maybe not throughout an agreement, of two states, for two people which secure the future of our Zionist vision.

Dr. Khalil Shikaki, who is the head of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, came to the conference to show the Israeli’s statistical numbers of how the Palestinians feel about the chances of peace with Israel.

Dr. Khalil Shikaki, Director, Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research:
\The numbers in the polls indicate that the the Palestinian public is willing to give the current talks a chance, even though the majority of the Palestinians do not believe there is a chance for success, they do not blame themselves, they believe they’re ready for peace and to embrace the efforts to reach one. But they believe that a right-wing government in Israel, the one that currently builds settlements cannot be serious about making peace.

The Executive Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Dr. Robert Satloff, feels that the US administration has corrected its approach to the Mideast peace process and now there is a much better chance of things actually moving ahead.

Dr. Robert Satloff, Executive Director, Washington Institute for Near East Policy:
I think that the Obama administration has improved its approach to Middle East peacemaking, it has corrected some of the mistakes from the early years of the administration and it now has, I think a more intelligent way to work with the government of Israel and its local partners. The tactics that Secretary of State has pursued have been pretty intelligent and really quite creative, and working much better toward an appropriate goal. There is now chaos swirling around Israel but not chaos in the inner core, in fact Israel, the West Bank and Israel’s peace partner Jordan, have been surprisingly quiet and stable amid this turmoil. Now, that stability has given an opportunity to promote diplomatic progress. If there weren’t stability here it would not have been possible.

Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
Although the INSS is comprised predominantly of retired high ranked Israeli security officials, it was very noticeable at the conference that it was extremely important for the organization to have a balanced conversation on issued raised with having both sides of an issue speaking out their minds.
For JN1 I am Ron Jacobsohn at the Museum of Arts in Tel-Aviv.

In a country where over ninety-six percent of the couples are married and over forty percent of the population believes they should have at least three children, you can be sure that a holiday like the Family Day is a big thing. So we went to find out what is an average Israeli family.
What is fascinating to witness is that no matter what type of family you meet, in Israel, the one thing that connects them all is the inner obligation to maintain their heritage and to carry it on to future generations.