A little bit more than a month ago students and professors had the pleasure of hearing Robert Malley speak at Cornell. General Anthony Zinni, a retired four star general and former Commander in Chief of U.S. Central Command, spoke today in Goldwin Smith about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.
Zinni began by saying that he feels that the peace process is unfortunately taking a backseat because of the U.S.’s concentration on conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that more things are currently working against the peace process now than he has ever seen before.
Unlike Malley, who spoke in more general terms about the need for mutual understanding and empathy in any final agreement, Zinni directly cited things that he believed have not and will not work in the negotiations. This list included, but was not limited to: 1) special U.S. envoys to the region, which are temporary and never have enough presence in the negotiations; 2) summits, because all issues cannot be put on the table and negotiated at one meeting, and 3) agreements “in principle,” because these lead to high expectations and nothing else. More generally, he said that we, the U.S., are mistaken if we think that this conflict can be resolved quickly and expediently. We need to start approaching this process as a long term peace negotiation process.
Check out the next issue of The Cornell Review for a full and detailed analysis of Zinni’s lecture.
