"I believe the solution will come about in one of two ways because of the fundamental oddity of the state of Israel. First, there may be a 'political' solution that sees a growing mutual trust on the part of Israelis and Palestinians, the former by renouncing their claims to a 'greater' Israel and the building of settlements and the latter by renouncing and stifling terrorism as a means to a solution and unequivocally recognizing Israel's 'right' to exist. This 'political' solution could come about only through pressure by Israel's benefactor, the United States and from enlightened thinking on the part of a new generation of Israeli and Palestinian politicians.

Second, there may be a 'natural' solution where the oddity of Israel slowly and perhaps peacefully dissipates and ceases to exist in the same way that the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem did in the 13th century, being replaced by a unitary state of Arabs and Jews with equal rights in a single democratic state, which presumes that the Arab world in general will move towards democracy and that Jewish concerns about their security are demonstrated in the same way South African Afrikaaners were reassured about their place and future in a multiracial state after the overthrow of the Apartheid system."

"I no longer write about Arab-Israeli political issues and confine myself to cultural studies especially involving food and cooking of the Arab world and the Mediterranean at large."

• Former Researcher, The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC
• Former Staff Fellow, Institute of Arab Studies, Belmont, MA
• Former Executive Director, American Middle East Peace Research Institute, Cambridge, MA
• Former Center Affliate of the Gustav E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Los Angeles.

• none related to these issues

• Facts and Fables: The Arab-Israeli Conflict, Kegan Paul International, 1989
• After the Palestine-Israel War: Limits to U.S. and Israeli Policy, w/ Khalil Nakhleh, Institute of Arab Studies, 1983