Music & Arts, Page 48

Levantine Center Hosts Panel

Levantine Cultural Center program participants (l-r) hostess Mariam Nawabi, Sandy Tolan, Amy Wilentz, Jordan Elgrably, UCLA Prof. Saree Makdisi and honorary Syrian Consul Dr. Hazem Chehabi. (Staff photo S. Twair)

THE LAGUNA NIGUEL home of Afghan-Americans Mariam and Weiss Nawabi was the scene of an Oct. 27 fund-raiser and panel discussion by the Levantine Cultural Center. Sandy Tolan moderated the panel, entitled “Palestine, Israel and Lebanon.” Speakers were former New Yorker magazine writer Amy Wilentz and UCLA Professor Saree Makdisi.

Despite talk of a two-state solution since the Oslo accords, Wilentz said the right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is incapable of gravitating toward peace.

According to Dr. Makdisi, the Obama administration has not addressed the Palestinian issue in the correct way because it supports a two-state solution, which no longer is feasible because of illegal Israeli settlements, highways for Jews only, and the apartheid wall on Palestinian land.

Wilentz said a two-state solution still is possible if Israelis elect a more left of center government. Most Israelis would never accept a one-state solution, she stated, and demand Jerusalem as their exclusive capital.

“Whether Israel likes or dislikes one secular democratic state, world pressure will call for an end to Israel’s apartheid system—and this pressure must be forceful,” averred Dr. Makdisi.

When Tolan asked if the U.S. has been an honest broker, both panelists said no.

—Samir Twair