This address delves into the underpinnings of the current crisis in the occupied territories: the Bush administration’s deemphasis on the Palestine problem to avoid confrontation with Israel over settlement policy; the designation of Sharon as a “man of peace” despite his history; rejection of any exploration of the political roots of 9/11; the deepening alliance between American Christian fundamentalism and Israel; the willful and gross distortion of the Palestinian stance at Camp David. Nonetheless, the author argues that the parameters of a settlement, reinforced by the Saudi initiative, remain the two-state solution, and it is up to Israel and the United States to respond.

Walid Khalidi, a founder of the Institute for Palestine Studies and its general secretary, is a former professor at Oxford University, the American University of Beirut, and Harvard University. This speech was given in London, England, on 8 October 2002, on the occasion of his receipt of the Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization’s Prize of Distinction in Cultural Achievement in the Arab World.