Life at the Dead Sea

You have to give credit to Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum. The Middle East seems to be falling apart--the Palestinians are fighting each other in Gaza, Israelis and Palestinians are fighting across the Gaza border, the Lebanese army is fighting a mysterious Palestinian Islamist faction in Tripoli, several American soldiers have been killed in another roadside bombing in Baghdad--yet in the center of it all Schwab has organized another major conference of global leaders to tackle the region's problems.

I've just finished attending the final sessions of the conference in Jordan, at a Dead Sea resort, and just a brief rundown of my day is a good indication of what a remarkable thing the WEF is doing by hosting these Middle East events. In the morning, I moderated a panel on Iraq that included two U.S. senators just out of Baghdad, an influential Iranian politician close to Tehran's ruling circle, the Iraqi vice president and deputy prime minister and the Jordanian foreign minister. Afterwards, I headed up to the plenary session where Israeli Deputy Prime Shimon Peres promised a formal response to the Arab peace initiative soon. Then I went to a lunch hosted by Palestinians at the Marriott Hotel, next to a room where Jordan's King Abdullah II was hosting another lunch. After that, I listed in on a panel discussion on the question of modernity and Islam, which included presentations from French expert Olivier Roy, British author of books on religion Karen Armstrong and Ahmed Abaddi, a scholar at the forefront of efforts to reform Islam in Morocco.

I doubt that many minds were changed, but it is a sign of progress that Arabs, Israelis, Palestinians, Iranians, Europeans, Americans and others are coming together to formulate bases for discussion. It's tempting to be pessimistic about the Middle East, given the violence all around. But at the lunch, I was struck, even moved, by Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat's optimism. He talked about how Palestinians and Israelis have in fact overcome many of the huge obstacles separating them over the years. "We've come a long way in changing the way we think about each other," he said. With that kind of attitude, there is hope.

More when I wrap up today's sessions.

--By Scott MacLeod/Suwaymah