Sen. George Mitchell Delivers Annual Rabin Lecture
The Honorable George J. Mitchell, former United States Senate Majority Leader, delivered the 4th Annual Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Lecture at the Boston University Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies on March 14, 2018. The event also featured a conversation with Sen. Mitchell moderated by Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, on the past, present and future role of the U.S. in the Middle East.
Sen. Mitchell served as U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace from January 2009 to May 2011. As part of a distinguished career in public service, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1980 to complete the unexpired term of Senator Edmund S. Muskie. He was elected to a full term in the Senate in 1982 and went on to an illustrious career in the Senate spanning 15 years. In 1988, he was reelected with 81 percent of the vote, the largest margin in Maine history. He left the Senate in 1995 as the Senate majority leader, a position he had held since January 1989.
Sen. Mitchell discussed his time serving as Chairman of an International Fact-Finding Committee on violence in the Middle East in 2000 and 2001 at the request of President Clinton, Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and Chairman Yasser Arafat. The recommendation of the committee, widely known as The Mitchell Report, was endorsed by the Bush Administration, the European Union and by many other governments.
Sen. Mitchell also spoke about the complex and multifaceted conflicts in the Middle East and said that while he did not see any near-term solution to the situation, it is his belief that “there is no such thing as a conflict that cannot be resolved.” He suggested that the timing of President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has not helped the situation, and that the deep distrust that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have for each other is a major obstacle to peace in the region.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Najam which also included a question and answer session with the audience, Sen. Mitchell discussed his time as the Independent Chairman of the Northern Ireland Peace Talks, which led to the historic Good Friday Agreement and ended decades of conflict by forging an agreement between the governments of Ireland, the United Kingdom and the political parties of Northern Ireland.
Prof. Michael Zank, Director of the Elie Wiesel Center, introduced the event and the Rabin Lecture series. Ann Cudd, Dean of the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences, introduced Sen. Mitchell. Both Zank and Cudd thanked Boston University alum Jonathan Krivine (CAS’72) for generously funding the Rabin Lectures.