You are invited to hear Ambassador David M. Satterfield (ret)
- Can there ever be peace between Israel and the Palestinians based on the generations of hatred and past wars and what has happened this time in Gaza?
- Has Diplomacy Failed in the Middle East and Gaza?
- How to describe the humanitarian crisis in Southern and Northern Gaza affecting two million Palestinians most of them women and children?
- Assuming aid finally begins to enter, is it too late to save the millions living there who have been subjected to the most vicious bombardment in recent modern history?
- What obstacles stand in the way of life-saving aid?
- What should be the proper U.S. response to the constant wars in the Middle East?
- What happens to Gaza and the Palestinians, the day after the war ends? Will Israel rebuild and open it up only to Jewish Settlers as many in the Likud Party champion?
- Will Palestinians be allowed to return to a nearly totally destroyed Gaza? If so, what Palestinian government will be strong enough to govern?
- Would Hamas have any role?
- How will the rebuilding of a nearly totally destroyed Gaza be accomplished and by whom?
- How will Middle East politics change as a result of the Hamas attacks on Israel and Israel’s retaliation?
- Has Diplomacy Failed in the Middle East and Gaza?
The Honorable David M. Satterfield is the director of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. He has more than four decades of diplomatic and leadership experience, including service as special envoy for the Horn of Africa, assistant secretary of state, National Security Council staff director and as ambassador to Lebanon and Turkey and charge d’affaires in Iraq and Egypt.
Satterfield’s extensive bilateral and multinational negotiating background most notably includes the 1995 Roadmap for Israel-Palestinian Peace (with the United Nations), the 2000 withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from Lebanon and Blue Line boundary agreement (with the United Nations), and the 2008 Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and Iraq. As the State Department’s coordinator for Iraq, he managed the largest domestic staff in the department’s history and directed fundamental reforms to the Foreign Service.
As director general of the Multinational Force and Observers, Satterfield conceived and directed the comprehensive modernization of military and civilian peacekeeping operations and led fundraising efforts with the U.S. Congress and donor governments.
Among other honors, Satterfield is the recipient of the highest Department of State recognition, the Secretary of State Distinguished Service Award, and the highest award for senior federal executives, the Office of Personnel Management Distinguished Federal Executive Rank Award.
Satterfield is a graduate of the University of Maryland and speaks Arabic, French and Italian. He is married to Elizabeth Ann Fritschle, a career Foreign Service officer.
