Facilitated by Frederic C. Hof

This program will be a talk that intersects with the Great Decisions topic on the Middle East, but it will focus on the situation in Gaza. The talk will consider what the United States might do to move the parties involved in conflict forward, beyond violence to co-existence and peace. Fred Hof is on the Board of the World Affairs Council of the Mid-Hudson Valley, which co-sponsors the Great Decisions program. He currently serves as Bard College’s Diplomat in Residence and has had a distinguished career with the US Army, Department of State, and the international consulting firm AALC, specializing in the Mideast region. He served as ambassador and special adviser for transition in Syria under President Obama and as special coordinator for regional affairs in the US Department of State’s Office of the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, where he conducted a back-channel peace mediation between Israel and Syria.