Ambassador Riyad Mansour with Dr. Alon Ben Meir

We were pleased to invite sponsors and their guests for a lunch discussion with Ambassador Riyad Mansour about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how he believes a compromise will be reached.

While Mideast peace talks stagnate, new developments continue to unfold. Earlier this fall, Palestinian leaders asked the United Nations to allow Palestine to be recognized as a state – a move that caused concern and debate from Jerusalem to Washington, DC. The Common Good was very honored to host Ambassador Riyad Mansour, who has served as Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations since 2005. Mansour has devoted his career to finding a solution to the ongoing Israeli- Palestinian crisis and seeking recognition of the state of Palestine. At our Luncheon Briefing, NYU Professor Dr. Alon Ben-Meir will moderate the discussion as Mansour shares his views on the conflict.

Ambassador Riyad Mansour has served as permanent observer of Palestine to the United Nations since 2005. From 1977 to 1983, he joined the Permanent Mission of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen to the United Nations in New York as research advisor. From 1983 to 1988, he served as deputy permanent observer to the Permanent Observer Mission of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to the United Nations. Ambassador Mansour has taught at the University of Central Florida in Orlando and the University of Akron in Ohio. He has published several studies and articles, most notably about the Palestinian community in the United States. He has lectured at many American universities and has participated in numerous international conferences, symposia, seminars, and panel debates as a representative of Palestine. Ambassador Mansour obtained his M.S. in education counseling from Youngstown State University in 1973. He received his Ph.D. in counseling from the University of Akron in 1977.

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Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski on “Strategic Vision” and reasserting America’s Strength

The Common Good was honored to host Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor under President Carter, for a special lunch discussion. Dr. Brzezinski introduced his new book “Strategic Vision,” which highlights the need for our country to reassert its position of strength. She discussed today’s changing distribution of global power and how it will affect the future of the United States.

We were thrilled to announce that Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC Co-Anchor of Morning Joe, will be introducing her distinguished father at our lunch discussion.

Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski is a Polish American political scientist, geostrategist, and statesman who served as United States National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981.

Brzezinski is currently Robert E. Osgood Professor of American Foreign Policy at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a member of various boards and councils. He appears frequently as an expert on the PBS program The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, ABC News’ This Week with Christiane Amanpour, and on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, where his daughter, Mika Brzezinski, is co-anchor.

In recent years, he has been a supporter of the Prague Process.

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Author William Shawcross: “JUSTICE AND THE ENEMY”

British author-journalist William Shaw­cross, scribe of many best-selling books and no stranger to controversy, will dis­cuss his new book just as it is pub­lished in the US. “Jus­tice and the Enemy: From the Nurem­berg Tri­als to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed”which looks at the ongo­ing polit­i­cal and legal argu­ment about whether and how to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his co-conspirators for their role in the 9⁄11 attack.

William Shaw­cross is a dis­tin­guished jour­nal­ist, broad­caster and com­men­ta­tor who has cov­ered inter­na­tional con­flicts and con­flict res­o­lu­tion and has reported for the “Sun­day Times,” “Time Mag­a­zine,” “Newsweek,” and “Rolling Stone” mag­a­zine, among many other pub­li­ca­tions. He is the best­selling author of many books includ­ing biogra­phies of Rupert Mur­doch, the Shah of Iran and the offi­cial biog­ra­phy of the Queen Mother. In 2003, he was named “New Statesman’s” Man of the Year. He is a chair­man of Arti­cle 19, a Lon­don based char­ity and pres­sure group which defends the rights of free expres­sion enshrined in Arti­cle 19 of the Dec­la­ra­tion of Human Rights; a board mem­ber of the Inter­na­tional Cri­sis Group; and was a mem­ber of the High Com­mis­sioner for Refugees’ Infor­mal Advi­sory Group from 1995 – 2000.

“Shaw­cross stands as the fore­most jour­nal­ist of his gen­er­a­tion.”

— Irish Times

“…Shaw­cross holds a mir­ror up to our­selves as we respond inef­fec­tively to the world’s hor­rors.”

— Glasgow Herald

“It is an intel­lec­tual plea­sure to read William Shaw­cross… clear-sighted, objec­tive and ratio­nal [and] a relief from the usual fare of fan­ta­sis­ing served up by our stand­ing army of the self-righteous”

— Sunday Independent

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Ambassador Peter Galbraith On Afghanistan: Ten Years Later

Peter Galbraith joined us to discuss the Afghanistan conflict as we edge closer to leaving the country. After ten years, Americans are wearying of the war and its ongoing casualties. But with the complications of extricating ourselves from this challenging arena, the complicated relationship with Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai and an aggressive Taliban looking for restoration to power, is there an American victory here? Peter Galbraith served in the war-torn Balkans as the first U.S. Ambassador to Croatia, and in 2009 Galbraith was appointed as United Nations’ Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan where he contributed to exposing the massive fraud that took place in the 2009 Afghanistan Presidential Elections.

Peter Woodard Galbraith is an author, academic, commentator, policy advisor, and former United States diplomat. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he helped uncover Saddam Hussein’s gassing of the Kurds. From 1993 to 1998, he served as the first U.S. Ambassador to Croatia, where he was co-mediator and principal architect of the 1995 Erdut Agreement that ended the war in that country.

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Former TARP Special Inspector Neil Barofsky, “Another Crisis is Coming”

The Common Good hosted former TARP program Special Inspector Neil Barofsky, for a lunch and candid discussion about his new book “Bailout” and the fiscal crisis facing the U.S.

In this bracing, page-turning account of his stranger-than-fiction baptism into the corrupted ways of Washington, Neil Barofsky offers an irrefutable indictment, from an insider of the Bush and Obama administrations, of the mishandling of the $700 billion TARP bailout fund. In vivid behind-the-scenes detail, he reveals proof of the extreme degree to which our government officials bent over backward to serve the interests of Wall Street firms at the expense of the broader public—and at the expense of effective financial reform.

During the height of the financial crisis in 2008, Barofsky gave up his job as a prosecutor in the esteemed U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York City, where he had convicted drug kingpins, Wall Street executives, and perpetrators of mortgage fraud, to become the special inspector general in charge of oversight of the spending of the bailout money. From his first day on the job, his efforts to protect against fraud and to hold the big banks accountable for how they spent taxpayer money were met with outright hostility from the Treasury officials in charge of the bailouts.

Barofsky discloses how, in serving the interests of the banks, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his team worked with Wall Street executives to design programs that would funnel vast amounts of taxpayer money to their firms and would have allowed them to game the markets and make huge profits with almost no risk and no accountability, while repeatedly fighting Barofsky’s efforts to put the necessary fraud protections in place.

His investigations also uncovered abject mismanagement of the bailout of insurance giant AIG and Geithner’s decision to allow the payment of millions of dollars in bonuses—including $7,700 to a kitchen worker and $7,000 to a mail room assistant—and that the Obama administration’s “TARP czar” lobbied for the executives to retain their high pay.

Providing stark details about how, meanwhile, the interests of homeowners and the broader public were betrayed, Barofsky recounts how Geithner and his team steadfastly failed to fix glaring flaws in the Obama administration’s homeowner relief program pointed out by Barofsky and other bailout watchdogs, rejecting anti-fraud measures, which unleashed a wave of abuses by mortgage providers against homeowners, even causing some who would not have lost their homes otherwise to go into foreclosure. Ultimately only a small fraction (just $1.4 billion at the time he stepped down) of the $50 billion allocated to help homeowners was spent, while the funds expended to prop up the financial system—as Barofsky discloses—totaled $4.7 trillion.

As Barofsky raised the alarm about the bailout failures, he met with obstruction of his investigations, and he recounts in blow-by-blow detail how an increasingly aggressive war was waged against his efforts, with even the White House launching a broadside against him. Bailout is a riveting account of his plunge into the political meat grinder of Washington, as well as a vital revelation of just how captured by Wall Street our political system is and why the too-big-to-fail banks have only become bigger and more dangerous in the wake of the crisis.

Neil Barofsky is currently a Senior Fellow at New York University School of Law. From December 2008 until March 2011, he served as the Special Inspector General in charge of oversight of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Before that he was a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. This is his first book.

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Elections 2012 Forecast – Mehlman, Shrum, Wolffe

We were thrilled to present a special “Elections Panel 2012” with three of the best experts on election strategy. The Common Good presented a powerful bipartisan trio – Ken Mehlman, the brilliant former Chair of the Republican National Committee, Robert Shrum, the amazingly clever Democratic political strategist and messaging expert, and Richard Wolffe, author and journalist, known as a keen observer of the American political scene. This will be a frank, bold discussion and prognostication of the American political landscape as the economic situation becomes more precipitous and the stakes grow higher.

Kenneth Brian Mehlman is an American businessman, attorney, and political figure who served as the campaign manager for the 2004 re-election campaign of George W. Bush and Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2005 to 2007. In 2007, President Bush appointed Mehlman to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

Robert Shrum has been a senior adviser to the Gore 2000 presidential campaign, the campaign of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and the British Labor Party. In addition to being the chief strategist for the 2004 Kerry-Edwards campaign, Shrum has advised thirty winning U.S. Senate campaigns; eight winning campaigns for governor; mayors of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other major cities; and the Democratic Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives. Shrum’s writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The New Republic, Slate, and other publications.

Richard Wolffe is an award-winning journalist and political analyst for MSNBC television. He covered the entire length of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign for Newsweek magazine, traveling with the candidate and his inner circle from his announcement through election day, 21 months later. Wolffe appears frequently on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Hardball. On NBC, he has been featured as a political commentator on Meet The Press and TODAY.

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Senator Claire McCaskill

The sponsors and their guests met Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) for breakfast as a continuation of our Leadership Series.

Senator McCaskill has worked to investigate contracting abuses in government spending in the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan and throughout the Federal government. Claire currently sits on four Senate Committees, including Armed Services, Commerce, HSGAC and Aging.

Claire currently sits on four Senate Committees, including Armed Services, Commerce, HSGAC and Aging. From those committees, she’s taken on: accountability and transparency, earmark reform, increased independence for Inspectors General (IG) that act as federal auditors, credit card regulations, security improvements to foreign repair stations that service our domestic aircraft, reforms to the reverse mortgage industry, consumer protections, and full benefits and resources for our brave veterans and wounded active service members.

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Catherine Crier on “Occupy Wall Street”

The Common Good hosted a Luncheon Briefing with Emmy-winning broadcast journalist, former Texas judge, and New York Times bestselling author Catherine Crier. Ms. Crier talked about the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement and her new book, Patriot Acts-What Americans Must Do to Save the Republic, in which she explains how the current economic crisis and growing civil unrest is the predictable result of wrong-headed actions by both political parties, why more than just our financial well-being is at stake, and how ‘Occupy Wall Street’ is both a natural reaction and a necessary step towards recovery.

An Emmy, duPont-Columbia, and Gracie Allen Award-winning journalist and the youngest state judge to ever be elected in Texas, Catherine Crier joined Court TV’s distinguished team of anchors in November 1999. She served as Executive Editor, Legal News Specials, in addition to hosting Catherine Crier Live, a fast-paced, live daily series, covering the day’s “front-page” stories.

Crier, a Texas-bred independent with a spirited passion for justice, released her first book, The New York Times Bestseller, The Case Against Lawyers in October, 2002. In this eye-opening and plain-spoken treatise on the law, Crier shares her outrage at the state of the justice system and calls on American citizens to demand reform. Her second book, A Deadly Game: The Untold Story of the Scott Peterson Investigation was released in March, 2005 and became a #1 New York Times bestseller. Her third book, Contempt—How the Right is Wronging American Justice, was published in September, 2006, and Final Analysis: The Untold Story of the Susan Polk Murder Case was released in March, 2007.

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Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell

The Common Good invited people to participate in an exclusive closed discussion with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Mitch McConnell is an American politician serving as Kentucky's senior United States senator and as Senate Majority Leader. (1)

McConnell was first elected to the Senate in 1984 and has been re-elected five times since. During the 1998 and 2000 election cycles, he was chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. McConnell was elected as Majority Whip in the 108th Congress and was re-elected to the post in 2004. In November 2006, he was elected Senate Minority Leader; he held that post until 2015, when Republicans took control of the Senate and he became Senate Majority Leader. McConnell was included in the Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world in 2015. (1)

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(1) Material from Wikipedia.

Nouriel Roubini on the US & Global Economy

The Common Good is honored to host “Dr. Doom” Professor Nouriel Roubini as he discusses the coming challenges of the US & Global Economy as part of our Economy and Business Series.

Roubini has been lauded for his stunning prediction of the financial crisis of 2008. What is ahead?

Nouriel Roubini, an American economist born in Istanbul, Turkey, was raised in Italy and educated at in Milan and at Harvard University. He has been a practicing economist at the IMF, the Federal Reserve, World Bank, and the Bank of Israel, served as senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisors during the Clinton Administration and at the Treasury Department as senior advisor to Timothy Geithner. He teaches at New York University’s Stern School of Business and is chairman of Roubini Global Economics, an economic consultancy firm.

Roubini is renowned for having predicted both the collapse of the US housing market and the worldwide recession which started in 2008. Roubini’s predictions views have earned him the nickname “Dr. Doom” in the media. As Roubini’s descriptions of the current economic crisis have proven to be accurate, he is today a major figure in the U.S. and international debate about the economy.

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Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on China

The Common Good hosted a luncheon with Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as he discussed his latest book On China. As China emerges as an economic juggernaut and competes increasingly with the United States for world resources, market share and international influence, we need to better understand this country and the new realities. Dr. Kissinger will discuss China, a country he has known intimately for decades, and whose modern relations with the West he helped shape.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s new book, On China, draws on historical records as well as his conversations with Chinese leaders over the past 40 years to examine how China has approached diplomacy, strategy, and negotiation throughout its history, and reflects on the consequences for the global balance of power in the 21st century.

“Henry Kissinger will always remain a controversial historical figure. But this elegantly written and erudite book reminds us that on one of the biggest questions of the post-second world war world his judgment was right, and showed a long-term vision that few politicians of any country could match today. Unless, of course, Hillary Clinton is even now on a secret mission to Tehran.”

— Rana Mitter, The Guardian

“To the degree that Washington and Beijing now understand each other, it is in good measure because Kissinger has been assiduously translating for both sides, discerning meaning in everything from elliptical jokes to temper tantrums. At every juncture, he has been striving to find “strategic concepts” that could be made to prevail over a history of conflict, mutual grievance and fear. As President Nixon’s national security adviser, then secretary of state for Nixon and Gerald Ford, and since 1977 as a private interlocutor extraordinaire, Kissinger has been unwaveringly committed to surmounting what he considers the legitimate Chinese resentment of American interference in their internal affairs and Americans’ distaste for China’s brutal suppression of ethnic, religious and political dissent. The surprise buried in his lumbering review of Sino-American relations is that the much ballyhooed Nixon-Kissinger journeys to China in 1971-72 turned out to have been the easy part.”

— Max Frankel, New York Times

“Nobody living can claim greater credit than Mr. Kissinger for America’s 1971 opening to Beijing, after more than two decades of estrangement, and for China’s subsequent opening to the world. So it’s fitting that Mr. Kissinger has now written “On China,” a fluent, fascinating and sometimes infuriating book that is part history, part memoir and above all an examination of the premises, methods and aims of Chinese foreign policy.”

— Brett Stephens, The Wall Street Journal

Henry A. Kissinger was sworn in on September 22, 1973, as the 56th Secretary of State, a position he held until January 20, 1977. He also served as Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from January 20, 1969, until November 3, 1975. In July 1983, he was appointed by President Reagan to chair the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America until it ceased operation in January 1985, and from 1984-1990 he served as a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. From 1986-1988 he was a member of the Commission on Integrated Long-Term Strategy of the National Security Council and Defense Department. He is currently a member of the Defense Policy Board. Dr. Kissinger received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973; the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the nation’s highest civilian award) in 1977; and the Medal of Liberty (given one time to ten foreign-born American leaders) in 1986.

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Summer Cocktail Party with Manhattan Magazine

We started the weekend early by hosting an evening of drinks and great conversation with music by our special guest DJ at the library bar in the Paramount Hotel.

The evening includes an open bar all night with signature cocktails, hosted by Sean Avery, Alexandra Blodgett, Omeed Malik, Charlotte Ronson, Jennifer Regenstreich, Rachel Roy and more.

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Special Screening of “Too Big To Fail”

The Common Good hosted a screening of the HBO original film, Too Big to Fail, followed by a conversation with Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News & World Report, Mort Zuckerman and NY Times Columnist, Joe Nocera. The conversation addressed the shortcomings in financial policy that led to the 2008 economic downturn, the harmful effects of the two-party system, the current economic crisis, as well as the financial future of our country.

Following the screening of “Too Big To Fail”, a film that chronicles the events leading up to the 2008 financial meltdown, Nocera and Zuckerman began their conversation by discussing how the crisis could have been averted. Nocera suggested the problems began with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s decision to assist in Bear Stearns’ buyout by JP Morgan. “Bear Stearns was much less interconnected investment bank than Lehman Brothers,” said Nocera. “Their failure would have had much smaller consequences to the financial system, and it would have sent a system to everyone else to get their house in order, because they were running short on time.”

The conversation transitioned into a discussion of the current economic crisis and the risks our economy faces today. Nocera explained his take on the current crisis, suggesting that because we cannot control how potential economic problems in other countries may affect us, we must shift our focus to things we can control. However, Nocera noted, extreme partisanship is getting in the way of creating solutions to our economic problems. “What’s interesting,” Nocera noted, “is that this is exactly what the Common Good stands for, encouraging civil discussions between Democrats and Republicans.”

Looking to the future, both speakers agreed the most important thing for the country is to rejuvenate the economy. A booming economy will lead to a decrease in the debt. Whether this starts with a stabilized housing policy, or a government stimulus program is unknown, but Zuckerman and Nocera agreed that the economy is the crucial first step.

As the debt ceiling deadline approaches, politicians are facing the realities of the recent economic crisis, causing enormous party tensions between Republicans and Democrats. Talks between President Obama and congressional Republicans have grown increasingly partisan, frustrating the public and detracting from the importance of the decision at hand.

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Breakfast Briefing with Ambassador Alon Pinkas

The Common Good and J-Street co-hosted the next installment of our summer Middle East Briefing Series. A Conversation with Ambassador Alon Pinkas. Ambassador Pinkas spoke about the a two-state solution option in light of the upcoming UN vote on Palestinian statehood and addressed: What should leaders do in advance of a likely September vote at the UN on Palestinian statehood? How do the dynamics of the Arab Spring affect Israel’s prospects for peace and security? Does the planned reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas make a peace deal with Israel more or less feasible?

Ambassador Alon Pinkas: From 2000 to 2004, Ambassador Alon Pinkas was Consul General of Israel supplying services to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. In addition, he served as Chief of Staff to both Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami in 2000 and Foreign Minister David Levy from 1999 to 2000. Ambassador Pinkas was also the Foreign Policy Advisor to Ehud Barak in 1996 to 1999, when Barak was Chairman of the Labor party and the Opposition, and in 1995 to 1996 when Barak was a member of the delegation to the Middle East Economic Conference in Paris, France. He was Foreign Policy Advisor to then Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres from 1991 to 1992. In addition to his government service, Mr. Pinkas is an experienced journalist. He was the Chief Military and Defense correspondent for the Jerusalem Post and Chief Diplomatic Correspondent for Ma’ariv, a Hebrew language daily newspaper. He is a frequent commentator on US affairs in Israeli media and is a FOX News contributor on the Middle East and International Affairs.

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Meet & Greet: MP Philipp Missfelder

The Common Good hosted an in depth conversation with MP Philipp Missfelder which focused on policy issues including health care, social security and fiscal responsibility, the economy and the environment, the Middle East, European security and the expansion of the German military as well as its foreign affairs.

Philipp Missfelder was a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) since 1995 and had been targeted as an up and comer in European and international politics. He has served as the leader of the largest German youth organization, the Junge Union (JU), of which he has been a member since 1993. Seen as a real-world politician with a “no holds barred” attitude, he stated in the Bundestag: “We cannot act as though we can paint the world pink and everything will be O.K…. We are a grown-up country and must define our policies through strategic interests.”

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Social Media, Politics and Change

We co-hosted a panel on Social Media, Politics and Change with a coalition of local political groups including Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century, New York Young Republicans and PolicyMic.com moderated by Ari Melber of The Nation & MSNBC. Panelist include: Ron Agam, photographer and creator of social media movements; Ben Smith, writer and contributor for Politico.com; and Barnett Zitron, WhyTuesday.com & YouTube sensation.

Ari Melber is a correspondent for “The Nation” magazine, the oldest political weekly in America, a writer for the magazine’s blog, a columnist for “Politico”, and an attorney. As a commentator on public affairs, Melber frequently appears on national television, including NBC, CNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC, FOX News and Bloomberg News; his views have been quoted by publications such as “The Washington Post”, “The New York Times” and “Time”, among others. During the 2008 presidential election, Melber traveled with the Obama Campaign on special assignment for “The Washington Independent”. Previously, he served as a Legislative Aide in the U.S. Senate and as a national staff member of the 2004 John Kerry Presidential Campaign.

Ron Agam is a French-Israeli photographer who is currently based in New York but travels widely in pursuit of his work. His photographs have been widely exhibited and published in numerous newspapers and magazines such as “Newsweek” and “Time”, as well as books in Israel, South America and the United States. In 2009, Ron Agam created the largest and most dynamic page of support for Iran on the Internet, “100 Million Facebook Members for Democracy in Iran”. People from all denominations joined his page in solidarity with the Iranian people struggling for their freedom.

Ben Smith writes a blog about national politics for “Politico”. During the 2008 presidential campaign, he covered the Democratic primary. Before joining “Politico”, he was a political columnist for the “New York Daily News” and in 2005 and 2006 started three of New York City’s leading political blogs, “The Politicker”, “The Daily Politics” and “Room Eight”, for which he still writes occasionally about the New York scene.

Barnett Zitron is a native New Yorker. He is a graduate of the Horace Mann School and New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where he studied City Planning and the built environment. After completing his undergraduate education, Zitron enrolled in the Introduction to Architecture Program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation, and Planning, and began working at the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation, a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation. Simultaneously, Zitron reinvigorated and re-launched Why Tuesday? as the nation’s premier video blog for election-related content. Zitron also serves as Executive Director of the Ultimate College Bowl, an unprecedented effort conceived by Why Tuesday? to register every eligible US college student to vote in the 2008 elections.

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New York Premiere of “Life in a Day”

The Common Good in partnership with National Geographic Entertainment presented the New York premiere of this unique documentary film that captures the experience of the global community on a single day.

“Life in a Day”, directed by Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald and produced by Ridley Scott, used thousands of clips from YouTube users around the world, all shot on July 24, 2010 at 7:00pm. This first-of-its-kind documentary was an official selection at the Sundance, Berlin and SXSW Film Festivals earlier this year.

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Middle East Briefing with Amir Peretz

We were pleased to invite MK Amir Peretz to join us for breakfast and a timely conversation about the Middle East. Peretz discussed the peace process and Middle Eastern security, his leadership of the Labor party, the political reality on the ground in Israel, as well as a variety of other topics in current international affairs.

Amir Peretz was born in Morocco in 1952 and immigrated to Israel in 1956. He served in the IDF as a munitions officer in a paratroopers division, leaving with the rank of captain. Peretz ran for mayor of Sderot on behalf of the Labor Party in 1983, and at the age of 30 won his first election, serving for five years. In 1995 Peretz was chosen Chairman of the Histadrut Labor Federation and was voted in by a large majority once again three years later.

As a Member of Knesset since 1988, Peretz has served on the Foreign Affairs and Defense, Labor and Welfare, Constitution, Law and Justice, as well as the House Committees, the Committees on the Status of Women and Foreign Workers and the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee on Social Disparity. Peretz established the Am Ehad (“One Nation”) party in preparation for elections for the 15th Knesset in 1999. In 2004, Am Ehad was reunified with Labor, and in November 2005 Peretz was elected Chairman of the Labor Party. Peretz also served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense from May 2006 until June 2007.

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Meet & Greet with Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-NV)

The Common Good hosted a breakfast discussion with seventh term Congresswoman Shelley Berkley of Nevada’s First Congressional District. The Congresswoman spoke passionately about hot button issues facing our country today. The discussion was preempted by Congresswoman Berkley who spoke eloquently about her life with a brief but important depiction of her childhood in a family whose financial woes forced them to move from her home in New York to her current home, and district, of Las Vegas.

Throughout the conversation the Congresswoman spoke about her hopes to make changes that will provide opportunities for future generations of Americans. She conveyed understanding that people are struggling today and stated “If our civilians aren’t feeling relief from Washington, we are not doing our job right, and that is my greatest concern.” The Congresswoman touched on the struggles of many different groups including the elderly, the unemployed, and war veterans. She also discussed the need for support programs that provide the support these people need.

Next the Congresswoman highlighted education as an important issue. She stated “as a nation, we need to be progressive. We must move ourselves forward. We can do this by focusing on education reform.” By making changes in education the Congresswoman feels that we are building a foundation for the future of our country. In the same manner the Congresswoman conveyed the importance of renewable energy not only for the environment but also to create foundations for new job markets. “The Hoover dam was built during the depression and now it generates power for millions. We need to invest in ourselves” specified the Congresswomen.

The discussion concluded with Congresswoman Berkley touching on her decision to leave her current position as a member of the House and run for a Senatorial position. She described a situation in which one of her colleagues rattled off incorrect facts on the House floor in regards to Planned Parenthood. When later questioned his office replied that the comments he made were not meant to be factual. This incident inspired the Congresswoman to do more. In her words “Something is going on here that is not savory. It is not democratic. It is not American.” To her these injustices have given her a goal. The Congresswoman mentioned that she is not confident that she will win the election but she is willing to try in hopes that she will have a chance to make the changes she finds necessary.

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Middle East Regional Security Issues with Dr. Landau

The Common Good hosted Dr. Emily Landau for a discussion about regional security issues in the Middle East. Dr. Landau focused on the global implications of nuclear developments in Iran. She lamented that current U.S. strategies do not reflect the urgency of the issue, potentially undermining negotiation efforts. “Iran must believe that if they don’t negotiate seriously, there will be consequences,” Dr. Landau emphasized. So long as the unequal negotiating situation persists, negotiations are merely a way for Iran to gain valuable time to push their program forward, not to reach a settlement.

Dr. Landau rejected Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s denial of the nuclear program’s military ties, citing the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) actions to prevent public reports about the existence of a secret annex for political reasons, perhaps out of fear that such information might provoke Israel to take military action. Iran does not currently have the technology to enrich uranium to the level necessary to use it for civilian purposes, discrediting Iran’s claim that this is the objective of their nuclear program.

Tactics to prevent Iran from completing a nuclear bomb can only succeed by applying massive pressure on Iran. “That means sanctions and a credible threat of military force,” Dr. Landau said. “Saying that military action would be a disaster is undermining your own credibility,” and discounting military action as an option discourages Iran from taking negotiations seriously.

The fundamental solution proposed by Dr. Landau proposed is regime change, not just governmental change. The U.S. has a strong interest in providing more extensive support to protesters. “Those kinds of protests are the things that bring about regime change.” Although relations with Iran are complex, Dr. Landau emphasized her belief that through a combination of sanctions, support for protestors, and a credible threat of military action, the United States could reestablish viable grounds for negotiation with Iran.

Dr. Landau has published and lectured extensively on regional security in the Middle East, Israeli-Egyptian relations and the Iranian nuclear challenge. Her current research focuses on regional dynamics and processes in the Middle East and developments in arms control thinking on nuclear proliferation, including implications of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

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