I have long concluded that the Arab Peace Initiative (API) offers the best framework for making genuine progress towards resolving the decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict. Now is the time to take concrete action to use the framework of the API to promote that goal. It is my intention to support a conference to that purpose that the Royal United Services Institute is initiating.

By bringing together academics, current and former government officials, and business people from Israel, the Arab Nations, as well as from the USA, the EU, and other countries, the conference on the API can mobilise the collective power of thousands of interested and well connected civil society advocates with an interest in Arab-Israeli peace. It can act as a catalyst for a worldwide effort on behalf of the API and change the dynamic of Middle East peace diplomacy from distrustful stalemate towards productive negotiation.

In staging the conference it will be crucial to ensure that participants are committed not to use it as a platform for rehashing old accusations which would perpetuate the too familiar and counter-productive spiral of recrimination which sadly often prevents rational discussion on the peace process. Focus must be strictly maintained on the merits of the API and what it can offer for the future of Arab-Israeli relations. Accentuating the positive possibilities opened up by the API is the way to promote it to both the Israeli and Arab publics.

With that in mind it is crucial that conference participants, regardless of their background, accept the API as a prerequisite basis upon which to build a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace By using panel discussions to address a range of issues pertaining to Arab-Israeli relations within the framework set out by the API the conference can demonstrate both to its participants and the wider audience that the API offers sufficient means to resolve the issues which continue to divide Arab and Israeli opinion.

It will be important that the conference does not become just another talking shop with fine words which are quickly forgotten once the pomp of the occasion has receded. Therefore the conference must set out clear, achievable goals: realistic measures in which the peace process can be promoted and the impetus of the conference maintained.

The conference will not be an end in itself. Government negotiation and formal treaties will inevitably be required to turn the API into concrete form, but the conference can provide the momentum for such progress if it is followed by coherent and practical activities. These might be working groups formed by the participants in their home countries to continue the dialogue and public relations work. These might be follow up conferences hosted by other institutions committed to the API throughout the Middle East and elsewhere.

A well-run centrally organised public relations campaign should also follow through the conference materials and website, and both new and old media should be used to carry journalism and opinion promoting the API. These public relations efforts will carry on the momentum to allow more engagement with top officials, both Arab and Israeli, and further lobbying of interested parties in the US, the EU and beyond to bring the API to the forefront of the agenda. The conference can create a movement of people committed to the goals and possibilities opened up by the API. The potential of such a movement to effect transformative change is very exciting indeed.