The 2012 Dole Lecture: Senator George Mitchell - Encore

on the dole institute of politics at the university of kansas keep your prisons federal lands are with senator george mitchell i'm kate mcintyre george mitchell has had a long and distinguished career in public service including fifteen years in the us senate six of those as senate majority leader in two thousand seven he joined with senator bob dole and others to create the bipartisan policy center a think tank based in washington dc he was the lead investigator into so called mitchell reports one on the arab israeli conflict or the other on performance enhancing drugs in baseball most recently he served as us special envoy for middle east peace mitchell spoke with jill institute director bill lacy on april fourth two thousand twelve senator welcome to the dole institute university of kansas can we start out tonight by asking you to talk a little bit about your upbringing your education and what planted the seed of real intense interest in public service for you

i would do that the first i want to say that like millions of other americans on monday evening i watched it i'm happy with my own son and i knew i was coming up i didn't have to pick a rooting interest i must confess the university of maine that's never made it to the ncaa but i knew i was coming years was rooting for kansas my son's rooting for kentucky and then he prevailed no but yeah i have to say that kansas as a fabulous tradition investors are really really great and a great team this year but also i think a great university that has a much broader respect for your educational and other achievements so surreal honestly to be here in that respect and of course a tremendous personal pleasure to be here that goes to the top and i had been good friends are good friends

and i look for talking about him somewhat more like myself i grew up in a small town in maine it's just fear for racial laws would be by far the biggest city in maine if it existed and i think you've got a rural state of maine is what will rural small towns my father's parents were born in ireland he was born in boston but never knew his parents he was orphaned at an early age and spent several years in an orphanage is ultimately adopted by an elderly couple from maine and that's how he happened to be there he had no education and he worked as a laborer most of his wife ended up as a janitor a local college my mother was an immigrant from lebanon she came at the age of eighteen to visit her sister were preceded her in immigration than she had no education a mother could not read or write just barely can speak english and that it turned out and it in a funny way

that might occur is that they happen to end up living their families were living next to each other in the small town so they met married in one of five children but like many americans of that era their whole goal was assimilation into american life and education for the children that they never received so every one of their five children went on to get a college education and several of us got received graduate degrees as well so it was a small town and it and you asked about politics it was a complete accident that i got involved in politics i really didn't have any particular interest in it after college i went to a small college in maine boat in college basketball of my three older brothers were very prominent basketball players in maine and while moore and when one of our brothers that although england in college

and then i came along and i was not as good as my brothers in fact i was not as good as anybody else's brother and so at a very early age i became known around on small town is joni mitchell skid row the one wasn't any good at it might expect i developed at a massive inferiority complex but also a highly competitive added to put my brothers which has continued to this day and since i could now doomed in sports a result of doom some way and mr kenneth was the greatest day of my life people think well peace in northern ireland senate majority leader some like that grace day of my life was when i first won election to the senate i recently was appointed to complete an unexpired term and i was like and i would hope that the traditional event at a local hotel on election night and i spoke and the next day

the portland paper that's the big city in maine had a huge picture on the front page of me with my brother john he draped all over me at the microphone are where there's a camera he appears i envied be a caption in the paper said senator george mitchell celebrating his upset victory being cheered on unidentified group i had the kids are blown out he visits here and i sent it to it as i one of appearances it was the pictures he says ups is in the attic and romano's so you know we're going to great time and after college i went in to the army has served two years in the us army and then i

want the law school at the georgetown i went at night i worked days full time and my goal was to return to maine to practice law i follow politics i was in interested observant and i've voted but i had no thought whatsoever that they're getting into politics and above that i had very grave moscow although it did quite well i couldn't get a job a law firm in maine times were tough when there was at that time the search didn't associate with going to law school and an evening the night program as opposed to full time so i got a job in the department of justice i had done well in law school and the something called the justice department on his program which exist to this day they offer positions to the top students in a number of law schools in the country but i wanted to but the main practice law in at a couple years i got a phone call one day from law center must be who was one of things to senators he was

working for the system he had married a woman from my hometown in maine and she had gone to school with my brothers and so you know to me but you know my brothers and the walkley but even know me and as the interest in coming upon interviewing for a position and i'll answer a fight with them i said i really don't have the interest in politics but i want to back the main practice loyalty to a few commit to stay through the next election which is about three years away that's fine with me i said ok so i went and sure enough a week after i think the governor's office i get offered a position in a practical course i couldn't take it i said look at me that commitment but i think for the job was joe they're forming in a small law firm and maine and i went back but by then i get interested three years working for senate a musky my life was very different than as we all know senate stats were

much smaller i did a whole lot of things wrong including driving a moral maine so when he was traveling in the state and i i learned a lot from him admire greatly but i can to get the bug so that drone back to maine to practice law the maine democratic party then was shall we say not a strong institution and then the chairman was retiring he couldn't find anyone to take its place the center must commit such a joy to be chairman of the maine democratic party they're on the back here but two months wasn't really chairman of sidestep that in that and it got me into the political process completely baxter thanks so much whether we're truly great legislators and and a great friend and hero of mine and mohsen a tremendous honor to do to follow him because he was such a legend could be elected to that seeing her own right and then to be elected senate majority leader now he worked all kinds of landmark legislation while you're in the

us senate i just want to ask you to talk about some of those things were be the americans with disabilities act or the free trade the nafta free trade agreement what one of the things that is you think about what went on in those years that were most important to you well the americans with disabilities act of course was bob dole's was an effort in which he played principal leadership role and it was a truly inspirational i didn't and nobody really well before i became center of an idea i was elected majority leader while it was still in my first full term to have been a very long and christian ago was already a legend so but i didn't get interested in the american's disabilities act and work the hunt says supporting role to senator go our there weren't there was a lot of legislation that i was able to do the low income tax

credit was critical importance of providing housing for low income people in our country in the past two decades and says blas into something far beyond what i thought would be originally have anybody's ever heard of but opponents have a tangible and a real positive effect the clean air act was a major major took years to do it with a tremendous and difficult effort we accomplished and i think i did some good with that higher education was an area that i get a lot of work and when franklin roosevelt signed into law the gi bill about four percent of americans had received four year college degree as a consequence of that and one today about twenty five to thirty percent of americans have fully degrees

and the evidence is literally overwhelming that the high ones education the greater the income one receives a life right at this moment a very tough times in our society the unemployment rate among person to have for your cause resist three percent among those with a high school degree nine percent and among those lack even a high school education sixteen percent and as every every study has shown incomes are much greater and the personal satisfaction is much greater on average don't mean every single individual with education so i did a lot of work in education i was very lucky very lucky to have received a college education myself and who let me interrupt to lead story because it was speaking out university in most people here or your hair or have some interest in higher education my

father lost his job my senior in high school at least three brothers were offered college ball on athletic scholarships festivals cultures and i was very young of time i was sixteen when i graduate high school string weight insecurities and the strong feelings of interior and we had no there was no prospect of my going to college one day my father said to me that the man who had been his boss his superior at the last of the head i had called him one of the singing it was just far as what is a one of us that i don't know he said that it would be a boy not to so i think you should go it was a very difficult time my father was in a downward spiral lacking self esteem and unemployment have a devastating effect on the ocean we get a job as a janitor or a college

and work miracles you think he was president of a college he was so happy to have the job that to that difficult time falling asleep business of art that never mattered and he said to me what you're thinking about college and i said well i i don't think i can do it i said because he was aware of my father had lost his job the division it worked and it closed down he said well how bubble and i said to him thought of my son said to him well that's there's no possibility either going to vote that's a very fine small college in maine and cookies hear from both and when we get one vote manager for others but then it was all male literally bought the damage to things and i never imagined that i could ever go to vote this fall to lead on that and he

said i know all about to use it and i think you should go in fact he said i've made an appointment for you with the director of admissions next week news of brunswick maine about fifty miles from our let my parents know the car so early in the morning and appointed a one o'clock seven o'clock morning air when a pack of brown paper bag lunch for me i walk across our town to the highway and kitchen brooms the first filing came along pick me up a very nice guy when i told my story to the right to the campus i get that five hours for my vote episodes that would give the waiter i memorized the name and location of every building which i've never forgotten so another that was on the campus and then i went and says director wonderful man named bill shot and often remembers and he said i talked to me like a father and high price he said would you like to come to vote yes of

course but i haven't and the money my parents had one he said you willing to work and i had played basketball in high school and while there was not an athletic play something that had some role in that and said well if you will of the work will take i had even applied year and then i've never forgotten that mean you were to a man who i didn't know who had only the interests of hope and you know i'd done pretty well in school and but it left a profound impression and so higher education is all about a lot to him and i think in the end i'm not just my work on that bill but when i left the senate i credit scholarship program in nathan ed students and now we give out of good scholarship each year to graduate from every public high school and a hundred thirty two of them we give my we've

now distributed going on ten million dollar nine million dollars to about two thousand students and the vast majority of them of the first member of their family ever going to college but for human bone and so i think that's probably the most significant they're not your words that i would share with the audience that actually someone from the mitchell institute and the scholarship fund helped us devising little scholarship program that we run yourself thank you for help you know i was aware of it because every year we have a big function in a fundraising banquet and i always try to get a prominent speaker and bob came up when and so any spoke of course it was great the unfortunate part is every speaker since people say well he's no dough

as you will know but we when i asked him to come he wanted to know about the event and i describe what we were doing and he did say that he was interested in would take some of the ideas it because we must officially dead now we could talk what the challenges that i have and in a situation like this is the center's careers so interesting that you had a chance to ask questions were you think adam allow gaps but i wanted a little bit ahead of your career the late nineties when he served as independent chairman of the northern ireland peace talks tell us the significance of the good friday agreement and how what all was involved in making that happen that depending upon where you wanna begin the conflict in ireland as you know seventy five or two hundred or eight years old on tuesday it's back to that period

and the tall century when britain began its domination of our end and controlled island for nearly eight hundred years and now in the aftermath of the first world war that there were a series of violent uprisings in ireland as say irish people sought their independence and it culminated in a brief war which was bloody butcher work in nineteen twenty one and that resulted in an agreement which established the morton independent state of art but because in the northern part of the country they had been settlement primarily from scotland of people who were protestant as opposed to the majority of harlem who are catholics there was a feeling that they could not be accepted they would did not want to become part of

and so a so called commission was set up and set up a temporary what was described as a temporary border and became prominent as we all know so beginning in nineteen twenty two you have a republic of ireland on twenty six out of thirty two counties on the island of ireland and the northern part which of six counties remain part of the united kingdom in union with england scotland and wales and the protestant majority didn't back enact legislation it was discriminatory and so you had a period in which there was the absence of quality in education jobs housing and a whole host of hers and you had this periodic eruptions of violence in iraq in northern ireland by irish nationalist predominantly catholic to make a violin maker island a united whole

and two more the northern ireland from the united kingdom that's a very thumbnail sketch of the background in the late nineteen sixties spock in fact by the sole rights movement in the united states that they still write what began in northern ireland on the part of the minority and i quickly like to violence and so in nineteen seventy two the british government does all the northern ireland dublin and we assumed direct control of northern ireland by the national government the violence continued as going over about twenty five or thirty years thousands of people killed tens of thousands were horribly and brutally maimed on both sides are very very violent place in nineteen ninety four after i had said i was going to retire and senate president clinton asked reviled go to northern island as his representative initially and i'm in a relatively brief role to organize an

effort to create investment within traded know violent and give him any effort he's and i went and then the bridge club and asked me to do a couple of assignments on some politically complex issues there i did that and a report which i'm a title the mitchell report became the basis for negotiations and also the prime ministers of britain ireland called me and basically said well your report is a template for discussion would like to cheer the negotiations i recall a negotiation started in june they call me in may and i said to john major the prime minister of uk you know and you think it would take the cbo my christmas three minute cancellation isn't an episode with you so i was there five years who is a very very difficult time i got a lot of violence but ultimately we were able to get almost

everybody into the process the violence continued but at ut at a reduced level during the talks you know completely stopped but it wasn't the intense constant killing that had been going on before and the political leaders of all time i'd say ordinary many women dislike people is wrong just like another couple state legislators in just like the state legislature's these are men and women who have been in conflict their entire lives so the two delegates to the tarps were assassinated during a drought so than had been shot so the mets the presenters for violent acts murder bombing assassination and yet at a crucial moment in the nation's history under intense pressure and criticism from

hardliners on both sides who regarded any compromise as a surrender or a sign of weakness or absence of conviction to actually region nonetheless these monroe's occasion and signed a peace agreement it costs several of them their careers but they brought peace to the country and i was just there about two weeks ago and it is the most incredible and remarkable transition i've ever experienced in my life heavy military presence is all over the place the tanks the armored carriers gone other checkpoints now when you drive between the country a violent and all around you don't know that you crossed the border until you notice the signs miles in the north kilometers in the south until a way i have of knowing that you cross the border it is just wonderful to see end there are just very impressive people get in hoge an

aggressive they are quarrelsome and they still it still a deeply segregated society but the killing isn't and the discrimination is at an end in a generation or two i think genuine reconciliation comes so i feel a great sense of personal and emotional interest in that and it also benefited me my father's parents were from iraq but as i said earlier he was adopted by a couple was virus i never once heard him say the world and were very poor have either never went anywhere we do not occur so i had no sense of my research i'm going back and now i've got all kinds of thousands of rodents the resistance that we claim to be like how when i go there and i just love the place i'm sure some people here are our shared agenda

beyond their initials to create a great experience the snow didn't get from point a worldview served both president clinton and president obama as a special envoy to police what are the prospects for peace in the middle east what's the best we can expect the prospects at the moment how are not great but i believe that they will be a resolution the conflict between israelis and palestinians primarily because i think it's so much in their self interest to do so there is now a wall which has created a false sense of security on both sides but if history's any guide it won't wash and while they will endure but to go the political leadership intense pain on all sides if they negotiate an agreement because there are very strong minorities on both sides who are intensely

opposed to any kind of concession will end their groups who was speaking in here right away from god so it's hard to persuade people with facts and water when they getting there direct orders from on high in an argument that's logical and persuasive than normal circumstances doesn't work in those circumstances so it's very tough on the political leaders but i believe that if they don't reach agreement the pain is going to be much much worse were so much worse and the possibility of god for bid but nonetheless based on history as possible and of an outbreak of violence that could in the complex circumstances the middle east explode in ways that no one can foresee it's a very difficult competitive situation a couple months ago i spoke

at an irish american event in new york about a thousand people there and i said to them that i was about to make a statement that i never dreamed possible until now that that is that after two unhappy is dealing with the israelis and the arabs the irish were really easy the tire iron a fight is either north night but nothing could be worse in those forces i go along with the deal but i'll spare the audience at all if someone wants to repeat your but israelis face a very grave for a very grave threat these issues are not resolved to their existence and palestinians face the prospect of another sixty years bart patient and the absence of the dignity that comes with self governance and a lot worse too and i i i just have to believe that at some point they're going to come together with one of the principal motives of the leaders in northern

ireland when they signed an agreement was their fear of what would happen if it was known everybody understood that if that process failed there would be an immediate outbreak of conflict and that it would be far more widespread and far more destructive than prior conflicts the whole history the whole history of human beings is the development and rapid dissemination of weapons and it is the increasing capacity of humans to kill other humans with very little in the way of resources and manpower they wanted to people are probably motivated without a water resources can kill large numbers of other human beings no and and that fear of an outbreak of violence was a powerful factor along with others compelling leaders of more violent region greenwich all of the state and i think the same riesling well

tilly apply a little bit because it's going to be very difficult for both israel and the palestinians if they don't reach you served with a number of us senators and you created after your careers in the us senate the bipartisan policy center with similar battles in both senator baker two republicans two democrats is that the idea of providing bipartisan solutions to serious national problem talk a little bit about what you tried to do with technology but also talk about why we've gone from a senate where people try to find a middle ground and tried to work together the one where there seemed to be very little interest on both sides of these days let me take the opportunity to begin to develop or go when i was elected senate majority leader one of the first person i want to see the circle i've been in the senate for a relatively short period time us just concluded my first

full term i've seen enough to know the difficult task was a knight serves on the finance committee with several was chairman we're so i i knew him not well but from truman to the number twenty thousand inmates to challenge him on the first day and i said to him barbara said what i've seen these jobs majority minority leader are very difficult in the best of circumstances and damn near impossible in the worst of circumstances and i said to him that i'd like if you and i if you willing to read just a basic set of how will conduct ourselves with a job writing a handshake and look in the eye a very simple i said i'll never surprised and never try to embarrass always tell you what we're going to give you

time to think about how you want to respond i've never ever this represented a few things like that he was not only willing he was in and we shook hands and i'm proud to say and i've said this many times not just here in lawrence kansas that to this moment bob dylan i have never had a harsh word past contests in public or in private we disagreed almost every day on legislation but it was then we had a long and difficult negotiations you know enough about senator how hard it is and yet we're good friends we remained good friends i go to see you might go to washington on a regular basis and so we had dinner a couple times we talk about our problems candidly and we kept that worked

and so it is possible to conduct business that is much more difficult now the circumstances change i would hope that if we were there now we could do what we did fifteen years ago but i'm not sure because it has gotten much much more partisan and much more difficult it is important say a couple things about the first of establish the context i'm not in my view human beings looked at the path with rose colored glasses it always seems better than a really was they look to the future with blinders it always seems like it's going to be worse than it really does happen then there was a time in american life one american politics was peaches and cream rosie and buddy buddy unfriendly in the absence of partisanship or defective of criticism go back and re jefferson's campaigns in a tremendous personal hostility

in the john adams go back and read about what was said about lincoln yuko a ballot and that was without the impact of coal imagine if some of the things that was said about lincoln will put on innovative television programs like the greatest men of history roosevelt soto's been tough it's gotten really bad now i think for a number of reasons are not a political scientist alive i don't report to have the answer but i'll mention just a couple of reasons i think first is we all benefit from more than technology computers have changed our lives mostly for the good but so the uses to which they're put have unintended consequences as a result gerrymandering in the united states today is a science and it's done by by straight by block

by house because of the presence of computers and it is far more effective and eldridge variable thought possible when he started this in massachusetts a couple hundred years ago and as a consequence in this fall's election of a foreigner and thirty five seats in the house of representatives only about a fifth of them around seventy will be truly competitive the seats of a gerrymandered in a way that offers of them the outcome is known in advance of yours republican district are democrats there's no as a consequence the pivotal point in american politics is moving from the general election the primary election and the nominating process though we all know that and we have such a perfect level of the displays in this country are voting in presidential election years about fifty percent of eligible voters to speak in congressional elections about a third and in primaries a small fraction of that

and so what's happened is that in both parties the activists in your arms most feel more strongly about the pressures of driving prices were they represent a minority on both sides they represent a much bigger proportion in the nominating process because it was displayed in the nominating process ms rizzo the candidates are driven more and more to the exchange then when they get elected that way the second factor the house representative house is a much bigger body and so you have to have a greater degree of centralized control like a punctured one consequence of that is that the minority doesn't matter in how the majority runs the show they don't need any of them an artist you can keep the members the majority with us and as the speaker we don't even a part of my heart the house has always been for that reason more partisan than the senate when the

senate you need sixty votes and rarely in more than history has one party had sixteen more gold so you always need the other side to do anything to bring up a bill that might pass a bill to bring up the bill needs that members of minority but in recent years more and more house members have been elected to the senate and rather than they adapting to the mores of the senate they have brought with them the mores of the house so the senate now has become a far more partisan and you want to really on both sides and a third factor i would robert maginnis money it's a blip on between the citizenry and the elected officials the bond of trouble on which democracy is based has been

separate fiat this audience here how many of you believe at the elected members of congress are more responsive to their constituents then to their contributors razor i guess i question all across america and is now even assuming that there is no one to influence that perception as several of the bond of trust in our society and the system is awash overwhelmed with my one time when our cemetery or at a meeting of center and i took a big i took of wannabes block counters and i had a blown up ten times the size of this and was mostly all black out and there were a couple of slivers of white and i generally to make a point i said to

them every morning when i arrived at my office as sentiment earlier before i get there i have fifteen phone calls from senators and they're also i don't have a vote at noon because i'm having a fundraising like you don't ever gone to one because a member of the farmers don't have a voter to so i said to them you see these white smokers i said if i agree on her every request you have made not to have a vote because of a fundraiser the only time we could vote is tuesday morning between two in the morning before the war it was an exaggeration that was fifteen years ago it's ten times worse in some parts of it were where it can the ad that absolutely incredible supreme court decisions citizens vs unite

which is that so these vast sums of money with no accountability responsibility decision it's based on a fantasy it's literally based on offensive get there it was getting worse and worse and worse and i don't think he can be changed except by the american people there's going to come a time when her skin color and the people of this country will rise up and here is my it is my dream what is based on reality although i don't know what'll happen us about legislation ryan acting when i went to the senate i was surprised to learn that there was not any law or regulation in the united states dealing with the issue of oil spills off our coast not it's all happen that

maybe was one of few states that have to import a lot of oil and so there was a state law which basically was very simple way to inhabit the state set up a process of preparing in case there was a spill so you wanted to stop and scratch equipment and so forth was place that the hopper and so that if the spill occurred in the critical first hours you could get right out and do it and it goes the bill to have a national mall when i first went to the site i couldn't get to first base the administration was opposed auto companies were opposed to it not really it was too much regulation so i couldn't get a hearing on the bill an inherent nine years earl and then one tragic day the exxon valdez ran aground in prince william sound and within sixty days the president at a

signing ceremony on his great new law that we had just come to discover might be useful now nine years ago to get a hearing in and without my doing anything the bill passed and sixty days because people walk up and saw that not only is this a possibility this could happen so now the spill occurred is as we now see they do there is at least a process in place there's equipment in place and the damage as tarek good as it is it's far less than it otherwise would be because the containment and begin a meeting and i think is going to end up i don't know what the scandal i don't know what would take the rose the american people but i think it's going to happen and that it will change ok i'm going to open up your questions and answers one more question on my pal question sir for your release this interval of people may not know this but he is still creating his legacy every cent every saturday afternoon when he's up to it he

goes to war to the moral duty honor why he's going to be at nine years old but if you had to define his legacy just in the united states senate how would you define all i think is pretty widespread recognition that senegal was one of the greatest and most effective legislators in our nation's history reality is that the vast majority of members of congress go there i've just been actively in the wrong way but don't leave an imprint legislating is very hard work very hard work it takes intense commitment one time consuming and it's highly personal senate ago was good at it and i don't know as i said as a leader for six years anne

of all of the members of congress of both parties in both houses and about when he had the best in a sense of where the right middle ground laws he he wasn't he didn't write bills and i'm sure we did read a lot of bills but he had just had a good common sense the good intuition a very good understanding of all of the members of the senate and in dealing with them better than anyone ever know if he could figure out his own way way you might be able to find common ground here where the difficulties were were the pitfalls order and avoid it was eight i'm not sure the basis of a church rises out of his own background in some way but he was a master of

that and it was recognized that that and we i probably spent what time negotiated directly with them than anyone else other than other democratic leaders because they're in the senate have to negotiate how uganda which then to do every day and it really was a question the way as i said we really disagree the law not a lot but he he had a good sense and even though he was a very experienced well known national figure and i really was as close to a nobody as you can get and become senate majority leader he never once acted in any year condescending or a difficultly we were friends from the first date to the last day and we're friends since i was i would like to tell one story he was also a great master

at what i call the stage whisper the kind favor of an opinion that my piano players know it's time to get the thing moving and i think there's several times and one of the most notable was a thanksgiving of nineteen eighty president bush called senate bill on it and they asked us if we would go to saudi arabia to spend thanksgiving with the troops who were then poised to invade iraq which they did the following month airport to to expel the run from kuwait so we agreed and we went bold myself tom foley and bob michael who was the republican leader we had a long trip along day we hadn't slept for about twenty four hours and we got a message that the king is it arabia would like them even less way on the other side a senator and i was scheduled

to two go back to the region and a monster made with a king so i voted no i said look at all around coming back as eli well we're all thai royal filled with dust and dirt well jo ann foley and michael out for the three one so i said ok we'll go solely for crossover appeal when silicon was about midnight we hadn't slept for about thirty hours and king seated at a desk like mayor and we're on the roll along without fully first the second rolex to moderate than mike so things that tell us what's happening and it's quite noticeable he hadn't given proper he says one sentence about ten words and interpret speaks well for seven eight ten minutes i knew cary obviously assumed tell mobile money was

that was a man interpreter was big event and tell about the time i spoke with a sunday interview speak for fifteen minutes now the things draining on an hour two hours we've fully was just about asleep i was trying this he'd look at the king so somebody would be paying attention bob michel with long gone ga today then the saudi ambassador us spoke perfect english was seated come across some us a few feet away so i was usually the foil football stage whispers those who pretend to talk to me while addressing others has happened a lot the white house and other places bowl is over me and says in a voice loud enough for one room here how long you think this is going to go on camera

really tired with another thirty our past and jumped up like somebody had shot him in the rear jump out of riskier but still leaking set of the king though his patients that thank you all very much and i feel that way that i don't know i said i forgive you for insisting that we go because you get us out of their way as an example he was terrific in that he really was used the best stage whisper that among many other and when the new york and let's open up to your questions of mansions well question right here will get worse i i would like to take you when you're kind of her about speaking a bit more about the middle east peace process and i was wondering if you thought the recent

tensions between israel iran hetzer to push the palestinian question to the back burner and i'll see you mention the analogy of hardliners within the northern ireland peace process if you transfer that over to the middle east peace process how do negotiations proceed with hardliners on both sides as you mentioned that religion being an important aspect and also with the added cost wednesday will of the two state solution as opposed to another hour imperfect it was always probably going to be that the netherlands could remember the uk think yes all the situation in the middle east is more complex and difficult that it was a mortal because there are more issues more conflicts among them there is a war on in northern ireland run is a huge factor in the middle east long and historic that enmity between persians an hour between sunni and shia that's a conflict that dates back to the founding of his life that it could really originates in the competition to succeed the prophet

muhammad when he died and it kick waxes and wanes but it's still a very important part all the conflict there not to mention arabs and israelis are competing for the same land area so iran it is a critical issue in a sense in another sense many of the iraq including the gulf arab societies and others have in my judgment come to a belated recognition first that has roots thursday and whether i like it or not it's not going away for the miners will come to grips with an accommodation and secondly that the real threat comes from iran and they would be far better off if it were an israeli palestinian agreement and an israeli arab records have not full reconciliation but

full recognition of each other to enable them to organize in a united way against the threat that iran poses to the region to expand on what i said earlier the threats people say to me well israel doesn't have any problems it's overwhelmingly dominant militarily and very few people are being killed so imagine judge to approve the first is demographics in the area between detroit river and the mediterranean sea they're approximately five million eight hundred thousand jews in the same area there are about five million three hundred thousand hours if you count the israeli arabs palestinians in the west

bank and gaza the birthrates a dramatically different and very few subjects on which there's no disagreement in the middle east on this the result has been a number of arabs will very soon exceed the number of israelis by the year two thousand there will be over a half million more arabs and israelis if the two state solution is what the new show will be forced into the painful choice which they should not have to make this as their only to speak you'd borrow are former prime minister and a defense minister of being either a jewish state or a democratic state cannot be both because of the majority or arabs you can say one man one vote so that's the transition to make and that's just over the horizon in the next few years

the second is the direct military threat the wars that have been fought happened major wars between nation states thanks a killer claims the slogan of the next war the next war of rockets will know that what israel built a wall to keep out suicide bombers and it's but gatekeeper a rocket hamas has about a thousand of them on israel's southern border proved ineffective lacking and guidance a real destructive power but they do create fear and anxiety on israel's northern border hezbollah has thirty thousand to fifty thousand was a public as to more effectively than the hamas and they're all engaged in upgrading and the person on earth can doubt that over the passage of time we'll have more in both live better and most ominously peron has now

achieved the song's possesses missiles that can strike anywhere in israel they don't have the so called smart bombs that we have that can target a precise building or a military installation but they've made the technological transition from liquid fuel rockets the solid fuel rocket and can anybody doubt that over time that one of what i want to go in a lot of our conventional what they now can strike anywhere in injured laura now we have health district is rich legacy will fully committed to change your and that clinton is unshakable unbreakable mobility president obama authorized the release of two hundred and forty million dollars to help this will speed up development and deployment of its antimissile system recognizing the threat but it is notable for the current in human history of thousands of rockets have been launched at the same time

against a defense system that has never been fully tested against it so no one can say with certainty what slice and haydn of confidence what would happen if a full scale war broke out and i don't think dublin of people a visual should be put to their choice if they can't make peace with the palestinians that would lead the way today brought a recognition among the other arab countries in the region and would enable them to all focus their attention were belongs to the threat that iran poses to this not just in the form of nuclear weapons although that's a very very serious matter but in other respects as well take your word that's george mitchell former senate majority leader and a us envoy to the middle east given be endured all lecture on april fourth two thousand twelve and j mcintyre keep your prisons is a

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