The 9/11 commission co-chairmen said promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace is critical to U.S. security.
“No question inflames public opinion in the Muslim world more than the Arab-Israeli dispute,” Thomas Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey , and Lee Hamilton, a former senior Democratic congressman from Indiana, wrote in a Washington Post opinion article marking six years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“To empower Muslim moderates, we must take away the extremists’ most potent grievance: the charge that the United States does not care about the Palestinians,” the Op-Ed said. “A vigorous diplomatic effort, with the visible, active support of the president, would bolster America’s prestige and influence – and offer the best prospect for Israel’s long-term security.”
Democrats in Congress have pledged to institute most of the reforms called for by the 2004 Kean-Hamilton commission on the Sept. 11 attacks.
