MOUNT RUSHMORE - Two Rapid Citians born in Palestine had a personal stake in Tuesday morning's discussion that began a Middle East forum at Mount Rushmore.

Engineer Hani Shafi is a Rapid City developer. Qusi Al-Haj is West River field director for Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. Both are longtime U.S. citizens. Now, they're working together to win permission for Shafi's sister-in-law to leave Gaza and come to the United States.

So far, they have failed. Shafi's sister-in-law has permission to enter Jordan and fly to the United States. Unfortunately, she can't make the 70-mile trip from Gaza to the West Bank - one of the issues discussed in a general way on Tuesday.

The nonprofit Rushmore Institute gathered an international panel of experts for a two-day forum titled "Understanding the Middle East Conflicts: Why should Americans care?" The conference ends today, with sessions on international perspectives on the Middle East and on possible solutions to conflicts there.

Tuesday morning's session focused exclusively on Israel and Palestine.

Why should Americans care about a few million people in a relatively small area? Al-Haj and Shafi know. So did the couple dozen members of the U.S. military at the forum, including South Dakota National Guardsmen.

The rest of the 200 participants from throughout South Dakota heard from scholars, writers and hands-on diplomats who have crafted policy and who have sat at negotiating tables.

Daniel Kurtzer of Princeton University was ambassador to Israel from 2001 to 2005, and before that, he served as ambassador to Egypt. "There's no conflict I've studied that's interminable," Kurtzer told the forum.

Kurtzer also said a large majority of people in Israel and Palestine had gradually but significantly come to a new, different and important point of view: that the other side has a right to exist.

But tough issues remain, Kurtzer said, including territorial boundaries, the future of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees. "If we can grab hold of these, then the fourth issue, of security, becomes much more amenable of solution," he said.

But acute, short-term problems also are blocking progress. The Palestinians "must clamp down on violence," Kurtzer said. The Israelis must "deal with the issue of mobility on the West Bank."

That second point directly impacts the problem Shafi and Al-Haj are trying to solve, and two other experts on the panel talked about the issue in general terms.

Dr. Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, is described as "the leading Palestinian survey researcher in Ramallah.

Israeli reserves Col. Gilead Sher, now an attorney, was Israel's chief negotiator for the Camp David summit of 2000.

Shikaki said Israel foments violence by denying Palestinians access to labor markets in Israel and to international markets for goods and services. "Unemployment, loss of hope, pessimism about the future - this is what generates anger, hate," he said, which in turn fuel violence and terrorism.

Israeli checkpoints throughout the West Bank make it difficult or impossible for Palestinians to move between towns or areas - a problem that applies even to local security forces. The Palestinian Authority, he said, had been trying for four or five months to get Israeli permission to move 500 security personnel from Jericho to Nablus. "The Israelis have not been very cooperative," he said.

Nor has Shafi's sister-in-law been able to make the short trip from Gaza to the West Bank, where she'd find a route to Jordan.

But in an interview during a break, Sher argued that people in Rapid City would take the same actions if faced with the same threats.

"How would you feel if, on a daily basis, your yellow school buses would have been attacked by suicide bombers, and your house, your property and your family would have been shelled by a neighboring city on a daily basis?" he asked.

"Would you take any actions?" Sher asked. "Well, I guess you would. This is what we're doing."

Sher was a chief negotiator for Israel during the Camp David talks at the end of the Clinton administration. "We attained a pretty reasonable, viable, just framework," he said - and one that Palestinian negotiators seemed to accept.

He blames Yasser Arafat for scuttling the talks with violence and terrorism.

Rapid City's two Palestinian Americans remain hopeful, despite the violence of the past seven years. The homes of Shafi's family in Gaza, for example, have been struck by Israeli warplanes and by homemade Palestinian rockets gone astray.

Still, Shafi said: "I don't think we've ever been this close before. With very minor modifications, if I were a Palestinian leader, I would be signing off tomorrow on whatever agreement has been reached."

But Shafi also said Israel should realize "It takes a state to deliver security."

Al-Haj - speaking as a private citizen - said Tuesday morning's session underscored for him the need for U.S. involvement in the peace process. "Without America's true commitment and sometimes making some tough decisions that make both sides unhappy, we are going to miss a great opportunity."

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com