we're honored to welcome dr. salam fayad, former prime minister of the palestinian authority to the atlantic council and beyond that, we're delighted to welcome him to the atlantic council's fred scowcroft center as really our first and distinguished statesman at the atlantic council. we have the chairman of the scowcroft center general jones here who will be introducing. i'll just take a couple remarks before passing to the scowcroft center chair. doctor fayyad adds a much-ed meed voice to the conversation on the future of the israeli-palestinian relations and what this means for the broader middle east. over the past three weeks, renewed conflict between israel and hamas and other palestinian groups has resulted in over 1,000 casualties. more than 5,000 -- excuse me, more than 4,500 wounded and displacement of tens of thousands. efforts by secretary of state john kerry to forge a cease-fire have been insufficient thus far. as the u.s. and international leaders seem unable to bring the conflict to a halt. now more tha