I • 41 4 lI COME WONDER AROUND Friday Night Live! The Alberto Rojo Trio performs traditional Argentinian folk songs, jazz and contemporary improvisations. Rivera Court, 7 8- 8:30 p.m. Daniel Kurtzer signs his new book at the JCC. On The Right Track Samurai: Beyond the Sword Offering a rare opportunity to experience a broad, comprehensive and nuanced picture ofJapan's samurai culture, Samurai: Beyond the Sword opens this Sunday, March 9. Through June 1. Expert says Kerry's efforts may get Mideast peace negotiations moving. Sunday Music Bar I Miyabi plays traditional Japanese music on the koto, a centuries- old stringed instrument resembling a zither. In conjunction with T Samurai: Beyond the Sword. Kresge Court, 1-4 p.m. here's still work to be done, but Secretary of State John Kerry is on the right track to get negotiations moving in the Middle East, said Daniel Kurtzer, professor of Middle East policy studies at Princeton University and former U.S. ambassa- dor to Israel and Egypt. He spoke Feb. 25 at the Berman Center for the Performing Arts in West Bloomfield at an event spon- sored by the Jewish Community Center's Seminars for Adult Jewish Enrichment. "Kerry understood that the peace process isn't simply getting two sides back to the negotiating table:' Kurtzer told a crowd of 250. "It's necessary, but not sufficient:' Kurtzer co-authored The Peace Now On View Samurai: Beyond the Sword, through June 1. Tickets at dia.org Balance of Power: A Throne for an African Prince, through March 16. Foto Europa: 1840 to Present, through April 27. General museum admission is free for residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. 5200 Woodward Ave. 313 - 833 -79 0 0 I INSTITU OF ART If you are not wearing it... sell it!... or BORROW on it! You can't enjoy jewelry if it's sitting in your safe 4- deposit box. Sell or borrow on it for immediate cash. We deal in jewelry, watches, diamonds and coins. --- 4 rIrL A Service to O O l t ' Private Owners, Banks & Estates eedge & favehre, Contact Larry A 33700 Woodward Ave. • Between 14 Mile & Adams • Birmingham, MI 248-644-8565 Keep your company top of mind with our readers. ADVERTISE WITH US! CALL 248.351.5107 Visit theJEWISHNEWS.com 18 March 6 • 2014 Harry Kirsbaum Contributing Writer JN Puzzle: America's Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace, 1989-2011 (Cornell University Press, 2013), a study that posits that both sides need coddling, that presi- dential transitions negatively affect the peace process because the new admin- istration wants to make its own mark, and that the United States needs to be as prepared and tough in negotiations as the Israelis and Palestinians. Kurtzer said Kerry started diplo- macy not by pushing the two sides into a room, but by telling them, "I'm going to invest enough time and effort to convince you that I'm not ready to take no for an answer:' Kerry has made 10-12 trips to the region in the past year, which forces Israelis in diplomatic circles to think about "what they normally don't think about:' he said. "If the secretary of state showed up twice a year, they would only think about the peace process twice a year. Knowing that Kerry is going to show up, they have to prepare papers and come up with task- forces. They have to decide:' Kerry also asked the president to appoint John Allen, a very senior retired four-star American general, to do an intensive study of what the security requirements would be in a context of peace. He spent weeks talking to Israelis and Palestinians under the radar, walking the terrain and going through different models to a point that, just recently, Kerry asked Allen to start briefing the two sides on what he's seen. "Allen may make suggestions, but the answers can only be provided by Israelis and Palestinians:' Kurtzer said. "He started to engage Israel on the core security issues, perhaps the most important single component of a suc- cessful peace process:' In March or April 2013, Kerry also invited the foreign ministers of key Arab states to try to revive the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative (API) from the Arab Summit meeting in Beirut, which basically said under certain circum- stances it was ready to give Israel the security and recognition that it wanted. Although Israel didn't like the lan- guage of the API, which called for full withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967, agreement to the Palestinian refugee issue and two capitals in Jerusalem, still it was a cosmic shift in Arab thinking. It's no longer a question of whether Israel has the right to exist; it's a matter of what it does with the occupied territories. "What Kerry did in 2013 was to get the foreign ministers to not only reiterate that position, but also to start thinking on how to act on it:' Kurtzer said. "It's not enough to wait until after peace is achieved to provide Israel with security recognition; start thinking about it now."