The Middle East does not lack peace plans. It lacks political supportability.

For decades, diplomats have negotiated ceasefires, peace initiatives, normalization agreements, and roadmaps. Yet too often these efforts have failed to achieve their full promise because they overlooked a fundamental principle: peace cannot survive unless societies are prepared to support it.

Lasting peace is not built only in presidential palaces or around negotiating tables. It is built in classrooms, houses of worship, universities, media, businesses, and civil society. It depends upon leaders who are willing to prepare their people—not for perpetual conflict, but for coexistence.

As a Muslim who has dedicated more than a decade to building Jewish-Muslim relationships, I have come to believe that the greatest contribution the Arab world can make today is not another declaration condemning conflict. It is creating the political, moral, and theological conditions that make peace possible.

Public policy offers a useful framework known as the Strategic Triangle, which teaches that successful leadership rests on three pillars: public value, organizational implementability, and political supportability. While diplomats often focus on the first two, the third has been largely ignored in the Middle East.

Without political supportability, agreements become fragile. Without public legitimacy, courageous leaders stand alone. Without societies prepared to embrace reconciliation, peace remains vulnerable to those who profit from hatred.

The Middle East desperately needs a new model of leadership—leaders who pursue not only the interests of their own nations but also the common good of the region.

Most of the challenges facing the Middle East are adaptive challenges. They cannot be solved by military force alone, emotional reactions, or slogans repeated........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)