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Judge Learned Hand Award
Presented to Matthew P. Bergman

With rare wisdom, sharp insight, and an extraordinary talent for forging partnerships, you have built a remarkable record of achievement and impact in law, community service and philanthropy.

October 24, 2022
Seattle, Washington

In September 2008, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered 94% of the West Bank to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, with land swaps from Israel’s side of the Green Line accounting for nearly all of the remaining 6%. President Abbas didn’t say no—he didn’t say anything at all. The refusal to even acknowledge Prime Minister Olmert’s bold offer has done a great deal to heighten Israeli skepticism of Palestinian intentions.

What, indeed, is the Palestinian national goal? Do they, like the Zionist movement of the 19th and 20th centuries, seek to establish and build up a homeland? Or, as many fear, are they only interested in the elimination of the Jewish state of Israel?