Prospects for Middle East Peace – A Talk by Norman Olsen

The Rockland Public Library will host Norman Olsen on Thursday, January 8, 2026 at 6:00 PM, for a Camden Conference community event. Olsen will discuss from personal experience 34 years of deteriorating prospects for Middle East peace. This event will take place in the Community Room and will be livestreamed via Zoom. For more information or for Zoom links, please email [email protected].

Cape Elizabeth native Norm Olsen served for 26 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, with a total of nine years in Israel and the Gaza Strip. His first tour of duty, as a Gaza reporting officer and USAID representative, spanned the First Intifada, the Madrid talks, the secret Oslo negotiations, the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, and the return of Yasser Arafat to Palestine. His reporting during that time was recognized by his award of a National Human Intelligence Reporting Award from the U.S. intelligence community. His second tour of duty, as chief of the embassy political section, spanned the Second Intifada, the efforts of Quartet negotiator James Wolfensohn, the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the victory of Hamas in U.S.-demanded Palestinian elections, the successful Hamas expulsion of U.S.-backed Fatah militants who were terrorizing Gaza, and the Israel-Lebanon war. He retired as a Senior Foreign Service Officer in 2008 and has remained active in Israeli and Palestinian affairs. He and his wife, Pat, live in Cherryfield, Maine.