In an exclusive interview for Novinite.com, the Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee David Harris said a growing number of Arab states had come to realize that the real threat for them in the Middle East came not from Israel but from Iran's hegemonic ambitions.

Harris pointed out that more and more Arab leaders had started to accept Israel as a permanently established factor in the region, and believed it was time to do away with the sixty-year war against the Israeli state.

In his view, peace in the Middle East could achieved but it depended largely on the willingness of the people such as the residents of the Gaza Strip, who had the choice whether to seek new regime with better prospects for prosperity, or would throw their weight behind the Hamas dead-enders.

The AJC Director also stressed Israel had demonstrated its willingness to make "painful territorial compromises", and that it was up to the Palestinians to grab its extended hand.

The American Jewish Committee is a non-partisan US advocacy organization founded in 1906.