Loay Alshareef’s blueprint for Middle East peace

By Barrett Holman Leak in Chula Vista, California

When people speak of Middle East peace, they usually reach for the language of statecraft: security guarantees, trade corridors, and inked treaties. Yet when I sat down with Loay Alshareef at the Jewish National Fund (JNF) Global Conference—moments after he addressed a roomful of rabbis—the Saudi-born peace advocate bypassed the diplomatic lexicon entirely.

To Alshareef, one of the Arab world’s most outspoken voices for reconciliation among Jews, Muslims, and people of every faith, transforming centuries of enmity and misunderstanding into lasting peace comes down to a single, intimate institution: the Shabbat dinner table.

Growing up, Alshareef absorbed rigid prejudices and dark caricatures of Jewish people. When he traveled to France in 2010 to study French and was placed in a homestay with a Yemenite Jewish family, his conditioning triggered immediate panic. Terrified of the people opening their door to him, he initially asked to be moved.

Instead of leaving, he stayed—and pulled up a chair.

Week after week around that Yemenite Jewish family’s Shabbat table, everything he had been taught began to collapse. In the glow of Shabbat candles, over shared blessings, braided challah, and unhurried conversation, he discovered that the “enemies” he had been taught to fear were human beings offering sincere hospitality. That table dismantled a lifetime of indoctrination. You cannot easily demonize a people once you have broken bread in their home, shared their rhythm of rest and gratitude, and been treated like family.

That philosophy struck a deeply familiar chord. I shared with him my work in San Diego through the Playing Together Project, uniting the African American and American Jewish communities around shared meals. Watching his face light up, it became clear that whether across ancient geopolitical divides in the Middle East or historic fault lines in Southern California, the table operates by the same universal law: breaking bread turns abstract “others” into neighbors and friends.

For Alshareef, that personal revelation is the missing soul of modern Middle East diplomacy—and the lens through which he views the Abraham Accords.

Unlike earlier agreements such as the 1979 Israel-Egypt treaty, which Alshareef characterizes as a “cold peace” confined to government ministries and military headquarters, the Abraham Accords were designed to be warm. By prioritizing tourism, academic partnerships, cultural exchanges, and commerce alongside security, the Accords attempted to scale the intimacy of the dinner table to the level of nations, offering the Muslim world a forward-looking narrative rooted in shared Abrahamic heritage rather than perpetual grievance.

Yet a framework is only as strong as the commitment to build upon it. Looking ahead, Alshareef believes the United States holds a decisive responsibility to follow up on the Accords and ensure their promise does not stall.

In his vision, America’s next steps must move on both diplomatic and cultural tracks:

• Expanding the Circle to Saudi Arabia: Alshareef views Saudi Arabia—the birthplace of Islam—as the ultimate civilizational milestone. Bringing Riyadh into the normalization fold when regional conditions permit would permanently shift the moral and geopolitical center of gravity across the Muslim world.

• Investing in People, Not Just Treaties: Drawing from his own childhood education, Alshareef argues that diplomatic signatures remain fragile if school curricula, sermons, and media still teach hatred. He urges the United States to use its diplomatic weight and soft power to champion educational reform, youth exchanges, and interfaith initiatives—creating institutional equivalents of that Paris Shabbat table across the region.

• Reviving Multilateral Cooperation: Rather than letting normalization grow passive, Alshareef calls on Washington to reinvigorate frameworks like the Negev Forum, keeping signatory nations collaborating on tangible human needs—water security, healthcare, clean energy, and technology—that improve daily life for families.

• Confronting Extremism and Disinformation: Having spoken extensively on American college campuses, Alshareef stresses that the U.S. must push back against extremist narratives and media incitement—both in the Middle East and in the West—that frame peace as betrayal rather than the realistic path to dignity and prosperity for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

For Alshareef, treaties create the room for peace, and American leadership can help widen the doors. But whether in Jerusalem, Riyadh, or San Diego, peace becomes real only when human beings sit at the table together—and discover that the stranger across from them was never their enemy at all.

Our interview occurred at the Jewish National Fund’s Global Conference for Israel taking place through Sunday at the Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center. This landmark gathering commemorates 125 years of JNF-USA’s impact in Israel while welcoming thousands of attendees to explore the world’s largest Zionist Expo.