Nahdlatul Ulamas Secretary-General Yahya Cholil Staqufs presence at the American Jewish Committee conference for Jewish leaders in Jerusalem, last June, should not have been criticized. What Yahya did was something President Abdurrahman Wahid initiated years ago: offering a different approach to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Yahyas position as member of the Presidential Advisory Council is also not something to be held against him. He ha