OTR Event- Behind the Scenes: Today in Israel

event_image Event offered by:
Off the Record

Event Details

Date:
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM 
Location:
The New York Bar Association
42 West 44th Street
New York City, NY
Event type
Lecture / Panel  

Event Description

About the topic:
As the crisis in the Mideast deepens and widens, this talk will address who are the real power brokers in Israel. How did Israel get on its current trajectory sandwiched between Hamas and Hezbollah and threatened by Iran itself? What are the possible outcomes of the current war? Is peace possible? Is a two-state solution possible? What should or could be the role of the U.S. in seeking to influence Israel’s stance toward a diplomatic resolution or is Israel intent on going its own way? Do the recent efforts and successes at diplomacy, such as the Abraham Accords, have any impact on the current situation?

About the speaker:
David Harris, currently Executive Vice Chair of The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP), was Chief Executive Officer of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) from 1990 to 2022. Throughout his 50-year career in the nonprofit world, Harris has been deeply involved, both on a domestic and global level, in issues related to foreign policy, national security, interfaith and interethnic relations, social policy, higher education, and the Jewish community. David Harris was called the “foreign minister of the Jewish people” by the late Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Harris has been honored more than 20 times by foreign governments for his international work, which included a decades-long effort to help lay the groundwork for the bilateral Abraham Accords, making him the most decorated Jewish organizational leader in U.S. history. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Antisemitism: Everything You Need to Know (Oxford University Press). He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his M.Sc. from the London School of Economics. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford and Johns Hopkins University.

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