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Israel and the Region: A Conversation with Yossi Alpher

Events in the Middle East have focused of late on Iraq, Syria, and the battle against ISIS. But Israel retains its centrality as a dynamic actor in the region and sits at the nexus of several critically important issues, including Iran’s nuclear program, relations with the Arab world, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Join us for a conversation and discussion of these and other matters with one of Israel’s most experienced and foremost analysts of Israeli politics and national security challenges.

Date & Time

Thursday
Oct. 23, 2014
1:00pm – 2:00pm ET

Location

5th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center
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Overview

Two experts held a conversation on Israel’s role in a complex and changing Middle East.

On October 23, 2014, the Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Middle East Forum of the Middle East Program of the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted a meeting “Israel and the Region: A Conversation with Yossi Alpher” with Yossi Alpher, former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies; and Aaron David Miller, Vice President for New Initiatives and Distinguished Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center. Haleh Esfandiari, Director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center, provided opening remarks.

Miller began by explaining how the conversation would unfold as if he were the Israeli Prime Minister and if Alpher were the outgoing director of the Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency. In response to Miller’s question about the most important national security challenges Israel faces, Alpher chose to separate the challenges into urgent issues and more long-term issues. Alpher said the first urgent challenge for Israel is Iran, not only the nuclear issue but also the country’s influential expansion throughout the Levant and into Yemen. He explained that regardless of whether or not an Iranian nuclear deal is reached by the November 24 deadline, there will not be a crisis and the issue will endure. The second urgent challenge to Israeli security is the danger of Islamist terrorism. He noted that both Hamas and ISIS in particular increasingly threaten Israel’s borders. According to Alpher, the final challenge to Israeli security is maintaining and nurturing its strategic cooperation with Egypt and Jordan. These relationships are the only positive developments in the atmosphere of the Arab Spring and must be cultivated. Alpher also presented two long-term challenges for Israel. First, he explained it is important for Israel to figure out how to cope with American mistakes in the Middle East and U.S. detachment from the region. The second long-term challenge is to develop a strategy for fighting asymmetric wars against non-state actors, a difficult task as demonstrated by the summer’s conflict in Gaza.

Alpher continued by further exploring the U.S. role in the region. He stressed how important the American channel is for engaging with Saudi Arabia on strategies to counter ISIS and growing Iranian influence. Yet Israel remains confused by American policy in the Middle East, as the United States refused to intervene against Syrian President Bashar Assad but then launched a campaign against ISIS after two beheadings of U.S. citizens. Critiquing U.S. policy on the peace process, he questioned Secretary of State John Kerry’s strategy of reaching out to Turkey and Qatar rather than Egypt. Alpher said he is not confident in a firm U.S. commitment to a peace deal because of America’s downsizing in the region. He also criticized Israel for having no strategy for the Palestinians and explained how Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is pursuing statehood through the United Nations now rather than through dialogue with Israel. He described how the main hindrance to a peace deal continues to be the matter of Palestinian right of return, an issue on which the two sides cannot agree.

In the question portion of the event, Alpher discussed how the recent rise in global anti-Semitism can be attributed to the summer’s conflict in Gaza, which further portrayed to the world an image of Israel as an occupier. While highlighting growing Iranian influence in the region and Iran’s opposition to Israel, he noted that combatting the Jewish state is currently not a top priority for Iran.

By John Daniels, Middle East Program

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Speaker

Yossi Alpher

Former senior official in the Mossad and former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies
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Hosted By

Middle East Program

The Wilson Center’s Middle East Program serves as a crucial resource for the policymaking community and beyond, providing analyses and research that helps inform US foreign policymaking, stimulates public debate, and expands knowledge about issues in the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.  Read more

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