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Ashraf Ghorbal represented Egypt to the US for four years from 1968 to 1972 until Egypt restored diplomatic relations with the US in the wake of the October War. Ghorbal was Sadat’s Ambassador in Washington for 11 years until 1984. He credits Sadat with foresight in setting out and fulfilling his diplomatic objectives; breaking from the USSR, aligning Cairo with the US, harnessing US diplomacy under Kissinger and Carter to secure Sinai’s return to Egyptian sovereignty, and even if that meant signing agreements and recognizing Israel.

Dr. Rachel Schonberger, a leader in Hadassah’s medical work in Israel; Alan Wolk, the head of JNF-USA’s committee investing in innovation in Israel’s periphery; and Moran Mizrahi, a co-founder of fintech startup Rebillia Platform, join HR/staffing expert Dana Neiger, a member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta’s innovation committee, to discuss what makes Israel a global hub of innovation. This 19-minute […]

Vice President Joe Biden emphatically tells a rabbinic group in Atlanta, “unambiguously, were I an Israeli, were I a Jew, I would not contract out my security to anybody, even to a loyal, loyal friend like the United States.”

Omar Sirry provides intimate details of the diplomatic aftermath of the October 1973 War, the Kilometer 101 talks, Kissinger’s choreography of the December 1973 Middle East Peace Conference, and admiration for Sadat as the ‘modern Egyptian Pharaoh’ who was not ever politically passive but took repeated initiatives for Egypt’s benefit.

Mustafa Khalil served as the primary Egyptian negotiator in tying up the Egyptian-Israeli Treaty with Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, Sep1978-March 1979. Though most of the talks took place in Washington, the final excruciating details were negotiated in difficult exchanges in Jerusalem between Jimmy Carter and Menachem Begin in the week before the March 26, 1979 treaty signing.

Yossi Ben-Aharon was the Director General of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s office from 1988 to 1992. He was intimately involved in Israeli-US negotiations that eventually saw a highly reluctant Israeli prime minister attend the October-November 1991 Madrid Middle East Peace conference. Ben-Aharon’s evaluations of US Secretary of State Baker, his assistant, Dennis Ross, and President George Bush I are insightful.

Assembled by Ken Stein and Wendy Kalman, Center for Israel Education AJC Global Forum 2021, “Unveiling Israel’s Strategic Vision: A Conversation with Ron Dermer, Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs,” American Jewish Committee, June 12, 2023,  https://www.ajc.org/news/unveiling-israels-strategic-vision-a-conversation-with-ron-dermer-israeli-minister-of  Farris Almarri, “Jordanians Favor De-escalation in the Region, But Sentiment Against Israel Remains,” Poll, Washington Institute for Near East […]

In January 2023 Israel’s minister of justice announced proposals for radical changes in the legal system that would have virtually ended the separation of power between the courts and the Knesset or parliament. This resulted in massive demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of Israelis that have continued ever since. The minister later admitted that those […]

El Sherif de La Meca y Sir Henry MacMahon, un funcionario británico en El Cairo, hablando en nombre del Foreign Office, intercambiaron cartas sobre el actual esfuerzo de guerra contra los turcos y el futuro estatus político de tierras árabes específicas en el Imperio Otomano. McMahon dijo entonces y repitió la declaración nuevamente en 1937, que el área de Palestina fue definitivamente excluida de cualquier área que se proporcionara a un líder árabe después de la Primera Guerra Mundial. Los británicos permitieron que el área de Palestina se desarrollara como un ‘hogar nacional para el pueblo judío.’

(By posting a guest’s views, CIE does not take a position on the contents, nor verify the facts nor the assumptions presented.) It is hard to believe, truly inconceivable, that equality is not an entrenched constitutional value in the State of Israel. Our commitment to shaping Israel’s identity as a “Jewish state” cannot be fully […]

General Gemasy served as Egypt’s Chief of Staff during the October 1973 War, executed Egypt’s limited success across the Canal, and negotiated with his Israeli counterpart, General Aharon Yariv the details of the Kissinger choreographed Kilometer 101 Talks that led to the January 1974 Egyptian-Israeli Disengagement Agreement. Gamasy was surprised when Sadat told him at Aswan then, “Egypt was making peace with the United States and not with Israel.” Gemasy to Yariv, “we (the Egyptians) are finished with the Palestinians.”

Mordechai Gazit served as Director General in Prime Minister Golda Meir’s office from March 1973 to her resignation in April 1974. He observed the outbreak of the October 1973 War and Henry Kissinger’s diplomatic choreography as it unfolded thereafter. Gazit suggests that he was the source of Israeli and Egyptian generals to negotiate face to face at the end of the war near Kilometer 101.

The Sherif of Mecca and Sir Henry MacMahon, a British official in Cairo, speaking for the Foreign Office exchanged letters about the current war effort against the Turks, and the future political status of specific Arab lands in the Ottoman Empire. McMahon said then and he repeated the statement again in 1937, that the area of Palestine was definitely excluded from any area to be provided to an Arab leader after WWI. The British allowed the area of Palestine to develop as a ‘national home for the Jewish people.’

Read full article at Israel State Archives.

Jewish People’s Policy Institute Shuki Friedman, Jewish People’s Policy Institute (Opinion) By gladly posting a guest’s views, CIE does not take a position on the contents, nor verify the facts nor the assumptions presented. A bill that would expand Israel’s anti-racism statutes to include incitement against the Haredim (ultra-Orthodox) was approved on Sunday by the […]

Read full article at the Israel State Archives.

Tahsin Bashir served as spokesman for Egypt and for the Arab League in many capacities from 1963 to 1978. He knew Anwar Sadat intimately, revealing that Sadat kept his own counsel using others to test political and diplomatic options. His long term goal was to reorient Egypt away from Moscow and obtain Sinai’s return. Sadat cleverly managed others including Kissinger, Carter, and his advisors.

Compiled by the Center for Israel Education – June 2023 Tens of thousands of Hebrew literary works have been published since the late 18th century. This list of Hebrew literature in English is suggestive and limited. For example, it does not have enough poetry. Great writers omitted include Asher Barash, Yosef Haim Brenner, M.Z. Feierberg, […]

Ken Stein Interview with Peter Rodman, Washington, D.C., June 10, 1992 (June 10, 1992) (Permission to publish this interview granted by Peter Rodman, June 1992) Peter Rodman Member of United States National Security Council Staff and Special Assistant to Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft, August 1969 to January 1977; staff member on virtually all of […]

Assembled by Ken Stein and Wendy Kalman, Center for Israel Education Elliott Abrams, “As Israel Turns 75, ‘Foreign Affairs’ Publishes a Call to Eliminate It,” Council of Foreign Relations, May 9, 2023, https://www.cfr.org/blog/israel-turns-75-foreign-affairs-publishes-call-eliminate-it  Ghaith al-Omari, “The Palestinian succession Crisis,” Foreign Affairs, May 16, 2023, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/palestinian-territory/palestinian-succession-crisis   Zvi Bar’el, “Saudi Arabia’s New Middle East Strategy Leaves […]

October 6, 2023, marks the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the October 1973 War. Six months prior, Egyptian President Sadat sent his national security adviser to meet with Secretary of State Kissinger to determine whether the US would engage Egypt and Israel in serious mediation for a Sinai agreement, or a series of them, all focused on Israeli withdrawal and gradual acceptance of Israel. Kissinger did not take Sadat’s overtures seriously. Would have American action then avoided the October 1973 War? All informed analyses says, ‘no.’

July 26, 1967: The Alon Plan reflects a response to Israel’s pre-1967 war border vulnerability seeking a future west bank arrangement that is not a strategic/geographic threat to Israel and its coastal plain population centers.

Upon its inception, Zionism needed more than political and financial solutions to actualize a Jewish home in Palestine. The architects of the Zionist enterprise evolved a cultural identity along with state structures. Its dynamism is still evolving from the diversity of its populations’ origins. see also his excellent Development of Israeli Culture (2018).

Enormous tension and risks taken by Egyptian and Israeli leaderships are recounted in a brief chronology of events that led to the June 1967 war, a benchmark turning point in Middle Eastern, Israeli, and Jewish history.