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The Egyptian-Israeli Treaty was the fourth Arab-Israeli agreement signed between the end of the 1973 October War until 1979, with another not signed until the 1993 Oslo Accords. Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Begin met their respective national interests in signing this bilateral treaty, confounding the Carter administration’s preferred comprehensive peace between […]

Ken Stein, December 15, 2021 Expuesto entre el final de la guerra de octubre de 1973 en el Medio Oriente y la convocatoria a la Conferencia de Paz de Ginebra en diciembre de 1973, el Secretario de Estado de los EE. UU., Henry Kissinger, fracasó en convencer al presidente sirio Hafez Assad de asistir a […]

En una sesión el 1ero. de julio del 2020, durante nuestro taller anual para educadores, Eli Sperling del Centro para la Educación sobre Israel presenta un juvenil y entretenido programa con un playlist de videos para demostrar varios aspectos religiosos, culturales y étnicos de Israel en la sala de clases.

In Aprili 1987, the Jordanian King and Israeli Labor Party leaders secretly outlined a plan to convene an international conference to move Israeli-Palestinian talks forward through a conference format, but Likud opposition leaders in Israel squashed the idea.

U.S. Secretary of State Kissinger failed to persuade Syrian President Assad to attend the December 1973 Geneva Middle East Peace Conference. Assad saw the proposed conference, which it was, a ruse to cover up a “pre-cooked” Israeli-Egyptian arrangement. Assad wanted no part of implicitly supporting any agreement where Israel’s legitimacy might be enhanced.

March 25, 2019 Kenneth Stein, the founding president of Emory University’s Center for Israel Education, has taught Middle Eastern history and politics at Emory for 43 years. He spent more than half that time serving as a key advisor to former President Jimmy Carter for his post-White House involvement in the Middle East. Stein resigned in […]

Michele Freesman-Levenson Director of Teen Initiatives December 2, 2021 Israel education for Jewish teens is a vital piece of the work we do at the Center for Israel Education, understanding that, regardless of politics, Israel is intrinsic to Jewish and non-Jewish identities. This year CIE has engaged over 3,000 high school students from around the […]

Assembled by Ken Stein and Michele Freesman-Levenson, Emory University’s Institute for the Study of Modern Israel and the Center for Israel Education, kenstein@israeled.org Wifag Adnan and Haggay Etkes, “The Reform of the Permit Regime for Palestinian Workers in Israel: A Preliminary Evaluation,” INSS, November 11, 2021, https://www.inss.org.il/publication/work-permits-reform/  Major General (res.) Yaakov Amidror, “Why is Iran […]

Steven Bayme In early November 2021, The New York Times Magazine posted an essay under the provocative title “Inside the Unraveling of American Zionism.”1 The essay focused on a letter signed by 93 rabbinical and cantorial students at non-Orthodox seminaries castigating Israeli policies as “enabling apartheid” and American Jewish leaders for supporting those policies. To […]

Wendy Kalman, November 30, 2021 As a researcher at the Center for Israel Education, I review and correct interview transcripts. CIE founder and Chief Content Officer Ken Stein interviewed nearly 90 diplomats, politicians and others in preparation to write his 1999 book, Heroic Diplomacy: Sadat, Kissinger, Carter, Begin, and the Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace. He […]

The first version of the Jewish National Library was founded in 1892 in Jerusalem, five years before the First Zionist Congress met; its location evolved to Mount Scopus in Jerusalem during the British Mandate and then after the 1948 war, the library’s books were moved to the Rehavia section of Jerusalem, and then in 1960 to Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University. As a visiting graduate student from The University of Michigan in the summer of 1971, I walked into the mediocrely lit yet vast reading room of the Library.

There are 300 articles listed below, stretching back to March 2020. We have updated this list about every 60 days since then.  It is not exhaustive but certainly inclusive of the important assessments on the pandemic written. Think tanks, scholars and analysts produced excellent assessments of the impact that the Coronavirus pandemic had and would have […]

Assembled by Ken Stein and Michele Freesman, Emory University’s Institute for the Study of Modern Israel and the Center for Israel Education, kenstein@israeled.org AFP, “Saudi Arabia: Dealing with Hezbollah-dominated Lebanon is ‘pointless’,” Times of Israel, October 31, 2021,  https://www.timesofisrael.com/saudi-arabia-dealing-with-hezbollah-dominated-lebanon-is-pointless/  Al-Ahram Online Staff, “Israel’s president apologizes for 1956 Kafr Qasem massacre,” Al-Ahram Online, October 30, 2021, […]

(1 de noviembre de 1995) Tres días antes de ser asesinado el 4 de noviembre de 1995, el Primer Ministro israelí Rabin le dijo a su redactor de discursos, Yehuda Avner, por qué reconocía a la OLP y a Yasir Arafat. Ese reconocimiento llegó en el Intercambio de cartas entre Rabin y Arafat el 9 de […]

Yitzhak Rabin’s life story, in the words of former Knesset member Nachman Shai, is “the story of the State of Israel.” He fought to create and defend it in 1948 and 1967, represented it in Washington, led it twice as prime minister, liberated Jews from captivity in 1945 and 1976, and embraced an opportunity for a chance at a longtime peace with the Palestinians in 1993. Rabin possessed essential qualities of an admired leader: credible, authentic, honest, visionary, and strategic. In addition, Rabin was taciturn, incisive, and suffered no fools. For a lifetime, he put the Jewish people on his shoulders as defender and diplomat.

This 54-minute webinar, recorded Oct. 27, 2021, is part of the Center for Israel Education’s “Israel in Context” series and is incorporated into an extensive set of documents, study guides, videos and other resources CIE has compiled at https://israeled.org/madrid-conference/ to mark the 30th anniversary of the Madrid Middle East Peace Conference, when Israel first sat at the same table with all of its immediate Arab neighbors to talk peace.

Historical Context Explore the historical context through the events and the documents leading up to the 1991 Madrid Middle East Peace Conference: 1949: Israel ends the War of Independence without secure borders or Arab acceptance. The cease-fire lines give Israel more land than proposed by the 1947 U.N. partition plan for Palestine, and the Arab […]

Some important moments at the Madrid peace conference take place behind the scenes when people who have been strangers and enemies make personal connections. But the speeches during three days of plenary sessions represent official government positions and reveal how far all the sides must go to achieve regional peace. The presidents of the United […]

On March 6, 1991, President George H.W. Bush tells Congress, “The time has come to put an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict.” For the next eight months, intensive shuttle diplomacy by Secretary of State James A. Baker III culminates in the Madrid peace conference at the end of October. The conference, co-chaired by Bush and […]

News consumers, whether reading newspapers, watching television or scrolling social media feeds, are responsible for filtering the facts from the spin and the slant. Here are some questions you should ask about anything you see to help you become a careful, critical news consumer: • Can you spot errors? If things you know about are […]

Eytan Bentsur, a member of the Israeli delegation at Madrid who became director-general of the Foreign Ministry, wrote a decade after the peace conference that President George H.W. Bush’s speech opening the conference laid out the principles for the entire negotiating process: direct negotiations including land for peace; bilateral and multilateral talks; solutions coming from within the region, not […]

Personal relationships and individual leadership styles can enhance or hamper negotiations. As an example, watch this video of Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara and Palestinian delegate Saeb Erekat relishing memories of irritating Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir Jordanian Foreign Minister Kamel Abu Jaber Palestinian delegate Haider Abdel al-Shafi Syrian Foreign […]

Key elements that affect whether ripeness for negotiations exists: Both parties see common external threats. Current conditions could get worse or are too bad to continue. Unilateral solutions will not resolve key issues. Pre-negotiations have already narrowed differences. Incentives to negotiate are available. The potential for pragmatic compromise is present. A brighter future could exist […]

View and listen to the Israeli song performed in the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest, “Kan.” The song placed third and became one of Israel’s popular “Shirei Eretz Yisrael” (songs of the Land of Israel). The Datz Duo wore clothes that evoked memories of Israeli folk dancers from the early Zionist pioneering days. Examine the lyrics and consider the […]

Tras la Guerra del Golfo de 1991, Estados Unidos organizó una conferencia con Israel, múltiples estados árabes, y la participación de representantes palestinos, la conferencia condujo a las negociaciones bilaterales y multilaterales.

In carrying out research in the 1990s for Heroic Diplomacy: Sadat, Kissinger, Carter, Begin and the Quest for Arab-Israeli Peace, Routledge, 1999, I undertook 84 interviews with individuals who participated in the diplomacy.

Former Israeli Ambassador to Washington Simcha Dinitz recalls the October 1973 War and his discussions with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. America did not want the Egyptian army devastated nor have Israel win a resounding victory. Sadat was weary of the Palestinians.

Assembled by Ken Stein and Michele Freesman, Emory University’s Institute for the Study of Modern Israel and the Center for Israel Education, kenstein@israeled.org  Jonathan Ariel, “The Real Lesson of the Afghanistan Debacle,” BESA Center, September 10, 2021, https://besacenter.org/the-real-lesson-of-the-afghanistan-debacle/ Naama Barak, “Israeli clean-living tech reaches Latin American locales,” Israel21C, September 27, 2021, https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-clean-living-tech-reaches-latin-american-locales/  BICOM Staff, “The […]

Affirming Israel’s strong relationship with the US and Jerusalem’s normalized relations with six Arab states, Israel’s Bennett castigates Iran for its support of toxic regional insurgencies, and promising to prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He makes no mention of the Palestinian issue.

In 13 days in September 1978, Egypt and Israel made a two part agreement: an outline for an Egyptian – Israeli Treaty ending their state of war and an agreement on where and how the Palestinians would engage in self-rule. With great clarity and insight, Hermann Eilts, Sam Lewis, Hal Saunders, and Bill Quandt recall the ups and downs of those negotiations.