December 27, 2015 Asher Susser, “Jordan and the Islamic State Challenge,” Institute for National Security Studies, December 2015. Jordan faces internal challenges and economic hardships that are feeding off each other. Many young people are…
June 2025 CIE has compiled the following list of books and articles, including some available on our website, to guide understanding of Israel’s capital, the holy city of Jerusalem. Books Adelman, Madelaine, and Miriam Fendius…
Ken Stein, President, Center for Israel Education, May 19, 2025 Introduction Since 1937, the idea of geopolitically separating Jewish and Arab populations west of the Jordan River has been a recommended solution to mitigate violence between…
This 2018 map of the eastern Mediterranean, which remains current, shows all of Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Cyprus, plus parts of Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, within the context of the…
Unfold six Arab states’ embrace of Israel since 1973 out of national interests and U.S. mediation, sidelining the Palestinian movement, and explore Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack and its implications for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Israeli diplomacy.
As president, Clinton hosted the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords, helped Jordan and Israel achieve a peace treaty in 1994, and mediated the 1995 Oslo II agreement that recognized the Palestinian Authority. He brokered…
The 44th U.S. president, Obama was less active in seeking Middle East peace than his three immediate predecessors and tried to strengthen relations with Israel’s neighbors. He split with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over…
Working in the Defense Department, with the National Security Council or in the State Department under every president from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama, Ross helped shape U.S. Middle East policy. He helped get Israel…
As Israel’s 10th prime minister and last from the Labor Party from 1999 to 2001, Barak ended the occupation of southern Lebanon, participated in the 2000 Camp David talks, was rebuffed by Yasser Arafat in…
Sharon led IDF commandos in the 1950s, was a field commander in 1967 and drove the Sinai counteroffensive in 1973. As defense minister, he launched the First Lebanon War, which resulted in an 18-year occupation,…
Ambassador Bandar Bin Sultan served as Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the United States from 1983 to 2006. From 2005 to 2015 he led the country’s National Security Council. He offers a scathing attack on Yasser Arafat’s failure to embrace multiple negotiating overtures proposed by Presidents Carter and Reagan. Additionally, he expresses his anger at the present Palestinian leadership for criticizing the UAE’s recognition of Israel in the 2020 Abraham Accords.
The announcement by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that “the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law” is in line with Israel’s official position, and its inherent message – that preoccupation with the question of the legality of the settlements narrows Palestinian flexibility and discourages the achievement of a negotiated resolution to the conflict – is correct. However, the announcement’s practical value is minor, and there are even potential risks and costs for Israel.
CIE President Ken Stein speaks with David Makovsky, the Ziegler distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on June 19, 2019. The major focus of the discussion was on the upcoming US led Peace to Prosperity workshop which was held in Bahrain June 25 and 26, 2019 at which Makovsky was an observer. Stein and Makovsky discuss, in-depth, the economic summit, the Trump administration’s Middle East Peace Plan, and the prospects for success.
January 10, 2019 https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mikepompeoforceforgoodcairo.htm Ten years after President Barack Obama spoke at the American University in Cairo, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo intentionally used the same venue to deliver a Trump administration rebuke of the…
Scholars and policy experts Yitzhak Reiter, Joel Singer, Jonathan Schanzer and Rachel Fish discuss potential resolutions to the Israeli Palestinian Conflict.
Professor Asher Susser describes the neighborhood of the Middle East, Arab nationalism, and the changing relationships of the region’s states with Israel.
In January this year, the veteran Arab journalist Rami Khouri made this assessment of the Middle East as a region, “Never before has the Arab region been so fractured, violent, volatile and vulnerable to the…
Responding to PA President Abbas’ speech at the U.N. and the PA’s rejection of the U.S. as a legitimate participant in Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, Ambassador Haley clarifies American positions on Jerusalem and the negotiating process.
Vice President Pence firmly expresses American commitments to Israel’s security and commitment to the Arab-Israeli peace process. Palestinian Authority President Abbas and other Arab officials loudly criticize the speech and refuse to meet with Pence during his Middle East visit because of earlier US promise to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
President Trump’s proclamation to “officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel” breaks precedent. In doing so, he incurs bipartisan support in the US congress, but a flurry of criticism from analysts, diplomats and foreign leaders. In his remarks, Trump rebukes claims that he disqualified the US as a “reliable mediator” in future Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.
After visiting Saudi Arabia, Trump meets with Netanyahu where both assert joint views on the peace process, Iran, regional cooperation, and the long-standing relationship between Israel and the US; Trumps second meeting with Netanyahu since taking office.
Backpedaling from previously hardline statements on Islam, President Trump refers to Islam as “one of the world’s great faiths” calling for “tolerance and respect for each other.” He implored Muslim leaders to fight against radical Islam, which he portrayed as a “…a battle between good and evil.”
Two months into her Senate position, Harris promised “to do everything in my power to ensure broad and bipartisan support for Israel’s security and right to self-defense.” She endorsed the 10 year, $38 billion US military aid package to Israel while strongly backing (seven years before October 2023) a two-state Palestinian-Israeli solution.”
In the aftermath of UNSC Resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlement construction, Secretary of State John Kerry publicly blamed Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank for being the major barrier to a two-state solution to resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
