Israel’s 2013 Election: At a Political Crossroad

On January 14, 2013, the Program for Jewish Civilization convened a day-long conference on the legislative elections that will be held on January 22 in Israel. The conference comprised three spectacular panels, bringing together scholars, policy practitioners, and journalists from all over Washington, DC and the Middle East.

Moran Stern, who teaches for the PJC at Georgetown University, moderated a panel on domestic Israeli politics, made up of Natasha Mozgovaya of Haaretz and Natan Sachs of the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution.

This was followed by a panel on regional politics in the Middle East. The distinguished panelists included Ambassador Dennis Ross, a PJC faculty member and fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy; Professor Dan Schueftan, the Aaron and Cecile Goldman Visiting Professor in Government at Georgetown; Ghaith Al-Omari of the American Task Force on Palestine; and Gönül Tol of the Middle East Institute.

Rounding out the afternoon was a panel on Israeli-American Relations, which was moderated by Professor Robert J. Lieber and comprised David Makovsky of the Washington Institute and the Honorable Robert Wexler of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace.

On February 20-22, the PJC will host another conference, on church-state issues in the United States, France, and Israel. The three-day international conference, entitled “Secularism on the Edge,” will bring together scholars from around the world to discuss pressing concerns regarding religion and politics in these three countries. We hope you will be able to join us.