I haven’t done a post like this in a while. But that doesn’t mean I’m not still very bad, and don’t think about this kind of thing 24/7.
The U.S. Institute of Peace is funded by Congress as a nonpartisan institution to help resolve international conflicts. Now look here. They’re doing a big panel Dec. 7 on internal politics in Israel. And it looks like all 4 speakers are Jewish and/or Israeli. What can you say about this kind of thing? It’s inappropriate. In an area of conflict in which religious and ethnic differences have played a large role… regarding a country that is 20 percent non-Jewish and in which questions of racial discrimination have become huge, and questions about blind American support for whose policies have also lately arisen… they couldn’t find a Palestinian-American or a non-Jewish American?
But I guess those people don’t have opinions or expertise. I see I did a similar post about the Council on Foreign Relations‘ braintrust back in June or so. At least that’s a private shop. From the federally-funded USIP:
For Israel, the question of peace with its neighbors has always touched on the most sensitive internal divides. As part of a USIP series focusing on domestic politics in Israel and its neighbors, a panel of esteemed experts will examine various levels of internal dynamics in Israel – from divides within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner circle to fissures within Israeli society more broadly – and their impact on Israel’s regional conflicts and its relationship with the United States.
This event will be on the record and feature the following speakers:
David Makovsky
Ziegler Distinguished Fellow and Director, Project on the Middle East Peace Process The Washington Institute
Yoram Peri
Abraham S. and Jack Kay Chair in Israel Studies and Director of the Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies University of Maryland
Shai Feldman
Judith and Sidney Swartz Director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies Brandeis University
Scott Lasensky,
Chair and Discussant co-author with Daniel C. Kurtzer, “Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace” U.S. Institute of Peace
About the Series: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Internal Challenges on the Road to Peace Certain domestic Israeli and Palestinian concerns — from state institution-building and secular-religious divides, to coalition politics and educational reform — have strong implications for the broader conflict, and for international efforts towards a peaceful resolution. Through a series of panels and related publications over the course of the year, USIP will explore such critical yet oft-neglected internal dynamics….
