Crown Center for Middle East Studies

Can Arab-Israeli Peace Be Expanded Despite an Intensifying Palestinian-Israeli Conflict?: Teaching the Arab-Israeli Conflict at Brandeis

October 18, 2023
Watch the recording of the event on our YouTube channel.

Our panel discussion marked 17 years of the innovative course, “Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East,” team-taught by Shai Feldman, Abdel Monem Said Aly, and Khalil Shikaki and the second edition of their corresponding textbook Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East (one of the top 5 books on the topic recommended by Harper's Bazaar). The three authors came together to discuss how the unique approach suggested by the course and the textbook can also help explain the recent dramatic developments in the conflict and the possible ramifications of these developments on peacemaking efforts. What caused this recent horrific eruption of violence? What may affect where the conflict might go from here on? And finally, might these developments lead to renewed efforts to resolve the conflict and what might these efforts look like?

Panelists:
Shai Feldman is the Raymond Frankel Professor in Israeli Politics and Society and the founding director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies.
Abdel Monem Said Aly
is the chairman, CEO, and director of the Regional Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo, chairman of the Egyptian daily newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, and a founding senior fellow at the Crown Center.
Khalil Shikaki is the director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah and a founding senior fellow at the Crown Center.

Moderator:
Michal Ben-Josef Hirsch is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science and Legal Studies at Suffolk University and a former senior fellow at the Crown Center.

Opening remarks:
Marilyn Diamond is the Honorary Consul General for Morocco in Illinois and chair of the Crown Center's advisory board.
Gary Samore
is the Crown Family Director and professor of the practice of politics at Brandeis University.

For more resources, please see the Crown Center analyses which delve into the roots and evolution of the conflict between Hamas and Israel.

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