92NY Center for Culture & Arts

Recanati-Kaplan Talks

One Year Later: Israel, the Middle East War, and US-Israel Relations

Dennis Ross, IGP Carnegie Distinguished Fellow Jane Harman and Nadav Eyal, moderated by Keren Yarhi-Milo

Dennis Ross, Jane Harman, Nadav Eyal, and Keren Yarhi-Milo

One year after the horrific terrorist attack of October 7th, 2023, the largest single attack against Jews since the Holocaust, Israel is at war on four fronts – from Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and the militants in the West Bank.

The war in Gaza has emerged as the deadliest conflict in the Middle East since 1973, and has revealed the internal, regional, and global complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The war’s one-year anniversary is happening against the backdrop of a divisive election here in the United States, deepening internal political rifts in Israel, a new president installed in Iran, and heightened tensions across the Arab world. Join this panel of distinguished experts and journalists, cosponsored by Columbia University’s Institute of Global Politics (IGP) and 92NY, to hear their analysis of the ongoing war in Gaza, the domestic political situation in Israel, and the outlook for U.S.-Israeli relations.

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Dennis Ross

Ambassador Dennis Ross is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy …

Dennis Ross

Diplomat; former US Special Envoy to the Middle East; William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Ambassador Dennis Ross is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He also teaches at Georgetown University’s Center for Jewish Civilization. For more than twelve years, Amb. Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process, dealing directly with the parties as the U.S. point man on the peace process in both the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. He served two and half years as special assistant to President Obama and National Security Council senior director for the Central Region, spending the first 6 months of the Administration as the special advisor on Iran to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Prior to his service as special Middle East coordinator under President Clinton, Amb. Ross served as director of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff in the first Bush administration. He played a prominent role in U.S. policy towards the former Soviet Union, the unification of Germany and its integration into NATO, arms control negotiations, and the 1991 Gulf War coalition. During the Reagan administration, he served as director of Near East and South Asian affairs on the National Security Council staff and deputy director of the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment.

A graduate of UCLA, Amb. Ross wrote his doctoral dissertation on Soviet decision-making, and served as executive director of the Berkeley-Stanford program on Soviet International Behavior. He received UCLA’s highest medal and has been named UCLA alumnus of the year. Amb. Ross is the author of five books on the peace process, the Middle East, and international relations, most recently Be Strong and of Good Courage: How Israel’s Most Important Leaders Shaped Its Destiny (PublicAffairs, 2019), written with his colleague David Makovsky, which was published in September 2019. It provides profiles of four Israeli prime ministers who made historic choices and explores the lessons from those decisions to see if they can provide a guide to dealing with the fateful choice that Israel’s leaders must soon confront or by default become a binational state.

Previously, Amb. Ross authored Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2015). That book was awarded the 2015 National Jewish Book Award for history. He also co-authored Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East (Viking, 2009) with Mr. Makovsky. An earlier study, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2004), offers comprehensive analytical and personal insight into the Middle East peace process. The New York Times praised his 2007 publication, Statecraft, And How to Restore America’s Standing in the World (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007), as “important and illuminating.”

Nadav Eyal

Nadav Eyal is one of Israel’s most prominent journalists and a winner of the Sokolov Award …

Nadav Eyal

IGP Senior Research Scholar; Author of Revolt, the Worldwide Uprising Against Globalization; senior columnist for Yediot Ahronot Daily, Israel’s most circulated newspaper

Nadav Eyal is one of Israel’s most prominent journalists and a winner of the Sokolov Award—Israel’s equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. He writes columns for Yediot Ahronot and Ynet, Israel’s most widely circulated newspaper and news website, respectively. He also serves as a senior commentator for Channel 12, one of Israel’s two commercial channels.

Since 2021, Eyal has served as the chairman of the Movement for Freedom of Information, a highly regarded NGO in Israel dedicated to promoting transparency and accountability, aiming to foster a more open, democratic, and accountable society.

Beginning on October 7, 2023, he has focused his work on stories and analyses related to the Hamas attack and the subsequent war in Gaza and the northern border of Israel, including reporting multiple times from the field and writing the accounts of victims.

Eyal authored the bestseller REVOLT, the Worldwide Uprising Against Globalization, which was published in 2021 by Ecco HarperCollins (USA) and Picador (UK), and has been translated into multiple languages. REVOLT challenges prevailing views on nationalism and populism and argues that modern globalization is unsustainable, not only due to technological and social imbalances or the decline of liberal democracy, but because of a sentiment, a drive to dismantle hollow, corrupt, and unresponsive power structures. Yuval Noah Harari praised the book as “a well-written and thought-provoking account of the current crisis of globalization.” Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister of Israel, lauded it as a “compelling and penetrating epic on the crisis of globalization and the liberal order, showcasing Eyal’s depth of thought, superb storytelling, and absolute integrity.” President Clinton highlighted its global perspective, noting, “With dispatches from around the globe, Nadav Eyal explores why so many people are rejecting interdependence, even when we need each other more than ever.”

In 2023, Eyal published HOW DEMOCRACY WINS (if it does) in Hebrew. Haaretz described the book as “one of the most interesting books ever written on democracy in Hebrew,” noting the author’s skill in “weaving local and global narratives, enriching them with historical anecdotes, and grounding them in solid intellectual thinking.”

Throughout his journalistic career, Eyal has extensively covered Middle East affairs, Israel’s role in a globalized world, and Washington-Jerusalem relations. His writings have appeared occasionally in Haaretz, the Daily Telegraph, Der Spiegel, The Washington Post, and The Daily Beast. He has held senior positions in major Israeli media groups, interviewed four Israeli prime ministers, and foreign heads of state.

In July 2016, several months before the U.S. presidential elections, Eyal aired Trumpland, a series of short documentaries focusing on the grievances of America’s rust belt, which highlighted the serious prospect of a Trump victory well before it was considered likely. A year earlier, he documented the journey of Syrian refugees in Europe, from their landing in rafts on a Greek beach to their first job interviews in Germany. In 2014, he aired Hate, which explored rising anti-Semitism in conversations with neo-Nazis and nationalist leaders across Europe.

Eyal has been a leading political reporter in Israel, covering the country’s turbulent political scene, three general elections, and four U.S. presidential elections (2008, 2012, 2016, 2020). He also reported, from the field, on the Second Lebanon War (2006) and Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip (2005). In 2008, he was appointed Ma’ariv’s daily chief correspondent in Europe, based in London. During that period, he covered significant events such as the Mumbai terror attacks and the Greek and EU financial crises, as well as the IAEA monitoring of Iran’s nuclear program.

He earned an MSc in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (with merit) as a Chevening Scholar and an LL.B. from Hebrew University (magna cum laude). In 2015, he received the B’nai B’rith World Center Award for Journalism in recognition of his “excellence in Diaspora reportage.” Eyal is married to Tamar Ish Shalom, a chief anchor for Channel 13 TV in Israel, and they have three children.

Keren Yarhi-Milo

Dr. Keren Yarhi-Milo is the dean of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs …

Keren Yarhi-Milo

Dean, Columbia School of International and Public Affairs; Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Relations; IGP Faculty Advisory Board Member

Dr. Keren Yarhi-Milo is the dean of Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and the Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Relations. She is a world-renowned and award-winning expert in international security and crisis decision-making and the youngest dean in SIPA’s history. Yarhi-Milo joined the tenured faculty at Columbia University in 2019 after a decade at Princeton University. Before becoming dean in July 2022, Yarhi-Milo served for two years as director of SIPA’s Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.

As a scholar and professor, Yarhi-Milo bridges the worlds of academia and policy, focusing predominantly on how leaders make foreign policy decisions regarding the use of force. Her work draws on cutting-edge methods and theoretical insights from psychology, organizational theory, and behavioral economics. Her research also delves into the complexities of signaling and (mis)perception in world politics, threat assessments and intelligence analysis, the role of secrecy and deception in foreign policy, and the importance of face-to-face diplomacy. She is the author of two award-winning books: Who Fights for Reputation? The Psychology of Leaders in International Conflict (Princeton, 2018), and Knowing The Adversary: Leaders, Intelligence Organizations, and Assessments of Intentions in International Relations (Princeton, 2014) and has published extensively in the top academic journals in the field of political science.

Yarhi-Milo is one of the world’s foremost scholars on the psychology of leadership and decision-making, making her a sought-after voice in the public arena. She recently coauthored an essay in The Atlantic on what the intelligence failures of the 1973 Yom Kippur War teach us about the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. She also coauthored an op-ed in The New York Times with her counterpart at Princeton, Dean Amaney Jamal, on the need for greater civil discourse on campuses. She is a frequent contributor to the print edition of Foreign Affairs, including most recently an essay entitled “The Credibility Trap: Is Reputation Worth Fighting For” (July/August 2024 issue), on why reputations for resolve are so difficult to maintain, and “Why Smart Leaders Do Stupid Things: Is Foreign Policy Rational?” (November/December 2023 issue), on why leaders do not always act rationally.

In 2023, Yarhi-Milo founded and launched the Institute of Global Politics (IGP), a new, world-class institute at Columbia SIPA with a faculty advisory board chaired by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Building on the accomplishments of its inaugural year, IGP brings people together across geographic and political divides, creates a space for open dialogue across ideological differences, inspires new and policy-relevant ideas, and advances necessary conversations to build the foundation for impactful solutions addressing some of today’s most pressing challenges. In March 2024, IGP launched its Women’s Initiative, centered around four main pillars: women’s economic opportunity, women’s health, women’s safety and security, and women’s leadership, democracy, and human rights.

During the fall of 2023, Yarhi-Milo co-taught the course Inside the Situation Room with Secretary Clinton. The course of 380 students, chosen through a competitive application, discussed the psychological biases that influence crisis decision-making. Class sessions covered the role of advisors, emotions, reputation, domestic public opinion, and other factors, and merged some of the major theories of international relations with prominent historical case studies and insights from the Secretary’s own time as a decision maker “inside the Situation Room.” The theme of the course inspired an edited volume, edited by Yarhi-Milo and Secretary Clinton and featuring leading practitioners and scholars, forthcoming with Oxford University Press.

Yarhi-Milo a series editor of Princeton Studies in International History and Politics from Princeton University Press. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Yarhi-Milo earned her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA, summa cum laude, from Columbia University. She grew up in Israel, where she served in the IDF intelligence while completing mandatory military service. While in Israel, she worked with several NGOs promoting peace in the Middle East, including the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation. She lives in New York City with her husband and two sons.

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