In Case You Missed It:
Recording of 'Bridging the Divide Between American and Israeli Jewry' Featuring Jonathan Tobin

As the old saying goes, “where you stand has a great deal to do with where you sit.” While the Biden administration has said reassuring words that they want to negotiate a “longer and stronger deal with Iran”, to those who are forced to live in the Middle East, this might sound incurably naïve.  The latest offer from the United States to lift some sanctions in order to get the Iranians to sit down at the negotiating table was summarily rejected by the Iranians.

To many observers, it appears that the United States is anxious to “just make a deal” with the Iranians, and that they do not understand Tehran’s history of negotiations. However, many who are forced to live in the Middle East, have looked at the results of the 2015 negotiations with the Islamic Republic, and  may well believe that we, here, have  little appreciation of the  very real existential threat that Israel and our Gulf allies are under. That threat will only be enhanced if the talks, for any of a multitude of reasons begin to go awry.

For the United States, which is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean on our East, and the Pacific on our West, and which is  over 7,000 milies away from Tehran, this  might appear to be an “academic” issue, but for Israel and our Gulf Arab allies, this constitutes a very real, existential threat.

Here to discuss this, and what the Israelis might well feel that they have to  do to be able to survive. is Professor Efraim Inbar.

About Prof. Efraim Inbar:

Prof. Efraim Inbar is President of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.  He was a Professor in Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University and the founding Director of the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies.

Inbar’s area of specialization is Middle Eastern strategic issues with a special interest in the politics and strategy of Israeli national security. He has written over 100 scholarly articles. He has authored five books: Outcast Countries in the World Community (1985), War and Peace in Israeli Politics. Labor Party Positions on National Security (1991), Rabin and Israel’s National Security (1999), The Israeli-Turkish Entente (2001), and Israel's National Security: Issues and Challenges since the Yom Kippur War (2008). He has also edited fourteen collections of articles.

Inbar was educated at the Hebrew University (B.A. in Political Science and English Literature) and at the University of Chicago (M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science).   He  served  as  visiting  professor  at   Johns   Hopkins University, at Georgetown University, at Boston University, as visiting scholar  at   the Woodrow   Wilson   International   Center   for   Scholars (Washington) and at the (London) International Institute for Strategic Studies. Prof. Inbar was appointed as a Manfred Warner NATO Fellow and was the recipient of the Onassis Fellowship.

Prof. Inbar was a member of the Political Strategic Committee of the National Planning Council and the Chair of the Committee for the National Security Curriculum at the Ministry of Education. He served on the Academic Committee of the History Department of the IDF and as the President of the Israel Association of International Studies. He is widely quoted in the international press.

He served in the IDF as a paratrooper.