Middle East Maze: Israel, the Arabs, and the Region, a new book by Itamar Rabinovich, a senior academic historian who has served as Israel’s ambassador to U.S. and as a peace negotiator with Syria, offers his unique narrative of the Arab-Israeli conflict and peace process. Rabinovich will be joined in conversation with New York Times political commentator and author Tom Friedman.
Rabinovich places the Arab-Israeli relationship in his larger understanding of Middle Eastern regional and international politics, all the more important today given the further emergence of Iran as Israel’s and America’s chief protagonist in the region. Rabinovich and Friedman will discuss the historic roots of today’s conflict through the Abraham Accords, the Syrian civil war, the Netanyahu government, and the political crisis in Israel.
Itamar Rabinovich is a distinguished nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution. A professor and president emeritus at Tel Aviv University, he served as Israel’s ambassador to the United States and chief negotiator with Syria. His previous book, with Carmit Valensi, is Syrian Requiem (Princeton, 2021).
Thomas Friedman is an American political commentator and author. He is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who is a weekly columnist for The New York Times. He has written extensively on foreign affairs, global trade, the Middle East, globalization, and environmental issues.