Israel Dialogues Fall 2024
In April 2020 the Israel Dialogues Panel launched this program in the shadow of the Sheikh Jarrah – Temple Mount tensions. Those burst into a short but significant violent conflict between Hamas and Israel. Since then, we have covered Israel’s external regional diplomatic and security issues. With topics ranging from Iran, weapons proliferation, Arab and Palestinian politics, the Abraham Accords, and Israel within the larger global context where the United States, European countries, China and the Russia-Ukraine conflict impact, domestic challenges including the economy, religion, politics, and law.
Our panel has also examined Israel-diaspora relations, university campus life, and ongoing debates about antisemitism and anti-Zionism. Of course, during the past two years, the deep domestic crisis around judicial “reform” and then the dreadful Hamas-led attacks of October 7th followed by the complex set of consequences have focussed much of our attention.
In the coming months, we will have the opportunity to return to some of these continuing issues, sometimes with panel discussions and often with one or more invited expert guests. We have an exciting and influential series of speakers lined up for after the holidays that we are excited to reveal.
Israel Dialogues has been made possible by the voluntary contributions of time, knowledge, and commitment by the core organizing panellists and by our many guest experts, who participate without charge as this is part of their involvement in public education. We are grateful for this incredible, and priceless, gift.
Guest Presenters
Alan Baker: Alan Baker is an expert in international law and former ambassador of the state of Israel to Canada. He is the director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs and a former partner at a major Tel Aviv law firm. He was a military prosecutor and senior legal advisor to the IDF. He participated in the negotiation and drafting of the Oslo Accords with the Palestinians, as well as agreements and peace treaties with Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon.
Meir Litvak: Meir Litvak is a Professor at the Department of Middle Eastern History and a senior research associate at the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University. His research focuses on Modern Iranian and Shi’i history, modern Islamic movements, and Arab anti-Semitism. He is also the Former Chair of the department and Former Director of the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University.
Alon Pinkas: Alon Pinkas served as Israel’s Consul General in New York from 2000 – 2004. Prior to that, Pinkas served as the Chief of Staff to two foreign ministers and was the adviser on US affairs to former Prime Minister Ehud Barak (1999-2001). Today he continues his work as a foreign affairs analyst and commentator in foreign and Israeli media outlets in TV, radio and newspapers, as well as International political consulting in several countries.
Asher Susser: is Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University (TAU). He was the Director of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at TAU for twelve years and taught for over thirty-five years in TAU’s Department of Middle Eastern History. He has been a Fulbright Fellow; a visiting professor at Cornell University, the University of Chicago, Brandeis University, and the Stein Family Professor of Modern Israel Studies at the University of Arizona.
Limor Yehuda: Limor Yehuda is currently a postdoctoral fellow at The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University, and at the Minerva Center for the Rule of Law Under Extreme Conditions at the Haifa University and an adjunct lecturer of Transitional Justice at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2019-2020 Limor was a post-doctoral fellow at the Transitional Justice program at the Minerva Center for Human Rights in Tel-Aviv University. Limor served six years at Israel’s Supreme Court as a legal assistant and member of Chief Justice Aharon Barak’s legal team and later as a human rights lawyer and director of the department for human rights in the Occupied Territories at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel.
Panelists
Mark S. Anshan is a lawyer and a former Canadian diplomat, serving on several non-profit boards. He provides legal, business, strategic and organisational advice to not-for-profits and charities. Prior to becoming a lawyer, he served in the Canadian Foreign Service at the United Nations and the Canadian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. Mark is a past President of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto, and past President of ARZA Canada and past Chair of ARZENU.
David Dewitt joined York University in 1983, following studies at UBC, University of Chicago, and Stanford University and appointments at UBC and U of Alberta. He is now University Professor Emeritus & Senior Scholar, International Relations. He is the author and editor of 11 books on international affairs and foreign policy.
Jon Allen was Canada’s Ambassador to Israel from 2006-2010. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto and at Glendon College, York University and a Distinguished Fellow of the Canada International Council.
Dylan Hanley is currently Director, Public Affairs with The U15, advocating on behalf of Canada’s leading research universities to the federal government. Prior to his role with The U15, Dylan spent almost a decade with CIJA, Canada’s leading Jewish advocacy organization, where he was responsible for government relations and university outreach.
Jasmin Habib is the Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Waterloo, former Director of the PhD Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International Affairs (2019-2022) and founding Director of the Global Engagement Seminar Program (2016-2019).
Derek Penslar is the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History at Harvard University. His research specialties are modern Jewish history in Europe, Israel, and North America. Between 1998 and 2016, Derek held the Samuel Zacks Chair in Jewish History at U of T, and between 2012 and 2016, he was the inaugural holder of the Stanley Lewis Chair in Modern Israel Studies at Oxford.
We gratefully recall the memory of Prof. Howard Adelman z’’l, who was instrumental in the founding of the Israel Dialogues. He was a leading scholar of philosophy, a tireless advocate for refugees, member of the Order of Canada, and a mensch. Zekher tazdik lvrakha, his righteous memory remains a blessing.
