In cooperation with the Austrian Study Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ASPR), the International Institute for Peace (IIP) kindly invites you to a public talk with Ofer Zalzberg:
Israeli Elections, an Israeli-Palestinian Peace Deal and Mounting Israeli-Iranian Tensions: New Dynamics or More of the Same?
Date: Thursday, 12 September 2019
Time: 6:00 pm
Venue: International Institute for Peace (IIP); Möllwaldplatz 5/2,
1040 Wien
Registration: registration@iip.at
https://www.iipvienna.com/registration
Welcome: Hannes Swoboda, president of the IIP and former MEP
Gudrun Kramer, director of ASPR
Speaker: Ofer Zalzberg, Senior Analyst at the International Crisis Group
Moderator: Stephanie Fenkart, director IIP
Content:
After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to form a coalition government in spring, Israelis will vote again in the parliamentary elections on September 17. The incumbent PM has already broken the record as the longest serving leader of his country and is likely to win this time again. Corruption charges and even Attorney’s General recommendation issued earlier this year to indict Netanyahu have barely affected his popularity among the right-leaning voters. Netanyahu’s continued rule, it seems, would hardly mean any progress towards the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. With President Donald Trump in the White House, Netanyahu may justifiably hope for American support of even the most controversial claims of Israel with regard to the Palestinian territories. Donald Trump has given enough reasons to believe that. In late 2017 he moved the main seat of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and just a few months ago recognized Israel’s territorial claim over the Golan Heights. At the same time, the American President announced in August that he will present his peace plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after the September elections. So far, apart from presenting an economic plan which unaccountably assumes international pledges of $50 bn, it remains unclear what this plan will entail. Gaza remains on the brink of large scale escalation. In addition to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, developments around Iran’s nuclear program and Tehran’s involvement in the war in Syria and in support of Hezbollah in Lebanon have also scored high on Netanyahu’s security agenda, prompting him to condemn international efforts to engage with Iran diplomatically and more recently, to order a military strike on Iranian drones in Syria.
In his talk, Ofer Zalzberg will present his perspective on recent developments inside Israel and in the broader region, offering insights of what they might mean for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and what role international actors, like the EU, US, but also Russia, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran can play in this regard.
Ofer Zalzberg is a Senior Analyst in Crisis Group's Arab-Israel Project since 2010. He covers the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Israel's relations with its neighbors. He leads a religious peacebuilding work stream, working primarily with prominent conservative, right-leaning religious authorities, Jewish and Muslim. He is an affiliate of the Vienna-based Herbert C. Kelman Institute for Interactive Conflict Transformation.
The Discussion will be held in English.
The IIP invites to snacks and drinks after the event!
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