Episode 54: Israel at 75 - A Look at the Challenges and Opportunities

Global in the Granite State

Things have never been easy for the modern state of Israel over the past 75 years, including today where the government faces a wide variety of external and internal pressures. Over the past four years the government has struggled to build a lasting coalition, having five elections in that timeframe and watching countrywide protests erupt over their judicial reform bill in recent months. In addition, the country inhabits an inherently hostile space, as several of their neighbors see the state as illegitimate and take particular issue with the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. While there are no easy answers on the path to a two state solution, there are opportunities for progress.

The Global in the Granite State podcast dives into the current state of affairs in Israel, bringing in a historical perspective, by speaking with Jason Isaacson, Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer at the American Jewish Committee. By listening to this month's episode you will come away with a better understanding of the current challenges and opportunities that Israel faces as it celebrates its 75th anniversary. These include the recent challenge over the judicial reform bill, ongoing regional tensions that flared over into violence in the past few weeks, and the longstanding, unresolved issue of creating compromise with the Palestinian leadership.
Jason Isaacson, Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer at the American Jewish Committee, is a longtime analyst of U.S. political and strategic affairs and an advocate for Arab-Israeli peace. An observer to the 1991-92 Middle East peace talks in Madrid, Moscow, and Washington, he represented AJC at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna; since 1993, he has coordinated periodic AJC ministerial meetings throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and Asia, including numerous visits that were the first by an American Jewish civic organization. He has lectured periodically at the Diplomatic Institute of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and the Jordan Institute of Diplomacy. In 2002, he was a Senior Visitor at St. Antony’s College, Oxford University. Isaacson directed an AJC initiative to strengthen transatlantic cooperation on Middle East policy – resulting in the opening of the Transatlantic Institute in Brussels in 2004. In 2005, in Tunis, he convened an NGO seminar on tolerance-promotion on the Internet, in conjunction with the UN World Summit on the Information Society. In 2015, he coordinated in Brussels the Defining Moment for Europe conference on strategies to combat resurgent antisemitism. In 2007, the French Minister of Culture and Communication awarded him the rank of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. In July 2009, King Mohammed VI bestowed on Isaacson the honor of Chevalier of the Order of the Throne of the Kingdom of Morocco.