The Middle East Institute (MEI), the Foundation for Middle East Peace, and the Conflict Management Program of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) hosted Dov Waxman and Ilan Peleg for a discussion of Dr. Waxman's new book, Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel (Princeton University Press, 2016).
Drawing on in-depth interviews with American Jewish leaders and activists, Waxman analyzed the growing debate within the community about Israeli policies, especially Israel's treatment of Palestinians. His book examines how disagreements over Israel are impacting Jewish communities, national organizations, and advocacy groups in the United States. Waxman illustrated these differences in the context of broader cultural, political, institutional, and demographic changes happening in the American Jewish community. Ilan Peleg provided commentary and analysis. Daniel Serwer (SAIS and MEI) moderated the event.
About the Author:
Dov Waxman
Professor, Northeastern University
Dov Waxman is professor of political science, international affairs, and Israel studies at Northeastern University, and the Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies. He is also the co-director of the Middle East Center at Northeastern University. An expert on Israel, his research focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli foreign policy, U.S.-Israel relations, and American Jewry's relationship with Israel. He has previously taught at the City University of New York, Bowdoin College, and the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey; and he has been a visiting fellow at Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Oxford University. He has also worked as a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C. He is the author of three books: The Pursuit of Peace and the Crisis of Israeli Identity: Defending / Defining the Nation (Palgrave, 2006), Israel’s Palestinians: The Conflict Within (with Ilan Peleg, Cambridge University Press, 2011), and Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel (Princeton University Press, 2016). He is a frequent commentator in print, on radio, and on television, and he has lectured widely in the United States and abroad.
Dov Waxman
Professor, Northeastern University
Dov Waxman is professor of political science, international affairs, and Israel studies at Northeastern University, and the Stotsky Professor of Jewish Historical and Cultural Studies. He is also the co-director of the Middle East Center at Northeastern University. An expert on Israel, his research focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israeli foreign policy, U.S.-Israel relations, and American Jewry's relationship with Israel. He has previously taught at the City University of New York, Bowdoin College, and the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey; and he has been a visiting fellow at Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Oxford University. He has also worked as a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C. He is the author of three books: The Pursuit of Peace and the Crisis of Israeli Identity: Defending / Defining the Nation (Palgrave, 2006), Israel’s Palestinians: The Conflict Within (with Ilan Peleg, Cambridge University Press, 2011), and Trouble in the Tribe: The American Jewish Conflict over Israel (Princeton University Press, 2016). He is a frequent commentator in print, on radio, and on television, and he has lectured widely in the United States and abroad.
Speaker Biographies:
Ilan Peleg
Charles A. Dana Professor of Government and Law, Lafayette College and Adjunct Scholar, The Middle East Institute
Dr. Ilan Peleg is the Charles A. Dana professor of government and law at Lafayette College and an adjunct scholar at The Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. He is the author or editor of ten books, including Democratizing the Hegemonic State (2007) and, with Dov Waxman, Israel’s Palestinians: The Conflict Within (2011), both published by Cambridge University Press. He has also written a political biography of Menachem Begin, a book on human rights in the West Bank and Gaza, and a book analyzing the Middle East peace process. Dr. Peleg has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and in Oxford University’s St. Antony College.
Ilan Peleg
Charles A. Dana Professor of Government and Law, Lafayette College and Adjunct Scholar, The Middle East Institute
Dr. Ilan Peleg is the Charles A. Dana professor of government and law at Lafayette College and an adjunct scholar at The Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. He is the author or editor of ten books, including Democratizing the Hegemonic State (2007) and, with Dov Waxman, Israel’s Palestinians: The Conflict Within (2011), both published by Cambridge University Press. He has also written a political biography of Menachem Begin, a book on human rights in the West Bank and Gaza, and a book analyzing the Middle East peace process. Dr. Peleg has served as a visiting scholar at Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and in Oxford University’s St. Antony College.
Daniel Serwer (Moderator)
Professor of Conflict Management at Johns Hopkins SAIS and Scholar, MEI
Daniel Serwer is a senior research professor of conflict management and senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, as well as a fellow at the Middle East Institute. Formerly vice president for Centers of Peacebuilding Innovation at the United States Institute of Peace (2009-2010), he led teams there working on rule of law, religion, economics, media, technology, security sector governance, and gender. He was also vice president for Peace and Stability Operations at USIP (1998-2009), where he led its peacebuilding work in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and the Balkans and served as executive director of the Hamilton/Baker Iraq Study Group. Serwer has worked on preventing inter-ethnic and sectarian conflict in Iraq and has facilitated dialogue between Serbs and Albanians in the Balkans.
Professor of Conflict Management at Johns Hopkins SAIS and Scholar, MEI
Daniel Serwer is a senior research professor of conflict management and senior fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, as well as a fellow at the Middle East Institute. Formerly vice president for Centers of Peacebuilding Innovation at the United States Institute of Peace (2009-2010), he led teams there working on rule of law, religion, economics, media, technology, security sector governance, and gender. He was also vice president for Peace and Stability Operations at USIP (1998-2009), where he led its peacebuilding work in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and the Balkans and served as executive director of the Hamilton/Baker Iraq Study Group. Serwer has worked on preventing inter-ethnic and sectarian conflict in Iraq and has facilitated dialogue between Serbs and Albanians in the Balkans.
Praise for the Book:
"Dov Waxman could hardly have picked a more contentious topic for investigation than the troubled relationship between (and among) American Jews and Israel. But with Trouble in the Tribe, he brings to bear a rare combination of calm, reasoned analysis with scrupulous scholarly research. American Jewish arguments about Israel will certainly continue, but if Waxman's contribution to it gets the attention it deserves, they should be based far more on complex reality than simplistic fantasy. And we will all be better for it."
-Eric Alterman, columnist for The Nation
"Dov Waxman could hardly have picked a more contentious topic for investigation than the troubled relationship between (and among) American Jews and Israel. But with Trouble in the Tribe, he brings to bear a rare combination of calm, reasoned analysis with scrupulous scholarly research. American Jewish arguments about Israel will certainly continue, but if Waxman's contribution to it gets the attention it deserves, they should be based far more on complex reality than simplistic fantasy. And we will all be better for it."
-Eric Alterman, columnist for The Nation
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