Israel 30 Years After the Rabin Assassination

Israel 30 Years After the Rabin Assassination

On November 4, 1995, a right-wing Israeli extremist assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin during a mass pro-peace rally in Tel Aviv. Thirty years after this tragic event, the Rabin-led Oslo peace process seems like a distant memory, with an Israel that is increasingly isolated and a society that is even more deeply polarized. The most right-wing and religious government in Israel’s history has sought to weaken the High Court of Justice, posing a threat to the independence of the country’s judicial system and sparking wide-spread mass demonstrations throughout the country. The October 7 Hamas assault and subsequent Gaza War have shaken the entire region. What significance did the Rabin assassination have in these developments and what does the future hold for Israel? These and other burning questions will be addressed by two top experts with decades of experience in Middle East diplomacy and Israeli security.

Charles D. (“Chuck”) Freilich is currently a visiting professor at Georgetown University. He also teaches political science at Tel Aviv University, Columbia and NYU and was a long-time senior fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He was a deputy national security adviser in Israel and is the senior editor of the Israel Journal for Foreign Affairs. Freilich is the author of Zion’s Dilemmas: How Israel Makes National Security Policy; Israeli National Security: A New Strategy for an Era of Change; and Israel and the Cyber Threat: How the Startup Nation Became a Global Cyber Power. He is currently working on a new book on US-Israeli relations.

Aaron David Miller is a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. As a former State Department Middle East analyst and negotiator both in Republican and Democratic administrations he knew Yitzhak Rabin well. Between 2003 and 2006 he served as President of Seeds of Peace, a coexistence organization training young leaders from the Middle East, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. From 2006 to 2018, Miller was a Distinguished Scholar and later Vice -President for New Initiatives at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He is the author of five books, most recently, of The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want) Another Great President.

Polina Beliakova (Moderator) is an international security scholar specializing in civil-military relations and the use of force. Dr. Beliakova is an assistant professor of foreign policy and global security at American University.

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Event Venue & Nearby Stays

4400 Massachusetts Ave NW, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, Washington, United States