Itamar Rabinovich, who served as Israel’s ambassador to the United States, and Daniel C. Kurtzer, who served as America’s ambassador to Egypt and to Israel, will engage in a public discussion, “Obama, Netanyahu and the New Middle East,” on Sunday, April 14.

Former Israeli Ambassador Rabinovich, American Ambassador Kurtzer to Discuss Middle East Politics —April 14

Itamar Rabinovich, who served as Israel’s ambassador to the United States (1993-1996) during the Rabin government, and Daniel C. Kurtzer, who served as America’s ambassador to Egypt from 1997 to 2001 and to Israel from 2001 to 2005, during the Bush Administration, will engage in a public discussion, “Obama, Netanyahu, and the New Middle East,” on Sunday, April 14, 5 p.m. at NYU’s Languages and Literature Building (19 University Place [room 102], at 8th Street).

The lecture, sponsored by NYU’s Taub Center for Israel Studies, is free, but an RSVP is required to fas.taubcenter@nyu.edu or 212.998.8981. Reporters interested in attending the event must RSVP to James Devitt, NYU’s Office of Public Affairs, at 212.998.6808 or james.devitt@nyu.edu. Subway Lines: N, R (8th Street); 6 (Astor Place).

Currently a Global Distinguished Professor at NYU’s Taub Center for Israel Studies, Rabinovich served as the president of Tel Aviv University from 1999 to 2007. He is the author of several books, including The View from Damascus: State, Political Community and Foreign Relations in Twentieth-Century Syria; Syria Under the Ba’ath; The War for Lebanon; The Road Not Taken: Early Arab-Israeli Negotiations; The Brink of Peace: Israel and Syria; and The Lingering Conflict: Israel, the Arabs and the Middle East, 1948-2011.

Kurtzer is the S. Daniel Abraham Professor in Middle Eastern policy studies at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Throughout his 29-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service and State Department, Ambassador Kurtzer played a key role in shaping U.S. policy in the Middle East peace process, crafting the 1988 peace initiative of Secretary of State George P. Shultz, and in 1991 served as a member of the U.S. peace team that brought about the Madrid Peace Conference. He is the co-author of Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East. He was a foreign policy advisor to President Obama’s campaign in 2008 and is a contributor to the Washington Post and other publications on developments in the Middle East.

Press Contact

James Devitt
James Devitt
(212) 998-6808