Capitol Hill Webinar – The View from Israel: What a Biden Presidency Will Mean for Israel’s National Security Concerns

FEATURING:

Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger – President of “America-Israel Opportunities, Ltd”

Alex Traiman – Managing director and Jerusalem Bureau Chief of the Jewish News Syndicate

Ruthie Blum – American-Israeli journalist, columnist, and author

About this webinar: The view from Israel about a potential Biden presidency appears to differ vastly than the view from the United States. In the United States, approximately 70 percent of American Jews voted for Joe Biden. In Israel, according to a poll taken by the Israeli Democracy Institute, approximately 70 percent said that they would favor Donald Trump as the next American president.

We have been hearing promises throughout the campaign that if elected President-elect Joe Biden will be returning to the Iranian nuclear deal. The likely incoming president has also promised to re-open the PLO mission in Washington, reopen the US consulate inexact Jerusalem for the Palestinians,  work towards a two-state solution, and restore financial assistance to the Palestinians. At this time, a great deal of questions remain: Will the incoming administration repeat the mistakes of the Obama administration in its eagerness to get a deal with the Iranians? Will they remove all sanctions, including those on the transfer of lethal weapons and nuclear material to and from the Islamic republic? Will the new administration elevate Ramallah at the expense of the new agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan? Will we be going backwards to an emphasis on the Palestinians and what will this mean for the opening of relations with the Sunni and Gulf states?

Here to answer these questions and more are Ambassador Yoram Ettinger, Alex Traiman, and Ruthie Blum.

Yoram Ettinger is the President of “America-Israel Opportunities, Ltd”, a consultancy on US Mideast policy, US- Israel relations and inter-Arab affairs.  He interacts on a daily basis – via briefings, consulting, speaking engagements and media interviews – with policy-makers, legislators and staffers, journalists, professors & students, Christian and Jewish clergy, political clubs, civic organizations, chambers of commerce, businessmen and women, etc.

He is co-founder of the America-Israel Demographic Research Group, which has documented a 1 million gap in the number of Arabs in Judea & Samaria, refuting the myth of “Arab demographic time bomb” and documenting unprecedented Jewish demographic tailwind.

Yoram served as Minister for Congressional Affairs – with the rank of Ambassador – at Israel’s Embassy in Washington, DC. (1989-1992); Director of Israel’s Government Press Office, coordinating relations with overseas journalists (1988-1989); Israel’s Consul General to the Southwestern USA, based in Houston, Texas (1985-1988); the editor of the “Contemporary Mideast Backgrounder,” which was disseminated to thousands of policy-makers and public opinion molders in Hebrew, English, Spanish, French and German (1976-1985); Deputy Director of the US Cultural Center in Jerusalem (1975-1976); information officer at Israel’s Consulate General in Los Angeles (1971-1973); the Alabama Trade Representative in Israel (1997-2000).

Alex Traiman is the Managing Director and Jerusalem Bureau Chief of JNS.org.  Alex has his finger on the pulse of everything that is happening in Israel and within the Israeli Knesset. He has written scores of articles, and had directed and produced major films, such  critically acclaimed as “Iranium” and “Honor Diaries”

Ruthie Blum is an editor of JNS. org and a highly published columnist whose columns regularly appear in The Jerusalem Post, JNS.org, Israel HaYom, The Washington Times and other periodicals. She is the author of the book, “To Hell in a Handbasket: carter, Obama and the Arab Spring.”