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Yossi (Joseph) Alpher

Yossi Alpher is a former Mossad official and former director of the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. Until recently he co-edited bitterlemons.net.

Research areas: Middle East and North Africa

Publications

Is Israel in danger of losing its U.S. support base?: Yossi (Joseph) Alpher 3 June 2013
U.S. Jewish support for Israel, like U.S. public support in general, remains steady even as a number of U.S. Jewish commentators speculate on its decline. While there are significant changes in the way certain U.S. Jewish groups view Israel, the really significant factor that could reduce U.S. support in the medium term is the rapid ex... more
Israel’s new government and the Obama visit: Yossi (Joseph) Alpher 11 April 2013
Israel’s elections took place on January 20th 2013. Shortly thereafter newly re-elected U.S. president Barack Obama apparently sought by announcing his March 20th Middle East visit to affect the subsequent composition of Israel’s new governing coalition. Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu parried in ways that partially accommoda... more
As Syria descends into chaos: challenges to Israel: Yossi (Joseph) Alpher 13 March 2013
Syria’s evolving collapse, and with it perhaps the collapse of Lebanon as well, is liable to confront Israel with significant military and political challenges. Military challenges range from Salafi border terrorism to attacks using strategic weaponry, whether in the hands of non-state actors or in a Samson-like scenario executed by a... more
The pro-settler right wing's road to apartheid: Yossi (Joseph) Alpher 18 January 2013
A growing and increasingly influential faction of right-wing Israelis is openly advocating ideas for annexing all or most of the West Bank and relegating West Bank Palestinians to a status approaching apartheid. Members of this faction are likely to increase their influence in Israel’s approaching Knesset elections. more
Regional implications of the conflict in Syria: a view from Israel: Yossi (Joseph) Alpher 20 April 2012
Syria is geo-strategically, historically and politically the most central of Middle East countries, hence the over-riding importance of the conflict there. The competing regional interests makes any discussion of the regional implications of that conflict necessarily highly speculative. more
The Palestinian UN initiative: where Europe can make a difference: Yossi (Joseph) Alpher 22 August 2011
Neither Netanyahu nor Abbas is able or willing to make the far-reaching ideological and political concessions necessary to sustain serious new peace talks. Yet this stark reality does not necessarily render Abbas' threat to appeal to the UN a bad thing. The Palestinian UN gambit reflects a readiness on Abbas' part to make a huge conces... more
Israel's troubled relationship with Turkey and Iran: the “periphery” dimension: Yossi (Joseph) Alpher 20 December 2010
Yossi Alpher believes that Israel's approach to Turkey and Iran must be understood against the backdrop of its 1950s “periphery doctrine” of forming alliances with non-Arab and non-Muslim regional actors and its constant search for a Middle Eastern identity. more
Middle East: new directions for peacemaking: Yossi (Joseph) Alpher 7 March 2010
Yossi Alpher recommends the US and the international community should opt for alternatives to stalled Israeli-Palestinian final status talks: Israel-Syria negotiations, a reassessment of strategies for Gaza, and more dynamic support for Palestinian statebuilding. more