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Yossi (Joseph) Alpher

Yossi Alpher is a consultant and writer on Israel-related strategic issues, and is coeditor, with Ghassan Khatib of the bitterlemons family of internet publications. He also writes Hard questions, tough answers , a weekly security Q&A available at peacenow.org . Alpher serves on the executive committee of the Council for Peace and Security. Alpher served in the Israel Defense Forces as an Intelligence officer, followed by 12 years service in the Mossad. From 1981 to 1995 he was associated with the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, ultimately serving as director of center. While at the Jaffee Center, Alpher coordinated and coedited the landmark JCSS research project on options for a Palestinian settlement. In July 2000 (during the Camp David talks) he served as Special Adviser to the Prime Minister of Israel, concentrating on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Research areas: Middle East and North Africa

Publications

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