A first-of-its-kind multifaith gathering that took place last week in Saudi Arabia and openly included a delegation of Jewish religious leaders was an extremely positive step, one of the participating rabbis told Jewish Insider, but should not be seen as a sign that the kingdom will soon enter into any sort of normalization agreement with Israel.

The two-day Forum on Common Values among Religious Followers kicked off in Riyadh last Wednesday – the day a Palestinian-American journalist was shot dead during clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants. Hosted by the Muslim World League, the event also included leadership from the Catholic Church, Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate, evangelical Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as religious leaders from other countries across the Muslim world.

Rabbi David Rosen, the director of international interreligious relations at the American Jewish Committee, who was the only rabbi from Israel in attendance, called the meeting “historic,” saying it was a significant milestone for a country that portrays itself as the bedrock of Islam.

However, he also told JI that the unprecedented gathering in the heart of the Muslim world was more about changes taking place internally in Saudi Arabia — rather than about the diplomatic process taking place in the region that was sparked by the signing of a normalization agreement between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in September 2020. Morocco and Sudan inked their own agreements with the Jewish state in the following months.

“What they are doing is for itself and its own future,” said Rosen, who has been involved in interfaith relations for decades and has visited Saudi Arabia in the past. The Saudi leadership, he added, “would love to have a normal relationship with Israel, but unless there is movement on the Palestinian front or at least a show towards a solution, there is no chance of them joining.”

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians reached a new high last week after Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran Al Jazeera journalist, was killed while reporting for the channel in the Palestinian city of Jenin. The Palestinian Authority and the channel have blamed Israel for Abu Akleh’s death. Israel has expressed sorrow at her death but also cast doubt on its culpability and called for an investigation into the incident. 

However, images of Israeli police attacking mourners as Abu Akleh was laid to rest on Friday afternoon also sparked anger and drew worldwide condemnation from governments, including the U.S. administration.

In Saudi Arabia, however, Rosen said the conference was “a transformation” in terms of Muslim-Jewish relations, adding that such a gathering in the kingdom would have been “unimaginable in the past.”

“That such a multifaith conference was hosted by Saudi Arabia, which has seen itself as a kind of Muslim Vatican and which until recently viewed any presence of other religions to be undesirable, is truly a sign of new times,” Rosen said. 

He added, “the fact that the Muslim World League, the traditional tool for exporting exclusive extremist Wahabi ideology, was the organizer of this multifaith gathering, shows how dramatically things have changed.”

He said that the delegation of Jewish faith leaders, which included liberal and Orthodox Jewish streams from the United States and Europe, was well-received, with the Muslim World League taking extra steps to ensure they had access to kosher food. The food, he said, was provided by Rabbi Jacob Herzog, who touts himself as the chief rabbi of the Kingdom Saudi Arabia and provides religious services to Jewish tourists and those there on business.  

Also present at the conference, said Rosen, were three U.S. ambassadors for religious freedom, including the current one, Rashad Hussein, who called on all religious leaders to take steps to combat the rise of antisemitism. Hussein, added Rosen, also referred to a visit made by Muslim World League’s Secretary-General Dr. Mohammad Al-Issa to Auschwitz two years ago.

Overall, Rosen said there was “a very strong sense articulated widely at the conference that this was a major breakthrough of enormous consequence for Saudi Arabia, the Muslim world and consequentially globally.”

“The atmosphere at this event had the character of a momentous celebration, which was far more important than the content of the speeches,” he noted, adding that the pluralistic sentiment of the final declaration, which called on spiritual leaders to leverage common principles and work to advance tolerance and peace, was remarkable precisely because it was issued from Saudi Arabia.

Over the coming months, investors would do well to pay attention to the impending food shortages caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, particularly the drying up of the wheat supply in Egypt and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. That’s the advice from Ghanem Nuseibeh, founder of Cornerstone Global Associates, a London-based consulting firm that specializes in risk management in the MENA region.

“Basically you’re talking about potential riots, with collapsing economies, collapsing politics and collapsing societies,” Nuseibeh said in an interview with The Circuit. “Bread is the main food staple. If countries run out of wheat, food becomes more expensive and people have less to eat. We haven’t reached the point of famine, but in a couple of months it could easily get there.” Nuseibeh said Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states that can afford the price spikes will have to subsidize Egypt’s wheat supply.

Nuseibeh, 45, was born in Jerusalem to a prominent Palestinian family whose history has been intertwined for centuries with the city revered by Muslims, Jews and Christians. He lived in the U.K. as a teenager, earned a Master’s degree in civil engineering from London’s Imperial College and spent much of the next two decades working in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in the Gulf.

Among his relatives are Zaki Nusseibeh, a close adviser to Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Zayed al Nahyan, the UAE’s de facto leader, and a former cabinet minister; the UAE’s ambassador to the United Nations, Lana Nusseibeh, Zaki’s daughter; and Sari Nusseibeh, the veteran Palestinian leader and scholar. (Ghanem spells his family name with one ‘s.’)

Surveying regional trends, Nuseibeh said investors must recognize the effect that global efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels are having on oil-producing nations. Though prices have risen because of the Ukraine conflict, any strategic advantage over Western economies that Saudi Arabia may feel will gradually diminish, he said.

“What does the Gulf have to offer after the decoupling happens?” Nuseibeh said. “The Saudis realize that they are really part of the ‘western’ Middle East. Russia and China are in no way capable of replacing the relationship with the U.S. It’s a matter of just a few years before they become less strategically important to the West.”

In the financial realm, Nuseibeh said a strong regulatory environment is critical if Dubai pushes forward with its blueprint to become a global hub for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and NFTs (non-fungible tokens). He warned any perception that the UAE is lax in exercising financial controls will attract corrupt traders looking to cheat the system.

Apart from his business activities, Nuseibeh has taken great interest in the development of the Jewish community in Dubai and is founding chairman of London-based Muslims Against Antisemitism. He has tangled for years with Qatar since writing a report warning of the political risk associated with the Gulf state’s hosting of soccer’s 2022 World Cup. The event is set to take place in November.

Nuseibeh said addressing food insecurity and renewable energy have become key areas for cooperation between the UAE and Israel since they normalized relations in 2020. He added that both countries have worked diligently to prevent their new alliance from being derailed by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which threatened to erupt again last month in East Jerusalem.

“The opportunities are there and many people are starting to look at Israel as just another country in the region,” Nuseibeh said.

LOS ANGELES — Gideon Friedmann, the acting chief scientist at Israel’s Ministry of Energy detailed on Wednesday how the country plans to transition to renewable energy and urged private investors to fund research in the field. Government support is important, said Friedmann, but investors will need to more forcefully enter the market if countries hope to work toward net-zero emissions.

“The private sector is not doing very well, because everyone here wants to get their return, and [a] high return. And it’s not easy to get a high return on infrastructure,” or a quick return, Friedmann told attendees at a panel at the Milken Institute Global Conference. According to Friedmann, it takes up to 15 years to build a power line, for instance, so any kind of fast returns would be impossible. 

At several sustainability-focused panels at Milken, environmental experts and financial professionals urged investors to consider putting more money into the research and development of technologies such as carbon capturing and bringing deep geothermal heat out of the ground. 

Developing new technologies may yield smaller returns in the short-term, Friedmann argued, but it will pay dividends as more countries move away from fossil fuels. 

“The money’s there,” Friedmann said, referring to private investments in established renewable companies focused on solar. “But it’s not, of course, geared towards research and development.” 

Israel is looking at the transportation and electricity sectors — responsible for 85% of emissions in Israel — as the key areas to reduce emissions, said Friedmann. 

Israel is a small country, “and so the way we think about innovation is that we are not going to set the trends. Trends are going to come from the outside,” noted Friedmann. Instead, Israel — due to its size — can be early to adopt new technologies and trends. 

Israel discovered natural gas reserves off its coast more than a decade ago, and natural gas is now used “as a bridge” in the transition to sustainable energy “because it’s much less polluting” than oil, explained Friedmann. “So natural gas is a solution, but we want also to convert the natural gas to something cleaner. We want to invest in R&D to do that.” 

Other investment into research and development can come from the government, Friedmann added. “It’s so important to have government investment in these areas,” he said. Last year the Israeli government invested $60 million in research and development, but the bulk of the investments will need to come from private capital.

“We also work on international collaboration,” Friedmann said. Israel is now collaborating with the United Arab Emirates, with which it normalized ties in late 2020, on a number of climate-related projects.

“There’s a lot of activity going on between the UAE and Israel,” Friedmann said. “It’s not in my area particularly. There’s a lot of discussion as well on R&D but nothing particularly yet. But I think in the near future there will be.”

TEL AVIV –— As President Joe Biden assembles the agenda for his first Middle East visit since taking office, his administration is trying to coax at least one more Arab nation to join the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel, U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides said on Tuesday.

“My job personally is to go deeper with the countries we have, and the [job of the] White House is to go wider and bring more countries into the forum,” Biden’s envoy to Israel said in a webcast from Jerusalem organized by the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank, and the Jeffrey M. Talpins Foundation.

Nides dodged questions on an Axios report that Biden will fly to Israel in late June and convene a meeting of regional leaders to strengthen and expand the 2020 agreements mediated by the Trump administration in which the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco established diplomatic ties with the Jewish state. But Nides indicated that the prospect of brokering new Arab-Israeli relationships is tantalizing for the 79-year-old Biden, who often boasts that he’s met with every Israeli prime minister since his 1973 encounter as a freshman senator with Golda Meir.

“Wouldn’t it be great if Saudi Arabia had normalized relationships with Israel, and Kuwait and the whole region,” said Nides in an interview with Dan Shapiro, the former ambassador to Israel under the Obama administration. Shapiro was recently named a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council to work on the “N7” project that was started with Talpins’ sponsorship last year to promote normalization. “You’ve got to create the momentum. Every one of these is difficult to do. Our view is, the more the merrier.”

Nides, who left his post as vice chairman of Morgan Stanley to take over the top job at the embassy in Jerusalem, said dates are still unsettled while advisers grapple with how to make the maiden presidential trip to the Middle East a success. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced after a phone conversation that Biden has accepted his invitation to visit in the coming months.

“Each of these countries wants something from us and we want something from them, and they want something from the Israelis,” Nides said. “This little maneuver is not for the faint-hearted, but I think it’s well worth the time and the energy.”

Nides, a longtime Democratic fundraiser, said he has no hesitation in giving credit to former President Donald Trump for engineering the Abraham Accords. In following up on the previous administration’s achievements, he said Israel’s recent summit in the Negev desert created a “phenomenal opportunity” by bringing together the foreign ministers of the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt, as well as U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken.

Among his greatest challenges, Nides said, were violent confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli police last month on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City, the sacred site revered by Muslims and Jews. He said the rare confluence of the Jewish festival of Passover, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Christian holiday of Easter focused attention on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and required intense diplomacy to ensure there was no repeat of last year’s violence that led to a missile conflict in May between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Nides credited both Bennett and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for preventing the situation from getting out of control.

“To be honest, we were pretty nervous,” Nides said. “We spent a lot of time trying to keep things calm, keeping the Temple Mount calm.”

A monumental prayer compound for Muslims, Jews and Christians — the Abrahamic Family House — is expected to open in the United Arab Emirates by the end of this year, capping a national project to inject some tolerance into the strife-filled Middle East, the Gulf state’s top rabbi said on Tuesday in Tel Aviv.

Extending the Abraham Accords to normalize ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, may take at least a generation because of the region’s entrenched hostilities, according to Yehuda Sarna, chief rabbi of the Emirates Jewish Council. “It’s not going to turn on a dime,’’ he said.

Sarna was the headliner at Tuesday night’s Israel premiere of the documentary film, “Amen-Amen-Amen,” which follows the winding path to the UAE of a gold-encased and bejeweled Torah scroll, by way of Israel and Brooklyn, N.Y. The glittering work of Judaica was presented by the rabbi and his community members in November 2019 to Emirati Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the country’s de facto ruler, at his palace in the capital city of Abu Dhabi.

Directed by filmmaker Tom Gallagher and aired already on PBS stations in the U.S, the documentary recounts how Jews in the UAE prayed in a single secret synagogue until the government’s official tolerance directives in 2019 enabled them to come out into the open. Since the September 2020 Accords, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have packed daily flights to the oil-rich, desert nation as at least four fledgling synagogues hold weekly Sabbath services and kosher restaurants proliferate.

Several of Israel’s biggest banks, hospitals and venture capital firms have established  or explored joint ventures with counterparts in the Gulf. Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, allocated $1 billion of its $243 billion in assets to buy a 22 percent stake in Israel’s offshore Tamar gas field. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made an official visit to see the crown prince in December.

Emblematic of the Gulf monarchy’s efforts to foster religious harmony is the Abrahamic Family House, which is under construction in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island cultural enclave, neighboring the Louvre’s intricate geometric-domed UAE branch. The unique prayer compound, designed by knighted British architect David Adjaye and scheduled for completion in 2022, houses a mosque, a synagogue and a church, each of similar proportions with iconic facades reflecting the individual faiths.

“It will be one of the most magnificent synagogues on the planet,’’ said Sarna, a Canadian-born rabbi who is Jewish chaplain for New York University and its satellite campus in Abu Dhabi. Joining him at a panel discussion after the screening at a converted nightclub on the Tel Aviv beach were Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, who is co-founder of the Gulf-Israel Women’s Network; Gallagher, whose Religion Media Co. made the film; and Jean Candiotte, a video producer and a leader in the Dubai Jewish community. Deputy Tel Aviv Mayor Zippi Brand, herself a documentary filmmaker, introduced the film.

“The opportunity for hundreds of thousands of people from the region to come through and see the first purpose-built synagogue on the Arabian Peninsula at a moment when many on that peninsula believe that one is not allowed to construct anything except for mosques on that peninsula is a very powerful symbol,’’ Sarna said.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Monday sought to soothe tensions over recent violence in Jerusalem by inviting Arab diplomats to break the daily Ramadan fast at his office compound in Tel Aviv.

Over a traditional Iftar dinner, Gantz asked envoys from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt to relay to their leaders that Israel is “taking unprecedented steps to enable freedom of worship,” according to a Defense Ministry statement. He said “extremists” are to blame for restrictions that have triggered clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, a site held sacred by both Muslims and Jews that is known in Arabic as the Haram Sharif.

The conflict, which has flared for weeks and included Israeli-Palestinian confrontations in Gaza and the West Bank, has been condemned across the Arab world, including by the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, all three of which normalized relations with Israel in 2020. A year ago, tensions over Jerusalem led to an 11-day conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh el-Sissi convened a summit in Cairo on Sunday  with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in which the three leaders expressed their “readiness to exert all efforts to restore calm in Jerusalem, end all forms of escalation and remove obstacles impeding worshippers’ access.”

In his remarks to the Arab diplomats on Monday, Gantz hailed the Abraham Accords while warning about the nuclear threat from Iran.

“Israel values freedom of worship and we will do everything in our capacity to enable it, while an extremist group — the minority — aims to harm it,” Gantz said. “It is important for us that this message is brought to the leaders of your countries.”

Guests at the Iftar meal in Tel Aviv included Moroccan Ambassador Abderrahim Bayoud, UAE Ambassador Mohamed Al Khaja, Bahraini Deputy Head of Mission Abdulkarim Ebrahim Alanansari and Egyptian Embassy Counsellor Walid Talaat Mahdy.

Also at the table were Jonathan Shrier, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and two Israeli lawmakers — Ruth Wasserman Lande of Gantz’s Blue & White party and Likud’s Ofir Akunis, the co-leaders of a Knesset caucus set up to support the Abraham Accords. No Jordanian representative was listed in the Defense Ministry statement.

Israelis should feel confident about their newfound ties with the United Arab Emirates and be assured that the normalization process ignited by the Abraham Accords is based on core Emirati values that do not stem from any special or fleeting transaction with the United States, the newly appointed UAE ambassador to the Vatican, Omar Ghobash, told The Circuit in a recent interview.

“It’s something that comes up a lot,” said Ghobash, who is currently assistant minister for culture and public diplomacy, referencing some cynical voices that still question the genuineness of the 18-month-old Accords. “It’s actually a principled decision that comes right from the core of the royal family.”

Speaking to JI on the sidelines of the recent Jewish Funders Network Conference in Palm Beach, Fla., Ghobash, 50, who is a well-known diplomat, businessman and author in his own country, will soon be at the forefront of interfaith dialogue and religious tolerance in the Vatican as his country leads a historic process in the Arab world to encourage peaceful relations with the world’s only Jewish state.

Ghobash explained that because the UAE is a “leadership organized society,” everyone looks to the royals for guidance, and his fellow countrymen have chosen to embrace the historic steps taken over the past two years by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, better known by his initials, MBZ.

While clandestine relations between Israel and several Arab countries – mainly based on security cooperation – were a badly kept secret for more than a decade, the public declarations by the UAE and Bahrain in September 2020 to recognize Israel were seen as bold moves. 

The Accords paved the way for Sudan and Morocco to normalize ties with Israel months later and, over the past year, the so-called cold peace agreements Israel has held for decades with Egypt and Jordan have begun to thaw. There is now speculation that the process could draw in other Middle East and Muslim states, including Saudi Arabia and Indonesia — and maybe even the Palestinians.

“We know that life is short, and we have a remarkable opportunity in the Emirates to take the country to the next stage, we’ve got an ambitious leadership and a whole bunch of great kids,” said Ghobash, author of the 2018 acclaimed book, Letters to a Young Muslim, which reflects on challenges of faith, culture and society through a series of letters.

“The way I see it is that we’re allying and aligning ourselves with other nations that actually want to build and prosper,” the ambassador continued. “While on the other side are negative players who are manipulative and destructive.”

Ghobash also said that those who have been critical of the Abraham Accords or downplayed their significance do not understand that the Gulf nation was “breaking with the biggest taboo we’ve ever had in our history – to recognize Israel, to recognize the Jew, to recognize this country and to want to work with them publicly. It is a massive thing for us.”

“The lack of seriousness that is attributed to the Abraham Accords by certain parties and groups has really surprised me; it’s almost offensive for us,” he emphasized.

The son of the UAE’s first minister of state for foreign affairs, Saif Ghobash, who was assassinated in a 1977 terrorist attack, the younger Ghobash – who himself is now a seasoned diplomat after serving for more than a decade as the UAE’s envoy in Russia and Paris, respectively – said his country could learn a great deal from Israelis, especially “how to get things done.”

“We are also getting things done in the Emirates, but there are certain areas such as education, government and the private sector where Israelis can offer us examples of how to better involve young people,” he observed.

However, Ghobash cautioned, Israelis need to slow down and have more confidence in the emerging ties. After decades of regional isolation, Israelis have welcomed the Accords with a rush of activities, and there is an unspoken pressure to cement the relationship as fast as possible, in case the window of opportunity closes — as it has with other Arab states. In less than a year, most of Israel’s top leaders have already paid official visits to the Gulf state, while tens of thousands of Israeli tourists and businesspeople have flocked to Dubai and Abu Dhabi seeking shopping and new opportunities.

While Emiratis are also curious about Israel, with many expressing a desire to visit the Jewish state and a handful of senior officials making the trip, overall they appear more cautious. Ghobash suggested the differing approaches were because “Israelis were totally ready for peace,” while the Arab world was less prepared for the process happening when it did.

“Now, all of a sudden, we are at peace and there are expectations… it’s all a bit mind-boggling. What exactly are we supposed to do now?” he mused.

Ghobash also said that the “thrusting” character of many Israelis makes some of his fellow countrymen uncomfortable. “When faced with people pushing us, we feel like we’re being managed, and we don’t like to feel that way,” he said.

“We like to feel that we have all the time in the world to make a decision,” explained Ghobash. “Just because you’re in a hurry doesn’t mean that we’re in a hurry, so this process is there, it will just take a little more time for us.”

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer is set to join the Jerusalem-based investment firm Exigent Capital Group this month as a senior partner, The Circuit has learned. Dermer, who spent eight years as Israel’s envoy in Washington during the term of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told The Circuit that he will draw on the partnerships he forged as one of the key architects of the Abraham Accords to help develop Exigent’s outreach with strategic partners around the world and, particularly, in the Gulf.

“There’s a lot of goodwill from the top-down and from the bottom-up to develop people-to-people peace,” said Dermer, who is in the midst of a month-long speaking tour in the U.S., of the Accords signed by Israel, the UAE and Bahrain in September 2020, with Sudan and Morocco inking separate normalization agreements with Israel in the following months.

“There are a lot of wealthy people in the Gulf and while those looking to only raise money might be successful, I think that such an approach is very limiting,” he told The Circuit. “I want to create a situation where entrepreneurs from Israel and the Gulf set up shop together, build joint ventures – and maybe even the Saudis will join – and that will really be a game-changer in the Arab world.”

“If you do this at the highest level and have the trust of leadership, then the sky is the limit,” Dermer continued, adding that one of his goals is to “anchor the peace in a way that wasn’t done with Egypt and Jordan.” He suggested that such an effort could even “turn the cold peace Israel has with Egypt and Jordan into a hot peace.”

A native of Miami Beach, Fla., Dermer made Aliyah in the early 1990s and is known as one of Netanyahu’s closest advisers. During his tenure as ambassador, he was considered to have been the driving force behind some of the most important diplomatic developments that have taken place in recent years, including securing long-term military assistance and missile defense funding for Israel, moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, gaining U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, implementing maximum pressure against Iran, and achieving the historic Abraham Accords.

Dermer said that he was approached by multiple companies and organizations following his return to Israel a year ago, but was most drawn to Exigent, a multi-strategy investment manager with a focus on early and late-stage venture capital, private equity, distressed debt and turnarounds, real estate, financial markets arbitrage, and fund sponsorships, because of the firm’s top-notch leadership team and the quality of its global investments.

“They have been working quietly and under the radar, but I like their track record,” Dermer explained. “They are grounded, but ambitious and want to grow their portfolios, I am happy to be with them and help them grow.”

Eliezer Brender, Exigent’s CEO, told The Circuit that bringing someone of “Ambassador Dermer’s caliber on board,” was a strategic move for the company, which is made up of professionals drawn from major financial institutions worldwide. He said the company was looking to grow its operations globally and in the region, as well as become a leader in boosting the diplomatic process sparked by the Abraham Accords.

“They already had some relationships in the Gulf before I joined but the thinking is that I can really add value,” commented Dermer. “The way I look at investments in the Gulf is really as a long-term relationship and when you have trust at the highest level then you can really build something fantastic.”

As Dermer, who holds a degree in finance and management from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and a degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University, moves into the world of trade and investments, he told The Circuit that he will still dabble in diplomacy and geopolitics.

Since returning to Israel, he has been working as a non-resident distinguished fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA)’s Gemunder Center for Defense & Strategy, and last month launched a podcast, “Diplomatically Incorrect,” together with JINSA’s president and CEO, Michael Makovsky.

In addition, Dermer is working on an academic book that explores the drivers of the U.S.-Israel relationship, Israel-Diaspora affairs and some of the existential threats Israel faces as Iran draws closer to becoming a nuclear power.

“The business thing for me will not be 100 percent of my time,” the former envoy concluded. “I will continue to speak in person and on the podcast, weighing in on important global issues.”