Since the announcement of the Trump peace plan in January as the “solution” to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the expectation for Israel to annex parts of the West Bank has increased in likelihood. The recently established unity government in Israel is preparing to present a plan to extend Israeli sovereignty to West Bank at the beginning of July. It remains unclear how far Israel is willing to go and what reaction it will trigger from Palestinians. Will it lead to an escalation or even a renewed conflict? Will such a move lead to a strong or a more muted response from the regional powers? How will Arab states and countries like Turkey react?

The SETA Foundation at Washington, DC is pleased to host an expert panel discussion to discuss the implications of Israel’s potential annexation of Palestinian lands in the West Bank — Monday, June 22nd, at 2pm EDT.

REGISTER HERE

Speakers

Geoffrey Aronson, Chairman & Co-Founder, The Mortons Group

Khaled Elgindy, Director, Program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli Affairs, Middle East Institute

Lara Friedman, President, Foundation for Middle East Peace

Moderator

Kadir Ustun, Executive Director, The SETA Foundation at Washington DC

Bios 

Geoffrey Aronson is chairman and co-founder of The Mortons Group. For more than four decades, Mr. Aronson has been engaged as a commentator and participant in key political, economic and security challenges across the Middle East and North Africa. In particular, his work has focused on political and strategic issues throughout the Levant and Egypt. As the Research Director of the Foundation for Middle East Peace from 1992-2014, Mr. Aronson originated and edited the Foundation’s bimonthly Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Khaled Elgindy is a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute where he also directs MEI’s Program on Palestine and Israeli-Palestinian Affairs. He is the author of the newly-released book, Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump, published by Brookings Institution Press in April 2019. Elgindy previously served as a fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution from 2010 through 2018. Prior to arriving at Brookings, he served as an adviser to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah on permanent status negotiations with Israel from 2004 to 2009, and was a key participant in the Annapolis negotiations of 2007-08.

Lara Friedman is the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP). With more than 25 years working in the Middle East foreign policy arena, Lara is a leading authority on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, with particular expertise on the Israeli-Arab conflict, Israeli settlements, Jerusalem, and the role of the U.S. Congress. She is published widely in the U.S. and international press and is regularly consulted by members of Congress and their staffs, by Washington-based diplomats, by policy-makers in capitals around the world, and by journalists in the U.S. and abroad.