Zalman Shoval

Zalman Shoval, a member of the Board of Overseers of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, served as Israel's Ambassador to the United States from 1990 to 1993 and from 1998 to 2000. A veteran member of Israel's Knesset (1970-1981, 1988-1990), Ambassador Shoval was a senior aide to the late Moshe Dayan during his tenure as foreign minister in the Begin government.

Publications by Zalman Shoval

U.S.-Israel Relations after the American Midterm Elections

December 27, 2010

After the end of the Cold War, Tom Friedman wrote that this meant the end of the U.S.-Israel strategic relationship since the Soviet Union is no longer there. In fact, the dangers from Muslim fundamentalism and terrorism may be greater than those of the Soviet Union.
[new paragraph] Israel does not want to see a weakened American presidency, which means a weakened America, especially in the Middle East where the only possible alternative to a weakened America is a strengthened Iran.  Read More »

Has U.S. Policy on Israel Changed Since the July 6 Obama-Netanyahu Summit?

August 17, 2010

President Obama came into office with strong preconceptions about foreign policy and especially about the Arab-Israeli conflict. The main result of the administration’s new policy was to encourage the Palestinians to take more hard-line positions. Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas began to insist on preconditions for direct negotiations which never existed before.  Read More »

Annapolis – Road to Nowhere

February 1, 2008

In an unimplementable “shelf agreement,” Israel will be seen to have committed itself to certain far-reaching steps that it has not implemented. On the one hand, this will be seen as the starting point for any future negotiations, and on the other hand, it will invite increasing pressure on Israel, with the added element of ongoing terror.  Read More »

Next Steps in Arab-Israeli Peacemaking

June 1, 2006

The U.S. military victory in Iraq did at first create a more congenial atmosphere among Palestinians for peace with Israel. However, the present situation in Iraq, as well as Iran and Muslim fundamentalism in general, have caused matters to move in the opposite direction. The Palestinians are further away from a spirit of reconciliation and compromise than ever before.   Read More »

Is Palestinian Statehood Still a Valid Option?

March 1, 2006

The cornerstone of Hamas’ program, its very raison-d’etre, is the destruction of Israel, replacing it with an Islamist, fundamentalist, intolerant state reaching from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River and beyond. The dominant theme of all their statements includes no territorial compromise – no peace even if Israel were to hand over all the territories and eastern Jerusalem; at most, some sort of temporary armistice (hudna).  Read More »

Israeli Disengagement, U.S. Re-engagement

July 1, 2004

A modus vivendi that could give both Palestinians and Israelis an opportunity to start going their separate ways in relative normalcy may result from Israel’s disengagement plan, while real, contractual peace will perhaps come only after a generational change.  Read More »

Prime Minister Barak’s First Year: Diplomacy and Politics

July 2, 2000

Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s tenure started out with almost everything going his way. He had what was often, though misleadingly, described as a "landslide victory" in the 1999 elections (though, in truth, Jewish voters gave him only a slim 3.2 percent majority over Netanyahu – compared to the almost 12 percent margin by which Netanyahu had defeated Peres in the previous elections).  Read More »

After Hebron: Prospects for the Peace Process

March 16, 1997

The Hebron agreement is now finally in place. During the months that it took to reach that point, some must have been reminded of what the nineteenth century British Prime Minister Lord Palmerstone once said about the Schleswig-Holstein question: there were only three people who understood it – one of whom was dead, one was in an asylum, and he himself had forgotten it.  Read More »