The second event in the Center's urgent series offering different perspectives on the 2026 Iran War.
Tuesday, March 10, 202611:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Pacific Time)Webinar
11:00 AM Pacific / 2:00 PM Eastern / 18:00 UK / 20:00 Israel–Palestine
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Co-organized by the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies and the UCLA Center for Middle East Development.
About the Event
The joint US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28 has led to a wider regional conflict. As of this writing, the war is still raging, with no clear end in sight and no clear outcomes for Iran's future governance and the region's future security architecture. The war also poses great opportunities and grave risks for Israel, and potential consequences for Israel's domestic politics. Please join us for an in-depth analysis of all these issues (and more) from the perspective of one of Israel's leading scholars and diplomats.
About the Speakers
Ambassador Itmar Rabinovich is Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University. He is Israel’s former ambassador to the United States and former Chief Negotiator with Syria in the mid-1990s, and the former President of Tel Aviv University (1999-2007). He is the President of the Dan David Foundation (sponsor of the world’s largest history prize) and is President Emeritus and Counselor of the Israel Institute (Washington and Tel Aviv), and a Distinguished Fellow of the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy Program. He is the Vice Chairman of the INSS (Institute for National Security Studies), an external institute of TAU and Israel’s leading think tank. He is also a senior research fellow at the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern studies and is co-editor of the Center’s review journal, Bustan. Ambassador Rabinovich is the author of numerous books on the Modern History and Politics of the Middle East and the co-author and co-editor of several other volumes, and he is the author of numerous essays and papers. Several of his recent books are Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman (Yale University Press 2017); Syrian Requiem: The Civil War and Its Aftermath (Princeton University Press 2021); and Middle Eastern Maze: Israel, the Arabs, and the Region, 1948–2022 (Brookings Institution Press 2023). Over the years, Ambassador Rabinovich has held several public positions in Israel and in other countries. He has held visiting appointments in several academic institutions, including the Institute of Advanced Studies in Princeton, Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Toronto. He was for several years the Andrew White Professor at Large at Cornell University, and has served as Visiting Professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Distinguished Global Professor at NYU.
Professor Steven L. Spiegel (moderator) serves as Director of the Center for Middle East Development at UCLA. Through the innovative and informal negotiation techniques he has developed, Dr. Spiegel helps produce cutting-edge ideas for promoting Middle East regional security and cooperation. His work in conflict resolution and regional cooperation goes back more than two decades. Spiegel has taught political science at UCLA since 1966—a year before he received his PhD from Harvard. His co-authored volume, World Politics in a New Era (Oxford, 2013), is now in its sixth edition. His research on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East has resulted in numerous books, articles, and papers.
Professor Steven E. Zipperstein (moderator) is the Director of the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. He teaches in the Department of Public Policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. He is a Visiting Professor at Tel Aviv University Law School and a Visiting Lecturer at the Hertie School in Berlin. He serves as a Distinguished Senior Scholar at the UCLA Center for Middle East Development and as a Senior Fellow at The Hague Initiative for International Cooperation in the Netherlands. Zipperstein is the author of three peer-reviewed books, most recently The Legal Case for Palestine: A Critical Assessment (Routledge, 2024).
DISCLAIMER: The views or opinions of our guest speakers and the content of their presentations do not necessarily reflect the views of the UCLA Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Hosting speakers does not constitute an endorsement of the speaker's views or opinions.
Sponsor(s): Center for Middle East Development