Dr. Dan Schueftan is the Director of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa, and a Senior Lecturer at the School of Political Sciences there, as well as at the Israel Defense Force’s National Defense College. For the 2012-13 academic year he was a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University in Washington DC. For the last four decades he has been a consultant to Israeli decision makers and to the top echelon of Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office, Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry and The National Security Council. He is a regular source and interviewee for radio and television programs on the Middle East in Israel, the Arab world, Europe and North America.

Dr. Schueftan has been briefing and consulting with members of the US Senate, House of Representatives and their staff, as well as top professionals and key political appointees in the executive branch since 1977. He has been briefing ministers, parliamentarians, political leaders, senior officers, defense and intelligence officials and government advisors in Europe since 1975. He has regularly lectured at universities and research centers in the United States and Europe since the mid 1970s.

Dr. Schueftan has published extensively on contemporary Middle Eastern history, with emphasis on Arab-Israeli relations, Inter-Arab politics and American policy in the Middle East. His books cover a wide variety of topics: A Jordanian Option – Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians (1986); Attrition: Egypt’s Post War Political Strategy 1967-1970 (1989); Disengagement – Israel and the Palestinian Entity (1999). This last book, advocating disengagement, had a considerable effect on Israeli policy makers. Dr. Schueftan most recent book (2011) is Palestinians in Israel – the Arab Minority and the Jewish State.

At a benefit dinner on February 24, 2015, Dr. Dan Schueftan gave a keynote address to the Centre for Jewish Life in London on the current challenges facing Israel and the Jewish people. Although the speech is a bit long, thirty minutes or so, the speaker is not only entertaining but profound. Worth a listen.

Submitted by Helen Cherry