IATF Conference Call: State-Minority Relations and Trends in...

The creation, prior to the 2015 elections, of the Joint List out of the smaller Balad, Hadash and Raam-Taal political parties signaled, among other things, a shift towards a common political strategy of integration for Arab citizens of Israel--despite internal ideological differences--that would bridge pragmatic interests of the Arab public with the economic development commitments of the central government. Recently, events like the abstention of the Joint List from Peres' funeral, and investigation of MK Basel Ghattas for smuggling cell phones to political prisoners, are raising questions about whether the Joint List is still pursuing a strategy of common interests. If not, what are the underlying causes? If so, how can these recent events be understood and what is their impact on state-minority relations?

On Wednesday, January 4th, the Task Force hosted a conference call about recents events in Arab political leadership and state-minoirty relations with Meir Elran, Senior Fellow, Head of the Program on Homeland Security and the Program on Socio-Military Realtions at the Institute for National Security Studies .  

LISTEN to the RECORDING

About the Speaker 

Meir Elran
Meir Elran is a senior research fellow and head of the Homeland Security Program and a co-head of the Society–Military Program of INSS. Brig. Gen. (ret.) Elran served in the IDF as a career officer for 24 years in senior command and staff positions, primarily in the Military Intelligence Directorate. His last post was deputy director of Military Intelligence (1987-1989). Brig. Gen. (ret.) Elran took an active role in the peace talks with Egypt and was an active member (as a reserve officer) of the military delegation to the peace talks with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Following his retirement for the military Elran served as the chief of staff of the Tel Aviv municipality and afterwards as a senior consultant for strategic planning for several government offices, including the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Internal Security, and the National Security Council. Elran's main areas of academic research are homeland security, disaster management, and societal resilience in face of protracted terror. He is also engaged in research about the nexus between domestic social issues in Israel and its defense doctrine and practice. He has published numerous papers on these subjects and edited several memoranda and volumes, among these: The Second Lebanon War: Strategic Perspectives (with Shlomo Brom, published by Yediot Ahronot and INSS in 2007); Societal Resilience (with Alexander McLellan, published in 2012 by the Homeland Security and Analysis Institute in the US); and The IDF Strategy in the Perspective of National Security (with Gabi Siboni and Kobi Michael, published in 2016 by INSS). Elran holds a BA from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in Political Science and Middle East Studies (1965), and an MA from Indiana University in International Relations and Russian Studies (1970). He has submitted his PhD dissertation at the Haifa University School of Political Science, on measuring societal resilience. Elran teaches at the graduate schools of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and Sapir Academic College.