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About the Authors
Dr. Yair Hirschfeld
Dr. Hirschfeld, Academic Director of the S. Daniel Abraham
Center for Strategic Dialogue is world-known due to his
leading role in preparing and negotiating the Oslo Accord
between Israel and the PLO, of September 13, 1993. In the
early 1980s, Hirschfeld organized the confidential dialogue
between Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin with the Palestinian
leadership from theWest Bank andGaza. In 1991 he prepared
a strategic study which defined the principles and structure
of what would become the Oslo Accord and in January 1993
Hirschfeld led the track-two negotiations with the Palestinian
leadership, and later became an official member of the Israeli
negotiating team with the PLO. Dr. Hirschfeld has founded,
together with Dr. Beilin the Economic Cooperation Foundation,
which has served all Israeli governments and prepared
strategy concepts for promoting the Israeli-Palestinian and
the wider Israeli-Arab peace-finding process. Dr. Hirschfeld
is a professor of Middle Eastern History, and a leading
expert on Conflict Resolution and the technique of track-
two negotiations.
Ms. Anat Kaufmann
Anat Kaufmann is a Project Director at the Economic
Cooperation Foundation (ECF). Her work focuses on cross-
border trade and Israeli-Palestinian economic ventures, as
well as related policy-planning issues and non-trade barriers
in the West Bank. As part of her work, Anat meets with Israeli,
Palestinian and international officials and former officials on
the relevant issues. Her background is in political science and
development; she holds a BA (Cum Laude) in Politics from
the University of London, MSc in NGOs and Development
from the London School of Economics & Political Science
(LSE), and has worked as a researcher for several London-
based development organizations.
Dr. Ned Lazarus
Ned Lazarus is Visiting Professor of International Affairs
at The George Washington University's Elliott School and
an Israel Institute Teaching Fellow. A Conflict Resolution
scholar, practitioner and evaluator, Ned has evaluated Israeli-
Palestinian peacebuilding initiatives on behalf of USAID, USIP
and the European Union; he serves as Research Director
for the Alliance for Middle East Peace. Ned's research
has been published in Peace and Change, International
Journal of Conflict Engagement and Resolution, Journal of
Peacebuilding and Development, Palestine-Israel Journal,
and Israel Studies Review. Ned earned his doctorate from
American University's School of International Service in
2011; his dissertation traces the long-term impact of peace
education participation among more than 800 Israeli and
Palestinian Seeds of Peace participants from adolescence
through adulthood. Before entering the academic field, Ned
served as Middle East Program Director for Seeds of Peace,
based in Jerusalem, from 1996-2004.
Mr. Roie Ravitzky
Roie Ravitzky is Director of the Mosaica Religious Peace
Initiative, which brings together Jewish and Muslim religious
leaders in an effort to find a way out of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, while abandoning the notion that peace need be
a means of secularization. An active member of various
groups for social change and intercultural cooperation,
Roie is a rabbinical student, a graduate student of Jewish
Thought in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and teaches
in a variety of venues.
Col. (ret.) Ron Shatzberg
Col. (ret.) Shatzberg has been a Senior Advisor and part of
the policy planning team at the ECF (Economic Cooperation
Foundation) since 1999. In his current capacity he deals with
security border regime, cross border cooperation strategies
as well as Jordanian Israeli relations. In addition, Ron leads
all the ECF crisis management activities. He holds a B.A in
journalism and political science, and M.A in conflict resolution
both at the Hebrew University. Ron is an external adviser
for the International Community of the Red Cross (ICRC) on
International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and Laws of Armed
Conflict (LoAC) dissemination in the Israel Defense Force
(IDF). In his reserve duty at the IDF, Ron is a Chief of Staff
of an Infantry Brigade, ranking Colonel.
Brig. Gen. (ret.) Baruch Spiegel
Baruch Spiegel performed his compulsory military service in
the reconnaissance unit of the Golani Brigade (1966-1969).
He served as Chief Commander of the Golani Brigade (1988-
1990). He was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General
(1992), becoming the Head of the IDF Liaison Unit where he
was responsible for security relations between Israeli and
Arab forces, as well as with the peacekeeping forces in the
region. In this capacity, Baruch Spiegel was also responsible
for peace and security negotiations with Jordan leading
up to the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan in 1994.
In 1995 Spiegel was appointed Deputy Coordinator of
Government Activities in the West Bank and Gaza (COGAT),
dealing extensively with all civil and security issues related
to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Since then, he has been
the principal consultant on all security-related issues to the
S. Daniel Abraham Center for Strategic Dialogue and the
Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF). Between 2004 to
November 2006 he was a special consultant to the Minister
