The 8th Annual Conference of the Mitvim Institute "Building Hope – Choosing the Diplomatic Path"

Against the backdrop of a fragile ceasefire, the 20-point Gaza peace plan, and at the opening of an election year, the conference dealt with some of the most pressing and timely issues like Israel's status as a pariah state, the rebuilding of regional cooperation, EU-Israeli relationship, and more. The conference gave perspectives from both political leaders and activists, and presenting a viable alternative to the current political climate. 

Among the participants:

Former Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. (res.) Yair Golan, Chair of The Democrats; Former Minister of Energy MK Karin Elharar, Yesh Atid; MK Ram Ben Barak, Yesh Atid; Michael Mann, EU Ambassador to Israel;  Former Ambassador and MK Colette Avital; Dr. Aziz Alghashian, Senior Research Fellow at the Mitvim Institute and at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. Former Ambassador Dr. Rodica Gordon; Former Ambassador Liora Herzl; Former Ambassador Danny Carmon; Former Ambassador Jeremy Issacharoff; Prof. (Emeritus) and former MK Manuel Trajtenberg, Tel Aviv University; Prof. Eli Podeh, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and member of Mitvim’s Board of Directors; Dr. Carmit Valensi, Senior Researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS); Former MK Sondos Saleh, Leadership Member of Standing Together; Eran Nissan, CEO of Mehazkim and Co-leader of the Phoenix Framework; Sharon Benjio, Director of Government Relations at EcoPeace.

All in all, the conference instilled a sense of hope and energized calls for regional cooperation.