Saban Forum 2006—America and Israel: Confronting a Middle East in Turmoil

The Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution held the third annual Saban Forum in Washington, D.C. on December 8-10.

The 2006 Forum, entitled “America and Israel: Confronting a Middle East in Turmoil,” brought together high-level, bipartisan, American and Israeli officials and opinion leaders to discuss developments and viable strategies for the Middle East in the face of the current turmoil there. The Forum featured an opening keynote address by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Friday evening. Other speakers included former President William J. Clinton, Israeli Vice Premier and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman, and senior Bush Administration diplomat David Welch, the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.
Other participants during the three-day, closed-door program included: Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer; Strobe Talbott, the President of the Brookings Institution and a former Deputy Secretary of State; Yuli Tamir, Israeli Minister of Education; David Satterfield, the Secretary of State’s Senior Adviser on Iraq; George Tenet, former Director of Central Intelligence; James Wolfensohn, the former Special Envoy for Gaza Disengagement and former President of the World Bank; Ami Ayalon, Member of Knesset and a former Director of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency); former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak; former Israeli National Security Adviser Giora Eiland; Amos Yadlin, the Director of Israeli Military Intelligence; and journalists Tom Friedman, Nahum Barnea and Ted Koppel.

Read the full press release (PDF—25kb)