Daniel Pipes-Director of the Middle East Forum

Daniel Pipes, a historian, is director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He received his A.B. (1971) and Ph.D. (1978) from Harvard University. A former official in the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, he has taught at the University of Chicago and Harvard University.

He has written twelve books and his website, www.danielpipes.org/ with a near-complete archive of his writings, has recorded nearly 60 million page visits, making it one of the most accessed internet sources of specialized information on the Middle East and Islam. He writes a bi-weekly column for the Jerusalem Post, National Review, Die Welt, and other publications. Two presidents have appointed Mr. Pipes to U.S. government positions.

CBS Sunday Morning says he was "years ahead of the curve in identifying the threat of radical Islam." "Unnoticed by most Westerners," he wrote, for example, in 1995, "war has been unilaterally declared on Europe and the United States." The Boston Globe states that "If Pipes's admonitions had been heeded, there might never have been a 9/11." The Wall Street Journal calls Mr. Pipes "an authoritative commentator on the Middle East" and the Washington Post deems him "perhaps the most prominent U.S. scholar on radical Islam."

Khaled Abu Toameh- Israeli Arab journalist.

Khaled Abu Toameh is an award-winning journalist who reports from the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the Jerusalem Post, U.S. News and World Report, NBC News, and other media outlets. He formerly corresponded for Al-Fajr.

Courageous reporting and insightful analysis make Abu Toameh among the most quoted sources of information on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; in addition, as a Muslim Arab citizen of Israel, he has deep knowledge of Israeli-Arab circumstances. For example, when asked, “Should Jerusalem Be Redivided?” he answers that most Jerusalem Arabs prefer to live under Israeli rule. He is the main local resource for the planned trip.

Born in the West Bank city of Tulkarem in 1963 to an Israeli Arab father and a West Bank Arab mother, he moved to Israel after 1967 and received his B.A. in English Literature from Hebrew University. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and three children.

If his work exposing corruption in the Palestinian Authority prompted then-PLO ambassador Ali Kazak to accuse him of being a traitor, Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations calls Abu Toameh “fearless in pursuing the truth and in defying the conventional wisdom. Like no one else, he has critiqued Palestinian leaders, U.S. strategy in the peace process, and the European role in the Middle East"

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Ron Wexler-Heritage Study Programs

Ron Wexler heads Heritage Study Programs, an educational travel organization based in Boca Raton, Florida and serves as president of the Ten Commandments Commission, a non-profit that fosters improved understanding between Christians and Jews.

Ron Wexler served in the Israel Defense Force during the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. He both attended rabbinical school and has done research on early Christianity, giving him the basis for his work promoting conciliation between Jews and Christians. He has produced programs for the Municipality of Jerusalem and the Government of Israel Tourist Office; in particular, he was responsible for the “Jerusalem 2000” celebration.

Debra Weinstein-Heritage Study Programs

Debra Weinstein has a background in education and a master’s in political science with a specialty in the Middle East. She has worked for the Middle East Forum and the Taube Philanthropies.

Eli Rekhess, Tel Aviv University, Department of Middle Eastern History

Elie Rekhess is a scholar of political history of the Arabs and one of Israel's foremost experts on Arab society in Israel. He is also a former officer of the Israeli Defense Forces, where he had first-hand experience dealing with Palestinians.

On the faculty of the Department of Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University, he also serves as the head of the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at the University.

Dr. Rekhess, a regular public lecturer and television commentator on Arab issues in Israel, has held a variety of significant important posts, including senior consultant on Arab Minority Affairs to the Prime Minister's Office, strategic advisor to Ehud Barak during his election campaign, and advisor to the Ministerial Committee on the Arabs in Israel.

Onn Winckler, Haifa University, Department of Middle Eastern History

Onn Winckler is a senior lecturer in the Department of Middle Eastern History and the head of Multi-Disciplinary Studies at Haifa University. He is the world’s leading expert on Arab political demography and on modern Arab economic history. Daniel Pipes discusses his article “Fertility Transition in the Middle East: The Case of the Israeli-Arabs" in a blog, “Israel Arab Demographics and the Law of Unintended Consequences.”

Sammy Smooha, Haifa University, professor of sociology

Sammy Smooha is professor of sociology at the University of Haifa and a renowned specialist in comparative ethnic relations and internal divisions in Israeli society. His books include extensive social research on the Arabs in Israel. Dr. Smooha has published widely on the internal divisions and conflicts in Israeli society, especially on Sephardi-Ashkenazi relations and tensions between Arab and Jewish citizens.

Ishmael Khaldi, Advisor to the Israeli Foreign Minister.

Ishmael Khaldi has served in the Israel Defense Forces, the Israel Police, and in the Israeli Ministry of Defense, going on to become the country’s first high-ranking Muslim in the Israeli foreign service. In 2006, he was appointed consul in San Francisco and in 2009 he became advisor to Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman.

Mr. Khaldi has written his autobiography, A Shepherd’s Journey: The Story of Israel’s First Bedouin Diplomat. Born in a tent village in the southern Galilee to a family with long-standing ties to its Jewish neighbors, he managed through hard work and persistence to obtain a bachelor's degree in political science from Haifa University and a master's degree from Tel Aviv University. Alan Dershowitz has praised his book as “the story of a remarkable young man.”