Yossi Alpher

Yossi Alpher is a writer and consultant on Israel-Arab issues, and Director of the Political Security Domain (PSD), an independent NGO. He has served as Director and Acting Head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv University; as Director of the American Jewish Committee's Israel/Middle East Office in Jerusalem; and as a senior official in the Mossad. While at the Jaffee Center, he coordinated and co-edited the JCSS research project on options for a Palestinian settlement, and produced "The Alpher Plan" for an Israeli-Palestinian final settlement. Since 1992, he has coordinated several Track II dialogues between Israelis and Arabs. In July 2000, he served as Senior Adviser to the Prime Minister of Israel, concentrating on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. In late 2001, he published (in Hebrew) And the Wolf Shall Dwell with the Wolf: The Settlers and the Palestinians.

These days Yossi Alpher is best known as co-founder of Bitter Lemons, a fascinating website that publishes articles by two Palestinians and two Israelis about pressing issues. In these dark days, being able to see Israelis and Palestinians search for a common ground to their problems is a rare cause for optimism.

(created 22 September 2002)
(source: John Clark, senior research fellow, Hudson Institute)