Israel-US Special Relations – International Conference
G22 Seminar Room, Jubilee Building, University of Sussex, 12-13 September 2016

All welcome, no need to register.

Monday 12/9/2016

12:30-13:00: Gathering and greetings

13:00-14:30: Domestic Politics (a)

Chair: (TBA)

Jonathan Rynhold (Bar Ilan University) – Strategic Interests, Domestic Politics, and American Political Culture and Israel – US Relations

Terri Susan Fine (University of Central Florida) –The Implications of Zivotofsky v. Kerry (2015) for U.S.-Israel Foreign Policy

Aaron Dowdall (University of Wisconsin-Madison) – Black Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Israeli Appeals and the African American Community in the late 1960s and early 1970s

14:30-15:00: Coffee break

15:00-17:00:  Idealism

Chair: Gideon Reuveni

Eran Shalev (Haifa University) – The Old and New Israel: The Cultural Origins of the Special Relationship

Aaron T. Walter (University of Ss. Cyril & Methodius) – Woodrow Wilson and the Jewish Statehood: The moral, political, and legal framework that created the State of Israel

Sara Hirschorn (Oxford) – City on a Hilltop: Jewish-American Settlers in the Occupied Territories and the New Americans Abroad

18:00 - Keynote address

Chair: Clive Webb (University of Sussex)

Jeremi Suri (University of Texas, Austin) – “What is special in the Israeli-American “special relationship”?”

19:30 - Dinner

Tuesday 13/9/2016

9:00-10:30: Domestic Politics (b)

Chair: Hilary Kalmbach

Bryan R. Daves (Yeshiva University) – Getting their signals crossed: Explaining why American politicians campaign as if Jews and Evangelicals can be swayed by a position on Israel when those groups are not... 

Moshe Fox (Independent Scholar) – The myth and the effectiveness of the Zionist Lobby and the Israeli Lobby

Dov Waxman (Northeastern University) – The Breakup of the Pro-Israel Lobby

10:30-11:00 - Coffee break

11:00-12:00 - Arts and Literature

Chair: Melissa Milewski

Nina Fischer (University of Edinburgh) – America, Israel, and the Negotiation of Jewish Belonging in Philip Roth’s Writing

Tony Shaw (University of Hertfordshire) and Giora Goodman (Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee) – Hollywood and the race for Entebbe

12:00-13:00 - Lunch

13:00-14:30

Foreign Policy & Security  (a)

Chair: Jacob Norris

Asaf Siniver (University of Birmingham) - Abba Eban and Israel-US Special Relations

Itay Meir (Interdisciplinary Center) - American Foreign Policy towards Israel Before and After the Six Day War: A Comparative Case Study

Olivia Sohns (University of Central Florida) – The Applicability of the Concept of “Friendship” to U.S.-Israel Relations During the Johnson Administration

14:30 – 15:00 - Coffee break

15:00-16:30 - Foreign policy & Security (b)

Chair: Amir Paz-Fuchs

Or Honig (Tel Aviv University) & Hagai Klein (Tel Aviv University) – US-Israel Intelligence Disagreements

Adam Cahill (University of Calgary) –The Iranian Rift in American-Israeli Relations

Annika Brunck (University of Tubingen) – terrorism in the United States through the lens of American-Israeli relations since the end of World War II until the late 1970s.

16:30 - Conclusion

By: Diana Franklin
Last updated: Tuesday, 16 August 2016