N7 Initiative

In the wake of the Abraham Accords signed in September 2020, the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs, in partnership with the Jeffrey M. Talpins Foundation, launched the N7 Initiative to help accelerate and strengthen normalization between Israel and Arab and Muslim countries, and to drive bipartisan support in the US for normalization.

Experts

Past events

Latest analysis

MENASource

May 8, 2020

Palestinians fight skepticism over whether they can stop annexation

By Jonathan Ferziger

Palestinians are scrambling to galvanize international opposition to Israel’s annexation of some thirty percent of the West Bank while battling skepticism that they can do anything to stop it.

Israel Middle East

MENASource

Apr 24, 2020

Israel-Gulf ties, boosted by COVID-19 research, may trip over annexation plans

By Jonathan H. Ferziger

For policymakers, the prospect of West Bank annexation posed by Israel’s incoming coalition government is a reminder of the delicacy of Mideast peacemaking.

Coronavirus Israel

New Atlanticist

Apr 20, 2020

At long last, Israel to form a government

By Daniel J. Samet

Most Israelis want to avoid a fourth election. Most Israelis want to see an empowered government—not a caretaker regime—in place to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

Elections Israel

MENASource

Apr 16, 2020

Lebanon and Israel: Blue line tensions

By Frederic C. Hof

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)—now beginning its forty-third year of “interim” service in southern Lebanon—recently intervened to defuse an armed standoff between Israeli and Lebanese soldiers along the “Blue Line:” The line of Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon demarcated by the United Nations in 2000. These confrontations occur periodically. Why?

Israel Lebanon

MENASource

Mar 27, 2020

Israel is now within striking distance of having a new government

By Shalom Lipner

Political drama in Israel reached a new peak on March 26 when Benny Gantz, chairman of the now ruptured Blue and White alliance, was installed as speaker of the Knesset in Jerusalem.

Israel Middle East

MENASource

Mar 12, 2020

Israel exemplifies how to respond to the coronavirus

By Daniel J. Samet

Israel’s stringent policies may help enlighten other nations in search of answers.

Israel Middle East

MENASource

Mar 4, 2020

Israel’s latest election is kind to Netanyahu

By Daniel J. Samet

“If you will it, it is no dream,” penned the world’s foremost Zionist over a century ago. Yet after the Israeli election on March 2, even Theodor Herzl would be hard-pressed to find the willpower to muscle the Jewish state out of its political impasse. This election—the third time voters have cast their ballots in […]

Israel

MENASource

Feb 28, 2020

Israel’s new prime minister must reckon with the Democratic Party

By Carmiel Arbit

By March 3, the new Israeli prime minister will have a preview of one of the first challenges he’ll have to address: a reckoning with the Democratic Party.

Israel Middle East

MENASource

Feb 5, 2020

Should the Palestinians look a gift horse in the mouth?

By Kyle Thetford

Palestinian policymakers might not actually want all that cash. This is in part because of the challenges associated with spending such a vast sum.

Israel Middle East

MENASource

Jan 31, 2020

The two-state solution comes back

By Thomas S. Warrick

The one-state solution is dead. The two-state solution may have a faint heartbeat, but it is unmistakably alive. Now, at least, we know where we are supposed to end up. All we have to do is to work backwards to find out what it will take to get from here to there.

Israel Middle East

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