Hon. Elliott Abrams

The Honorable Elliott Abrams is the chairman of Tikvah, as well as chairman of the Vandenberg Coalition and senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. He served as special assistant to the president and NSC senior director for the Near East and North Africa in the first term of George W. Bush, and as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the second. In the Trump administration, he served in the State Department as special representative for Iran and for Venezuela. He is the author of Undue Process (1993), Security and Sacrifice (1995), Faith or Fear (1997), Tested by Zion (2013), and Realism and Democracy: American Foreign Policy After the Arab Spring (2017), and writes widely on U.S. foreign policy, with special focus on the Middle East and issues of democracy and human rights. His most recent book is If You Will It: Rebuilding Jewish Peoplehood for the 21st Century.

Yaakov Amidror

IDF Major General (ret.) Yaakov Amidror is a Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy distinguished fellow. General Amidror was formerly the national security advisor to the prime minister of Israel, as well as the head of Israel's National Security Council from 2011-2013. During his 36-year career in the IDF, Maj. Gen. Amidror served as commander of IDF military colleges, military secretary for the minister of defense, director of the Intelligence Analysis Division, and as intelligence officer for the Northern Command. Maj. Gen. Amidror received a master’s degree in political science from the University of Haifa, and has authored several books on intelligence and military strategy, including Winning Counterinsurgency War: The Israeli Experience.