Hoover Senior Fellow Peter Berkowitz discusses his new book “Explaining Israel: The Jewish State, the Middle East, and America” at the Hoover Institution in Washington, DC on Tuesday, September 16, from 5:00 – 6:30 PM ET.
The book launch commenced with a welcome reception, followed by a conversation with Peter Berkowitz, the Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and Carl Cannon, Washington Bureau Chief of RealClear Politics and Executive Editor of RealClear Media Group.
Grab a copy of “Explaining Israel: The Jewish State, the Middle East, and America” by Peter Berkowitz today: https://www.hoover.org/research/explaining-israel-jewish-state-middle-east-and-america?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=book_talk&utm_content=09162025
ABOUT THE BOOK
In this collection of 40 columns written for RealClearPolitics between 2014 and 2024, Peter Berkowitz explains Israel by reporting events, examining ideas, and placing both in their larger geopolitical context.
The senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution draws on the great Israeli mosaic of people, opinions, and aspirations to illuminate the domestic politics, diplomatic and national security imperatives, and multivalent spirit of the Middle East’s only rights-protecting democracy.
The carefully curated collection of essays in Explaining Israel demonstrates that to understand the Jewish state, it is necessary to appreciate the nation’s accomplishments and setbacks, the sources of its political cohesiveness and the forces dividing it, and the splendid opportunities and grave threats that it confronts.
The essays commence with Israel in 2014 at the height of its prosperity and self-confidence. They explore intensifying schisms inside the country and gathering dangers on its borders and throughout the region. And they culminate in penetrating analyses of the two crises that struck Israel in 2023. In January, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sweeping judicial-reform proposals set off bitter controversy and months of massive protests. Then on October 7, Iran-backed Hamas jihadists invaded Israel, massacred some 1,200 people and kidnapped around 250, enmeshing Israel in a seven-front war against Iran and its regional proxies.
Berkowitz’s essays clarify the breathtaking achievements, the heartbreak, and the remarkable resilience of a nation struggling valiantly to be Jewish, free, and democratic in a dangerous region crucial to America’s interests.
__________
The opinions expressed on this channel are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University.
© 2025 by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University.
🔔 Subscribe for more discussions: @HooverInstitution
👍 Like and share this video!
🌐 Follow us on social media:
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HooverInstStanford
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hoover-institution-at-stanford-university
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/hooverinstitution
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hooverinstitution
• X: https://www.twitter.com/HooverInst
