Shai Feldman of Brandeis University will present “A Year into the Trump Presidency: The U.S. & the Middle East” on Monday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Tucson J. The free talk is part of the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies Shaol & Louis Pozez Memorial Lectureship Series.
“In just one year, and most notably with one proposal, President Trump and his administration have had an impact on the Middle East generally and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular,” says Feldman, the Judith and Sidney Swartz Director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies and professor of politics at Brandeis University.
Trump’s proposal to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem overturned decades of U.S. policy and drew international criticism, while the predicted outrage in the Arab and Islamic world has not materialized in any lasting way, says Feldman. Trump’s declaration pleased his base in the United States and drew applause from Israel’s political right, which today “seems even more emboldened in its agenda vis-a-vis the Palestinians,” he says, with many pundits and policy advisors around the world predicting the end of the two-state solution.
Feldman will address these issues and explore possible short- and long-term complications that may arise from the Trump administration’s approach to foreign policy in the Middle East.
