Wednesday, October 30, 202410:00 AM (Pacific Time)
Webinar
Organized by the UCLA Center for Middle East Development. Co-sponsored by Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies and Luskin Department of Public Policy.
Following the Hamas invasion of southern Israel one year ago, Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones at mostly civilian targets in northern Israel, forcing nearly 100,000 Israeli residents of the area to flee. Since then, Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in a low-level war of attrition, until Israel dramatically ramped up its response, culminating in the September assassination of Hezbollah's longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah, airstrikes in Beirut, and Israel's ground incursion into southern Lebanon. The US, France, and others are urging a ceasefire to allow space for diplomacy to address the crisis. The UN has expressed similar concerns about a major humanitarian crisis as the number of internally displaced people in Lebanon reaches 600,000. This panel of experts from Lebanon will discuss these developments and offer their assessment for the future of Lebanon and Hezbollah.
MEET THE SPEAKERS
Dr. Joseph Bahout is the director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut and an associate professor of political studies. Previously, he was a professor of Middle East politics at Sciences Po in Paris, a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment Middle East Program in Washington DC, and a consultant for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Dr. Joseph Gebeily is a physician and president of the Lebanese Information Center (LIC) in DC, a non-profit organization dedicated to a free and sovereign Lebanon in the best interests of the United States. LIC conducts research, provides information and analysis, and engages in advocacy efforts. The organization maintains regular contact with US administration officials and members of Congress, as well as Lebanese political and security leaders. In addition, LIC has an established relationship with the UN in New York. Dr. Gebeily has authored several policy papers on US-Lebanon relations, particularly from political and security perspectives, and has been a guest on Lebanese, Arab, and US media.
Ms. Laury Haytayan is an oil and gas policy and geopolitics expert. She is the MENA director at the Natural Resource Governance Institute, an independent, international non-profit organization that provides policy advice, research, and works on advocating for better-managed resources and energy transition in oil-rich countries. She has several published publications and is a regular commentator on issues related to oil and gas in Lebanon and the East Mediterranean. Ms. Haytayan hosts the Energy Espresso podcast, the Road to COP28 webinar series produced by her organization, and teaches a course on the geopolitics of oil and gas in the East Mediterranean.
MEET THE MODERATOR
Professor Steve Zipperstein is associate director of the UCLA Center for Middle East Development. He is also an adjunct assistant professor at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Professor Zipperstein is a former US federal prosecutor and the former chief legal officer of Verizon Wireless and BlackBerry Ltd. He is the author of The Legal Case for Palestine: A Critical Assessment (forthcoming) (Routledge, 2024), Zionism, Palestinian Nationalism and the Law: 1939-1948 (Routledge, 2022), and Law and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Trials of Palestine (Routledge 2020).
Sponsor(s): Center for Middle East Development, Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, Department of Public Policy