Featuring speaker Rami Zeedan, PhD.  Visiting Assistant professor and Israel Institute Visiting Faculty, University of California, Berkeley

In light of the historical development and contemporary trends of “integration vs segregation” of Israeli Arabs in the three branches of power in Israeli political system, this study discusses the development of politics, identity, and leadership among Arabs in Israel. It concludes that Arabs in Israel are minimally integrated in the Israeli political system and in many respects, are separated from it. The major problems among the Arabs in Israel rely on external factors, in regard to national politics, but more importantly on internal ones, in regard to the local kinship-based politics. This presentation explores the history of the US-Israel alliance, places it within the context of the Arab Spring uprisings, and unpacks the alliance politics of foreign intervention in the Syrian civil war since 2011.