Emanuel Shahaf is a former senior official of the Prime Minister’s Office and serves as Vice Chairman of the Israel-Indonesia Chamber of Commerce and Vice Chairman of the Israeli-German Society. Arieh Hess is a former director of the Zionist Council (המועצה הציונית) and served in senior positions in the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization. They are co-chairmen of the Federation Movement (www.federation.org.il).
Our Voice of the Fortnight is from the Times of Israel's 'Wartime Diaries' podcast. In the immediate aftermath of October 7th, Shai Davidai – an Assistant Professor at Columbia University – became an unlikely public defender of Israel. And truthfully, even he was surprised by this turn of events: As a committed left-wing Israeli, he had spent years criticizing the government, and often took to the streets to demonstrate against its policies. But the atmosphere he witnessed on college campuses (and specifically on his own campus at Columbia), compelled him to speak up and speak out.