Khaled Elgindy is a non-resident fellow within the Brookings Institution’s Middle East Policy Center, an author, and a founding board member of the Egyptian American Rule of Law Association. Between 2004 and 2009, he was an adviser to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah on permanent status negotiations with Israel, and was a prominent participant in the Annapolis negotiations during 2008. He is the author of ‘Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump’ (2019) and co-author of ‘The Arab Awakening: America and the Transformation of the Middle East’ (2011).
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.