LECTURES

President Barack Obama and the U.S. confront a Middle East region divided into migraine headaches and root canals. Whether it’s the impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Iran’s quest for a nuclear weapons capacity; rising Islamist governments in Gaza, Egypt and Tunisia; civil war in Syria, tension in the U.S.-Israeli relationship, rarely has there been a period where America’s capacity to shape events has been more limited.

Veteran diplomat Aaron David Miller, one of America’s foremost Middle East analysts, will discuss current issues in the Middle East, including Israel’s elections and the controversy over Chuck Hagel’s nomination as Defense Secretary, at the Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center in Newton on Sunday, January 27 at 7pm. He will field questions from the audience following his comments.

Miller is vice-president for new initiatives and a distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. For two decades he served in the U.S. Department of State as an analyst, negotiator and adviser on Middle Eastern issues to Republican and Democratic Secretaries of State. He is the author of The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace (Bantam Books, 2008). His articles have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times. He is a frequent commentator on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and NPR.

Cost for the event is $18. The event is co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston, Combined Jewish Philanthropies and the Jewish Community Relations Council. The program is part of the Ryna Greenbaum JCC Center for the Arts. Purchase tickets online at bostonjcc.org/artsevents or contact boxoffice@jccgb.org, 617-965-5226 or 866-811-4111. The JCC is located at 333 Nahanton Street in Newton.