Shlomo Ben-Ami
Most commentary on the Middle East is authored by people who were never inside the room. The decisions that shape the region, and that now shape energy, trade, migration and terrorism risk for organisations operating far from it, are rarely explained by those who made them. Understanding where the process currently stands, and what realistically might move it, requires someone who negotiated on behalf of a government and has since written about the limits of that process.
Shlomo Ben-Ami is Israel’s former Foreign Minister and chief negotiator at the 2000 Camp David Summit, and one of the few public voices able to brief international audiences on the Middle East from inside the decision-making room.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Shlomo Ben-Ami
- He led the Israeli negotiating team at the 2000 Camp David Summit and the Taba talks that followed, which remain the high-water mark of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiation. Briefing audiences on the region from outside that room is a different proposition to briefing from inside it.
- His academic base is serious: a PhD from Oxford, headship of the Tel Aviv University School of History, and the Elias Sourasky Chair for Spanish and Latin American Studies. His analysis reads as historian’s work rather than political memoir.
- Two Oxford University Press books, Scars of War, Wounds of Peace (2006) and Prophets Without Honor (2022), give audiences reference texts rather than talking points.
- Co-founding and Vice Presidency of the Toledo International Centre for Peace in Spain places him inside the European-Mediterranean diplomatic network, useful for international audiences.
- Project Syndicate syndication means his analysis is already in the diet of many executive and board readers, which shortens the framing time inside a session.
Biography highlights
- Former Foreign Minister of Israel (2000); former Minister of Public Security (1999)
- Israel’s first Ambassador to Spain, 1987 to 1991
- Head of the Israeli delegation at the 2000 Camp David Summit and the Taba talks
- Co-founder and Vice President of the Toledo International Centre for Peace
- PhD in History, University of Oxford; Head of the School of History, Tel Aviv University, 1982 to 1986
- Author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace (Oxford University Press, 2006) and Prophets Without Honor (Oxford University Press, 2022); Project Syndicate columnist
Biography
The Camp David Summit of 2000 is the most-analysed moment in contemporary Middle East diplomacy, and the person who led the Israeli negotiating team at it is Shlomo Ben-Ami. A serving Foreign Minister under Prime Minister Ehud Barak, he had by that point spent almost a decade at the centre of Israel’s foreign relations: first as Israel’s first Ambassador to Spain from 1987 to 1991, then as a Knesset member on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, then as Minister of Public Security, before taking the foreign portfolio in 2000.
His diplomatic record predates that. He served on Israel’s delegation to the 1993 Madrid Peace Conference and led the Israeli delegation at the Multilateral Talks on Refugees in Ottawa. The credibility behind the work is academic: a PhD in History from Oxford, a period as Head of the School of History at Tel Aviv University, and the Elias Sourasky Chair for Spanish and Latin American Studies.
Since leaving government he has written what are now the standard practitioner accounts of the process he was part of. Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy, published by Oxford University Press in 2006, challenges a number of founding myths about Israel’s early history. Prophets Without Honor: The 2000 Camp David Summit and the End of the Two-State Solution, published by Oxford University Press in 2022, is the definitive inside account of the summit he chaired. He writes regularly for Project Syndicate, which places his commentary in front of international executive and policy audiences.
He co-founded the Toledo International Centre for Peace in Spain and serves as its Vice President, keeping him inside the European-Mediterranean diplomatic networks still working on conflict resolution in the region. For investor, corporate and policy audiences trying to read the Middle East with the seriousness the region now demands, Ben-Ami is one of the few voices whose analysis is built on both direct negotiation experience and Oxford-trained historical scholarship.
Key speaking topics
- Middle East geopolitics and the Israeli-Arab conflict
- Inside the 2000 Camp David Summit and the Taba talks
- International negotiation, mediation and conflict resolution
- Israeli domestic politics and foreign policy
- The two-state solution and post-Oslo process
- Europe, Spain and the Mediterranean security picture
Ideal for
- Boards, CEOs and investment committees assessing Middle East geopolitical risk
- Financial institutions, energy companies and multinationals with Middle East exposure
- Policy forums, think tanks and international affairs audiences
- Conferences on diplomacy, international negotiation and historical scholarship
Audience outcomes
- A first-hand account of what actually happened inside Camp David and Taba, not the public version
- A clearer view of how and why two-state diplomacy stalled and what would be required to move it
- Historical context drawn from his Oxford University Press books and long academic record
- Insight into Spain, the EU and the Mediterranean framework around Middle East conflict, from a former Israeli Ambassador to Madrid
- Reference material in Scars of War, Wounds of Peace and Prophets Without Honor for follow-up reading