Yossi Alpher

Yossi (Joseph) Alpher (Hebrew: יוסי אלפר‎‎) is an Israeli consultant and writer on Israel-related strategic issues. He is coeditor of bitterlemons.org and bitterlemons-international.org together with Ghassan Khatib, former Minister of Planning in the Palestinian Authority. Alpher also serves on the executive committee of the Council for Peace and Security.

Biography

Yossi Alpher served in the Israel Defense Forces as an Intelligence officer, followed by 12 years in the Mossad. From 1978 to 1980, he was an intelligence analyst on Iran.^[1] From 1981 to 1995 he was associated with the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies (JCSS) at Tel Aviv University, ultimately serving as Director of the center.^[2] While at the Jaffee Center, Alpher coordinated and coedited the JCSS research project on options for a Palestinian settlement, and produced "The Alpher Plan" for an Israeli-Palestinian territorial settlement. From 1995 to 2000 he served as director of the American Jewish Committee's Israel/Middle East Office in Jerusalem. Since 1992 he has coordinated several track II dialogues between Israelis and Arabs. In July 2000 (during the 2000 Camp David Summit) Alpher served as Special Adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, concentrating on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Alpher writes Hard Questions, Tough Answers, a weekly security Q&A for Americans for Peace Now, and The Strategic Interest, a monthly column for The Forward, for which he won the 2009 American Jewish Press Association Simon Rockower Award (first place) for excellence in commentary.

In 2001 he wrote And The Wolf Shall Dwell With The Wolf: the Settlers and the Palestinians (Hakibbutz Hameuchad, Hebrew).

References