Policy Leaders Forum: Pardee School Hosts Dr. Tal Becker
The Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University hosted Dr. Tal Becker on March 28, 2017 as part of the school’s Policy Leaders Forum series that brings senior international policy makers to Boston University for important policy conversations with faculty and students.
Becker serves as the principal deputy legal advisor at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In this capacity, he is a senior member of the Israeli peace negotiating team, including in the last round of talks mediated by then United States Secretary of State John Kerry. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
Becker discussed his efforts in the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations and provided an insider’s view of how negotiations work and what some of the impediments are. He noted that there are three basic elements of intractability in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — identity, religion, and the concept of justice — and he explained how each makes negotiations difficult. Becker said that identity, or the “us versus them state of existential anxiety,” causes some parties to see negotiations as a zero-sum game. Since “both feel their identity is under threat,” their relationship “becomes defined by conflict.” Becker said this makes “a future beyond conflict hard to imagine.”
While people often view negotiations as binary — either success, in this case peace, or failure, no peace, Becker pointed out that the Israelis and Palestinians do not see it in this way. They live in between these two points and wake up every day wondering how to improve on the previous negotiations.
Becker said, “Most of foreign policy and peacemaking” is not only an attempt to solve the larger issue, i.e., a permanent peace, but “it is to make peoples’ lives better” and this is his goal as a negotiator. He tempered his remarks with humorous anecdotes drawn from his diplomatic experiences. He related how he accompanied a senior Israeli politician to a meeting with Hillary Clinton. The Israeli politician mistakenly thought the English phrase “win-win” meant that the same side gets two victories. As he briefed his negotiating approach to Clinton, he said “So if we do it the way I propose, Israel gets the advantage here and also here—It’s a win-win.” Becker also answered audience questions.
Guests at the dinner included Pardee School Dean Adil Najam; Sargent College Dean Christopher Moore; University Trustee Ruth Moorman; Boston attorney Mark Bodner (BU Law ’85); and several Pardee School professors including Amb. Robert Loftis, Amb. Paul Hare, Amb. Vesko Garcevic, Professor of the Practice of International Relations John Woodward and Senior Lecturer Wilfred Rollman. Dr. Nancy Katz, the educational director of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston helped to coordinate Becker’s visit to the Pardee School.