I research and interpret the history and politics of the Middle East and modern Israel.

I was the founding president of Shalem College in Jerusalem, Israel’s first liberal arts college, where I continue to teach the modern history of the Middle East. I am also the Walter P. Stern fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

I earned my undergraduate and doctoral degrees in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University, where I prepared my thesis under the supervision of Bernard Lewis. I then spent twenty-five years at Tel Aviv University, where I directed the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. I have taught as a visiting professor at Brandeis University, the University of Chicago, Cornell University, Georgetown University, and The Johns Hopkins University (SAIS). I have also served as a visiting fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington and Harvard University’s Olin Institute for Strategic Studies.

I am the author or editor of eight books.

• The most academic: Islam Assembled: The Advent of the Muslims Congresses
• The best known: Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America
• The most recent: The War on Error: Israel, Islam, and the Middle East

This website includes a wide sample of my published work on a broad array of topics. Above all, it is home to my blog Sandbox. Click here to subscribe to new blog posts by e-mail, or subscribe to the feed.

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