Miko Peled: How the Lobby enables Israeli policy: Views of an Israeli in America

The following is a presentation made at the 2015 Israel Lobby Con held at the National Press Club.

 

Miko Peled is an Israeli writer and activist living in the U.S. He was born and raised in Jerusalem. Driven by a personal family tragedy to explore Palestine, its people and their narrative, he has written a book about his journey called The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine. The book covers Peled’s family history since his grandparents immigrated to Palestine in the early 20th century.

Peled’s maternal grandfather was a signer of the Israeli Declaration of Independence; his father was a general in the Israeli army; in the 1970s his father pioneered the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue and eventually met with Yasser Arafat. In 1997 his sister lost her daughter in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem.

Peled is a contributor to several online publications that deal with the Middle East and authors a blog, mikopeled.com, dedicated to tearing down the separation wall, and advocating the creation of one democratic state with equal rights for Israelis and Palestinians. He travels regularly to Palestine/Israel, where he speaks and works with the popular resistance. Peled has been arrested several times by the Israeli authorities for his activities.

Educated in Israel, the UK, Japan and the United States, Peled holds a sixth-degree black belt in karate. For 23 years, he ran a martial arts school that was dedicated to teaching leadership skills and non-violent conflict resolution through martial arts. He also taught classes to Palestinian children in the West Bank.

Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe.

 

The conference is solely sponsored by the American Educational Trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep).