Boaz Ganor

	Main Article	Discussion	Related Articles  [?]	Bibliography  [?]	External Links  [?]	Citable Version  [?]
	This editable Main Article is under development and subject to a disclaimer. [edit intro]

Boaz Ganor is the Associate Dean of the Lauder School of Government, the founder and Executive Director of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), and the Head of the Homeland Security Studies Programs) at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC). He is also the founder and Chairman of the International Academic Counter Terrorism Community (ICTAC). In addition, he is a Koret Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and graduate courses at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the IDC member of the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation.

Middle East politics[edit]

He wrote the article "The Americans Do Not Learn from History", stating that it was unwise to oppose Egyptian opposition to Hosni Mubarak. In a hypothetical scenario, he suggested that U.S. Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, Thomas Donilon, has been asking President Barack Obama to support Mubarak. “The Egyptian President is a pillar of support for U.S. foreign policy in the Muslim world”, Donilon says, “Turning your back on a loyal friend will send a dangerous message to all of our allies around the world”. Clinton becomes irritated by these remarks, retorting, “Mr. President, I cannot believe you are going to betray all of our values. How are you going to face the American people and explain that you are supporting the oppression of democratic processes in Egypt?”. “OK” Donilon replies, “I have a solution for the situation we are in. I have received an authorized appeal from senior Egyptian military figures and they wish to prevent an Islamist takeover in Egypt by staging a preventative military revolution. They ask for our blessing. I think this is an excellent solution for the situation we find ourselves in”.

Continuing his hypothetical case with the reaction of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “Are you crazy?” cries Clinton, “The United States support a military coup? This can never happen. Mr. President, I implore you, do not go down in history as the one who crowned military tyrants over freedom seekers”. “I have made up my mind”, says President Obama, “Tomorrow morning I will make an announcement calling on President Mubarak to refrain from foiling the democratic processes taking place in Egypt and to honor the free and legitimate wishes of the Egyptian people”. A few hours following this declaration by President Obama, the Egyptian military leaders announce their defection to the opposition while President Mubarak, understanding that no support is going to be received from the U.S., boards his private jet and sets off for long-term exile.

"These events have not yet occurred. However, they do depict a likely scenario for Egypt based on the U.S.' conduct in a similar crisis that took place over thirty years ago – the Khomeini Revolution in Iran in 1979. History is indeed repeating itself, and the same scene is once again playing out, with only minor changes to the script and different names for the protagonists (President Jimmy Carter, National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance being replaced by Obama, Donilon, and Clinton, respectively). It would seem that the Obama administration has learned nothing from Carter's failures and mistakes.^[1]

Education[edit]

• PhD in political science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2002. Dissertation: "Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Strategy – Efficacy versus Liberal – Democratic Values"
• M.A. in strategy, Tel-Aviv University, 1989. Thesis: "Terrorism and Public Opinion in Israel."

References[edit]