James Sorene: What is the Israel Peace Initiative and why did you set it up?

Koby Huberman: The IPI Group is an Israeli NGO that was formed back in 2011 by Yuval Rabin, the son of the late Yitzhak Rabin, myself, Yaakov Peri – the former head of the Israeli Shin Bet – and Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who used to be the IDF chief of staff. It was formed as a non-right, non-left organisation – an impact group. not a protest group. We wanted to promote a concrete idea that we thought was necessary at the time, and still is, of a different paradigm to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Our belief was that we should present a response to the Arab Peace Initiative, as a starter in order to enable a different negotiation architecture that will combine Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA), and certain Arab states, in order to create an integrated solution – a two-state solution in the context of a regional solution.

We work on two parallel fronts. Firstly, to continue our outreach and engagement with interlocutors and influential people in the Arab world through track two or informal quiet back-channel diplomatic opportunities, with the objective to show Israelis and Israeli decision makers that we have partners and there is credible visibility to drive this model. That’s the activity that we push.

Second, in order to really create awareness and engagement in Israel, we have used all the things we have learned from the Arab world and brought it to Israeli decision makers. But we also created detailed studies about how it will impact Israel’s security, its economy, its position in the international community, and how the Israeli public will accept it. Those insights enable us to present a cohesive regional option as a strategic roadmap for the Israeli government and the Israeli political system.

To summarise, our role is to engage with the Arab world to find visibility and partners, and then to present, advocate and try to impact Israeli decisions and strategies through quiet advocacy efforts behind the scenes.

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