Amichy (Ami) Ayalon

The Ibrahim Student Leadership & Dialogue Middle East program is honored to announce that Amichy Ayalon has agreed to join our Ibrahim Distinguished Scholars.

Each of these scholars and thought leaders have been selected based on their uncommon courage, nuanced understanding and engagement in Middle East Matters that include combating cultural, religious, ethnic and political prejudice and hostility in a strategically vital region that is in the midst of a tumultuous transition.

Admiral (ret.) Ayalon is a former director of the I.S.A (the Shin Bet) and a former commander of Israel’s Navy. Ayalon received the Medal of Valor, the highest Israeli military decoration. He has served as a cabinet minister and a member of the Knesset. Along with Sari Nusseibeh, he has headed the 'People's Voice' peace initiative in 2002.

Currently Ayalon is the Chairman of the Haifa Research Center for Maritime Policy & Strategy at the University of Haifa. Ayalon is also one of the founders of ‘Blue White Future,’ a non-partisan political movement, committed to securing the future of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state through facilitating an inclusive discourse to promote a two state solution. He is the author of the memoir “Friendly Fire - how Israel became its own worst enemy and its hope for the future”. Today he writes and lectures on the tension between security and rights that characterizes the democratic state's fight against terrorism.