Israel After the Vote: Understanding What Comes Next

Program Overview 

Just days after Israel's October 27 election, join the World Affairs Council of Atlanta for a timely virtual discussion examining the results and their implications for Israel, the United States, and the broader Middle East.

Designed for a general audience, this conversation will begin with a brief overview of Israel's parliamentary system, how elections work, and the key political parties and leaders shaping the country's future. The discussion will then turn to the election results themselves, exploring what they reveal about Israeli society and politics and what coalition-building negotiations may lie ahead.

Featuring historian Geoffrey Levin of Emory University and political scientist Eli Sperling of the University of Georgia, the program will combine historical perspective with contemporary political analysis. Speakers will assess the implications of the vote for U.S.-Israel relations, Israel's approach to regional security challenges, including Iran, and prospects for stability across the Middle East.

This virtual program is free and open to the public.

Agenda

• 12:00–12:05 p.m.: Welcome, speaker introductions 

• 12:05–12:35 p.m.: Moderated fireside dialogue with speakers 

• 12:35–12:55 p.m.: Audience Q&A 

• 12:55–1:00 p.m.: Closing remarks

Distinguished Speaker 

Eli Sperling has extensively traveled and conducted research throughout the Middle East, spending significant time in Israel, Morocco, and Egypt. He holds an MA in Middle Eastern history and received his PhD in June 2020 from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. From 2012–2020, Eli served as the Senior Academic Research Coordinator at Emory University’s Institute for the Study of Modern Israel and taught as a guest lecturer in Emory’s Tam Institute for Jewish Studies from 2019–2020. From 2020-2022, Eli served as a Postdoctoral Associate in Duke University’s Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and currently serves as the Israel Institute Teaching Fellow in the University of Georgia’s Department of International Affairs. Eli is the author of Singing the Land: Hebrew Music and Early Zionism in America, University of Michigan Press.

Distinguished Speaker 

Geoffrey Levin is Jay and Leslie Cohen Associate Professor of Middle Eastern and Jewish Studies at Emory University and the Director of Undergraduate Studies at Emory’s Tam Institute for Jewish Studies. He earned his PhD in Hebrew and Judaic Studies/History from New York University in 2019, and has since been awarded yearlong research fellowship at Harvard University and the University of Oxford.

His award-winning book, Our Palestine Question: Israel and American Jewish Dissent, 1948-1978, published by Yale University Press, has been discussed widely, including in The Washington Post, The Times of Israel, The Guardian, and The London Review of Books. A recipient of the Emory Williams Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award, Professor Levin teaches about an array of topics including Israeli politics, Middle East history, U.S.-Israel relations, and the history, politics, and diplomacy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Moderator 

Rickey Bevington is an Emmy Award–winning journalist and nationally respected voice on global affairs, civic leadership, and the future of media. She serves as President of the World Affairs Council of Atlanta and Executive in Residence at Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business, bringing decades of storytelling expertise and public engagement leadership to global dialogue. Previously, she spent more than 20 years as a television and radio journalist with outlets including Georgia Public Broadcasting, NPR, PBS NewsHour, and Marketplace, and delivered a widely recognized TEDx talk on media literacy and civic responsibility. An internationally engaged leader, Bevington has participated in elite leadership programs and fellowships across Europe and Asia and is a sought-after moderator who has interviewed figures ranging from President Jimmy Carter to General David Petraeus. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Chair of the Agnes Scott College Board of Visitors, and a magna cum laude graduate of Barnard College.