The Israel–Hamas conflict: Ways forward

Suzanne Maloney is the vice president and director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution, where her research focuses on Iran and Persian Gulf energy. Maloney has advised both Democratic and Republican administrations on Iran policy, including as an external advisor to senior State Department officials during the Obama administration and as a member of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s policy planning staff.

Nimrod Novik is the Israel Policy Forum's Israeli Fellow. Novik served as a foreign policy advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres. A veteran of track-two diplomacy, he is a senior associate at the Economic Cooperation Foundation and a member of the steering committee of Commanders for Israel's Security.

Ghaith al-Omari, the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Senior Fellow in The Washington Institute's Irwin Levy Family Program on the U.S.-Israel Strategic Relationship, is the former executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine. He served as advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team during the 1999–2001 permanent-status talks in addition to holding various other positions within the Palestinian Authority.

Mara Rudman is a James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center, where she directs the Ripples of Hope Project, aimed at identifying practical approaches to help democratic leaders resolve key challenges. She serves on the 2022 National Defense Strategy Commission and the Howard University College of Arts and Sciences board of advisors. Rudman also consults for Democracy Forward. She was previously executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress, and her government positions have included serving as deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs in the Obama and Clinton administrations; deputy envoy for the Office of the Special Envoy for Middle East Peace at the U.S. Department of State; assistant administrator for the Middle East at the U.S. Agency for International Development; and chief counsel to the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She received an AB from Dartmouth College and a JD from Harvard Law School.

Ian B. Baucom is the executive vice president and provost of the University of Virginia. Before becoming provost in 2022, Baucom served for eight years as the Buckner W. Clay Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University. Baucom came to UVA after serving 17 years in Duke University’s department of English as a professor and as the director of the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute. He spent his early childhood in South Africa during the country’s apartheid era, where his parents ran adult literacy programs for mine workers. Baucom earned his undergraduate degree in political science from Wake Forest University and holds a master’s degree in African studies and a doctorate in English, both from Yale University.