Herb Keinon

Diplomatic Correspondent for the Jerusalem Post

Travels from Ma'ale Adumim, Israel

Availability: Contact JNF Speakers Bureau for availability or contact the speaker directly.

Topics:

Herb Keinon, the diplomatic correspondent for The Jerusalem Post, has been at the paper for the last 25 years. He took over the diplomatic beat in August 2000, just after the failed Camp David summit, and just before the outbreak of the Palestinian violence in September of that year.

Keinon is responsible for covering the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, and often travelled with the Prime Minister on his trips abroad. He has followed Ehud Barak to Paris, Ariel Sharon to Crawford, Texas, Ehud Olmert to Annapolis, and Binyamin Netanyahu to Washington DC.  Keinon has extensive knowledge and an intimate perspective of the country's political, diplomatic and strategic challenges - from Hamas to Hezbollah, Kadima to Likud.

In addition to these duties, which entails writing both news stories, features and analyses, Keinon also writes a popular monthly "light" column on the trials and tribulations of life in Israel. During his years at the Post, Keinon has covered a wide variety of different beats, including Jerusalem, immigration and absorption, religious parties, the ultra-Orthodox, and the settlements. He has also been a featured writer at the paper.

In addition, Keinon has lectured widely in Israel, the U.S., Europe and Australia on the political and diplomatic situation in Israel, and appears on a variety of radio and television programs in the U.S., Canada and Europe as a guest commentator on the subject.

Keinon recently completed a book that was published in November 2009 - "Lone Soliders: Israel's Defenders from Around the World" - which tells the tale of young men and women from the Diaspora who volunteer to serve in the Israeli army.

Originally from Denver, Keinon has a B.A. in political science from the University of Colorado, in Boulder, and an M.A. in journalism from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He has lived in Israel for 26 years, is married with four children, and lives in Ma'ale Adumim, just outside of Jerusalem.

Speaker Topics

• Staying grounded amid changing sands: Israel's struggle for its place in the new Middle East
• Weighing the Chances for Peace: An Insider's Perspective on Netanyahu, Abbas, Obama and the current diplomatic process in light of a rapidly changing Middle East
• Between a rocket and a hard place: How terror has changed Israel, its politics, the Zionist dream and the path to peace
• Israel at 63: Is this the child we prayed for?
• Love me, love me not: Who are Israel's friends? A look at Israel's relations with the nations of the world, from Brazil to Belgium, Ireland to India and various key spots in between
• Israel and the Press: Why it is so difficult for Israel to get a fair shake in the media?
• The Great Settlements Debate: 40 years of settlement history in 30 minutes - the changes, the differences, the stakes
• The Obibi epoch: The Obama-Netanyahu era and a look at American-Israel relations in the run-up to 2012
• Israel's Sunny Side: Lone Soldiers and Sustaining the Zionist Dream Under Darkening International Skies - a lectured based on my recently released book: Lone Soldiers: Israel's Defenders around the World

Download a prepared introduction for Herb Keinon herb-keinon.doc