Tal Becker

Dr. Tal Becker is a Senior Fellow of the Kogod Research Center at Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, where he leads educational initiatives on Israel and the Jewish world.

In this capacity, he is a leading member of the Institute’s iEngage research seminar which produces the premier educational program on Israel engagement in North America, working to strengthen and re-imagine the relationship between Israel and World Jewry.

Dr. Becker also serves as the Legal Adviser of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has been a senior member of the Israeli peace negotiation team in successive rounds of peace negotiations, including playing an instrumental role in negotiating and drafting the recent agreements between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco. He has years of experience on the front lines of many of Israel’s most pressing diplomatic, legal, and policy challenges as a veteran negotiator and key behind-the-scenes representative for Israel in a wide variety of contexts.

Among numerous previous positions, Dr. Becker has been a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, senior policy advisor to Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, a lead negotiator and drafter in both the Annapolis and Kerry peace talks, Director of the International Law Department at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, counsel to Israel’s UN Mission in New York, and an international law expert for the Israel Defense Forces.

He earned his doctorate from Columbia University and, among numerous scholarly awards, is the winner of the Rabin Peace Prize and the 2007 Guggenheim Prize for best international law book for his book Terrorism and the State.