A Cultural Policy for Arab-Israeli Partnership

Recent headlines acclaim the development of stronger security and economic ties between various Middle East states and Israel, yet the manner in which this new cooperation challenges longstanding discourse about Jews and the Arab world has not received as much attention. Such ties have created a unique opportunity to promote Arab-Israeli normalization on a more personal level across the region, particularly through information and communications in Arab schools, engagement with religious leadership, and media outreach. Joseph Braude is an advisor to Al-Mesbar Studies and Research Center and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. For his 2018 book Broadcasting Change: Arabic Media as a Catalyst for Liberalism, he studied liberalizing trends in Saudi Arabia and Egypt and tested techniques to strengthen local print and broadcast media. Tamara Cofman Wittes is a senior fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Center for Middle East Policy. Previously, she served at the State Depa