Dore Gold (, born 1953) is an Israeli statesman who has served in various diplomatic positions under several Israeli governments. He is the current President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He also served as an advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his first term in office.
Early life
Dore Gold was born in 1953 in
Hartford, Connecticut, and was raised in a
Conservative Jewish home. His primary education was spent at the
Orthodox Yeshiva of Hartford In the 1970s, Gold attended
Mount Hermon School (Class of 1971) and then enrolled in
Columbia University. There Gold earned
BA and
MA in
Political Science, and then a PhD in Political Science and
Middle Eastern Studies.
He studied literary Arabic and specialized in International Law, and his doctoral dissertation was about Saudi Arabia. This research later formed the foundation for his 2003 New York Times bestseller, Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism. In the book, Gold argues that Saudi Arabia actively funds terrorism by supporting the enemies of the U.S. and attacking its allies. Today, Gold lives in Jerusalem with his wife, Ofra, and his two children, Yael and Ariel.
Career
Dore Gold's political career began in 1985 when Gold served as senior research associate at
Tel Aviv University's Moshe Dayan Centre for Near East Studies. Later, he was appointed Director of the U.S. Foreign and Defense Policy Project at the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University.
Peace Negotiations
In 1991 Gold was an advisor to the Israeli delegation at the
Madrid Peace Conference. From June 1996 to June 1997 he served as Foreign Policy Adviser to former Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu. During the period in which
Benjamin Netanyahu served as the head of the Israeli opposition, Gold was instrumental in forging the relationship between the
Likud Party leadership and the
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in response to the strategic ties that were growing between Israel's Labor government and the
PLO under
Yasser Arafat. Gold accompanied Netanyahu to meetings with the Jordanian leadership in 1994 and 1995 in
London,
Amman, and in
Aqaba. As the Foreign Policy Adviser under Netanyahu after the 1996 elections, Gold worked with the
Palestinian Authority,
Egypt, Jordan and others in the Arab world. He was also involved in negotiations leading up to the
Hebron Agreement and the Note for the Record.
East Jerusalem and the Oslo Accords
Gold himself has not written about the period in which he served as an envoy to the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world; nonetheless, a number of revelations have been disclosed by other authors. According to
Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin, Gold and Netanyahu advisor
Yitzhak Molcho were the first envoys of the newly-elected Likud government to meet with Yasser Arafat in the
Gaza Strip on June 27, 1996. Dennis Ross relates to the "Abu-Mazen-Dore Gold" talks that ensued afterwards as a result of which the Palestinians closed down offices in East Jerusalem that Israel had argued were a violation of the
Oslo Accords. This was the price that Arafat had to pay for his first meeting with Netanyahu. It was a hard concession for the Palestinians, according to Ross, for it was viewed by them as a "symbolic retreat on East Jerusalem."
Syria and the Golan Heights
On the Syrian negotiating track, former Israeli ambassador to the US,
Itamar Rabinovich, describes how he concluded with Gold an understanding over the Monitoring Group for Southern Lebanon, which was followed by a direct discussion between Gold and the Syrian ambassador to the US, Walid Muallam According to the French journalist, Charles Enderline, Gold secured a commitment from Secretary of State
Warren Christopher that the
Rabin "deposit" on the future of the
Golan Heights did not bind the State of Israel. This effort also included obtaining a new US commitment from the
Clinton administration to the September 1975 Ford letter, in which it was stated that the US would give great weight to Israel remaining on the Golan Heights. According to the Israeli Hebrew daily,
Maariv, Christopher wrote this re-newed commitment in a formal letter of assurances to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on September 19, 1996.
Ambassador to the United Nations
From 1997 to 1999 Gold was the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations. In 1998 Gold served as a member of the Israeli delegation at the Wye River negotiations between Israel, the PLO, and then U.S. President Bill Clinton at the Wye River Plantation in Maryland.
Later life
Since 2000 Gold has served as president of the non-profit institute,
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. From 2001 to 2003 Gold served as an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, most notably at the Aqaba Summit with President
George W. Bush. During this period, Gold regularly appeared on US network television programs on behalf of the Sharon government, including
Meet the Press,
The Today Show, CNN's
Late Edition, as well as on
Fox and Friends. In July 2003, Gold testified as an expert before the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs on
Saudi Arabia's alleged role in providing ideological and financial support for international terrorism.
Measures Against Ahmadinejad
Since 2006 Gold led an international effort by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs to advocate that UN member states take legal measures against President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran on grounds that he violated the anti-incitement clauses of the 1948 Genocide Convention, with his repeated statements about "wiping Israel off the map." Gold led a delegation to a conference held jointly with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations at the New York County Bar Association on December 14, 2006. Speakers included former Canadian Justice Minister
Irwin Cotler, Prof.
Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School, and the US ambassador to the UN
John Bolton. Senator
Hillary Clinton sent a letter of support to the conference.
Gold led an Israeli delegation to a second conference at the British House of Commons on January 25, 2007 which was chaired by Lord David Trimble and supported by members of the British Labor Party and the Conservative Party. Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined the Israeli team. As a result of this effort, over 60 members of the House of Commons called for the indictment of Ahmadinejad. A third event organized by Gold and the International Association of Genocide Scholars was held on September 23, 2008 in Washington D.C. Speaking at the third conference was Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, former US ambassador to the UN, as well as Salih Mahmoud Osman, a member of the Sudanese Parliament and advocate for human rights in Darfur.
The Doha Debates
In April 2009 Gold participated in the
Doha Debates at
Georgetown University in
Washington DC, where he debated against the motion "this house believes that it is time for the USA to get tough on Israel" with fellow speaker
Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. Speakers for the motion were
Avraham Burg, former Chairman of the
Jewish Agency for Israel and former
Speaker of the Knesset and
Michael Scheuer, former Chief of the
CIA Bin Laden Issue Station. Gold and Dershowitz lost the debate, with 63% of the audience voting for the motion.
Reactions
Harris Schoenberg, Director of UN Affairs for Bnai Brith
"He was forceful, he was eloquent. He was dramatic," said the director of United Nations affairs for
Bnai Brith, Harris Schoenberg, on Ambassador Gold's maiden address at the UN
A.M. Rosenthal, New York Times
Writing in his weekly column on Israel not belonging to a regional group in the U.N.,
New York Times op-ed writer and former editor,
A.M. Rosenthal, noted on October 8, 1999: "Dore Gold, leaving soon after a tour of duty as one of the best U.N. representatives Israel ever had, points out that membership in regional groups is a requirement for nomination to the Security Council."
Prince Bandar bin Sultan
In response to Dore Gold's testimony before the
United States House of Representatives International Relations Subcommittee, Prince
Bandar bin Sultan,
Saudi Ambassador to the United States, remarked, "It should be known that Dore Gold is not an expert on Saudi society, faith or culture. He is simply hatred's scribe.
Positions held
1985-1996 - Senior research associate, Dayan Centre for Near East Studies. Director, US Foreign and Defense Policy Project at the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University.
1991 - Advisor, Madrid Peace Conference.
1996-1997 - Foreign policy advisor, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
1997-1999 - Israeli ambassador, United Nations
1998 - Israeli delegation, Wye River negotiations
2000–Present - President, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
2002-2004 - Advisor, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
Publications
Books
The Rise of Nuclear Iran: How Tehran Defies the West (Regnery, 2009). ISBN 1-59698-571-2
The Fight for Jerusalem: Radical Islam, the West, and the Future of the Holy City (ISBN 0786147849 / Publisher: Regnery, Blackstone Audiobooks / Date: Jan 2007)
Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos (Crown Forum, November, 2004). ISBN 1-4000-5475-3
Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism (Regnery, 2003). ISBN 0-89526-135-9
American Military Strategy in the Middle East: The Implications of the US Regional Command Structure (CENTCOM) For Israel (Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense Publications), 1993.
Israel as an American Non-NATO Ally: Parameters of Defense and Industrial Cooperation (Boulder: Westview Press), 1992.
Selected articles
The Dangers of 'Peace' Making: America's Latest Efforts Merely Entrenched al Qaeda in the Gaza Strip. Wall Street Journal. August 12, 2007.
Wartime Witch Hunt: Blaming Israel for the Iraq War. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. June 1, 2004.
Saudi Arabia's Dubious Denials of Involvement in International Terrorism. Jerusalem Viewpoints. Oct 1, 2003.
Saudi Support for International Terrorism. U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. July 31, 2003.
The Kingdom of Incitement. Wall Street Journal. April 14, 2003.
Baseless Comparisons: UN Security Council Resolutions on Iraq and Israel (Jerusalem Issue Brief, 24 September 2002).
Only Buffer Zones Can Protect Israel. The New York Times. Feb 27, 2002.
References
External links
Dore Gold's Personal Website
Biography of Dore Gold from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Biography of Dore Gold from the Jewish Virtual Library
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies
Prince Bandar responds to remarks by former Israeli official (Saudi Arabia Embassy press release)
Category:Jewish American politicians
Category:1953 births
Category:Living people
Category:Permanent Representatives of Israel to the United Nations
Category:Israeli diplomats
Category:Columbia University alumni
Category:People from Hartford, Connecticut
Category:American immigrants to Israel
