Eli Avidar

Eli Avidar is a former Israeli intelligence officer and diplomat. He is the founder and head of the Forum for Smart Middle East, which encourages new policy initiatives and offers alternatives for a better understanding of the region's culture to Israel's leaders and citizens. He is also the chairman of the Leadership Empowerment Society in Israel.

During his diplomatic career he served as the Head of the Israeli Delegation to the Emirate of Qatar and as foreign policy advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time, Ariel Sharon. During this period, he held the position of the chairman of the "Third Track" peace negotiation committee with the Palestinians.

About the book:

The uniqueness of the book is in its combination of three main spheres of knowledge, and which for the most part each sphere stands independently by itself. Firstly, the discussions in the book are based on academic research in the field of the modern Middle East.

The second area of knowledge is the personal experiences of the author in Israel's foreign corps and his personal involvement in diplomatic processes as a diplomatic advisor to former Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon, and as head of Israel's representative office in Qatar. The author shares with the reader secret diplomatic meetings that have not been previously discussed openly, as well as the dynamics of the unique and complex diplomacy of the Middle East, and all from his own personal testimony as an active player, and not a mere spectator standing on the side.

The third area of knowledge on which the book is based is the author's activities as an operator of agents in the 504 division of the Israel Defense Forces Intelligence Unit. This is the first time that a personal testimony of the intelligence activities of this unit has been told to the public in such a unique way. The revelations brought to light here for the first time in the area of Israel's foreign and intelligence policies have undergone a long and painstaking process of approvals by official Israeli bodies, and following a struggle that was far from simple, have been approved for publication.