Israel

Israel is Europe’s third largest trading partner in the Middle East and its economic performance is among the strongest in the OECD. Israel is also a major political and security actor in the Middle East and Mediterranean basin. As a result, Europe and Israel share important strategic objectives, including combating terrorism and extremism, fostering stability, regional cooperation, and peace. The cooperation with Europe is vast and includes areas, such as cyber security, counter-terrorism, agriculture, water and food security, and innovation. The discovery of gas in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea opened further opportunities for cooperation.

Scientific collaboration is a fundamental component of the bilateral relations. Both Israeli and European academic institutions rank yearly among the most innovative worldwide. With high rates of R&D funding and a record number of start-ups, Israel is a central hub for global science and innovation. The scientific cooperation contributed to breakthroughs in research in multiple sectors, from smart irrigation, through child tumors and robotics. 

Europe and Israel share fundamental values and strategic interests and benefit from robust economic relations despite political differences. ELNET’s mission and programs serve to enhance mutual understanding of these common values and interests. 

ELNET in Israel

ELNET’s Israeli office serves as a central hub in the network, facilitating delegations and dialogues in cooperation with ELNET’s European affiliates and Friends of ELNET in the US. The Israeli office is also responsible for developing strong relationships with Israeli decision-makers, research institutes, businesses and civil society leaders. Under the leadership of an international board, ELNET-Israel fosters Israeli-Europe ties, while educating the Israeli policymakers about the importance of strengthening relations with Europe. 

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Professional Team »

Dr. Emmanuel Navon

CEO of ELNET-Israel
Dr. Emmanuel Navon is a scholar and practitioner of diplomacy, with expertise on Europe-Israel relations. He lectures International Relations at Tel Aviv University, is a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) and is a foreign affairs analyst for i24news. He has taught in the past at Reichman University, at Bar-Ilan University, and the IDF’s National Security College. Navon is the author of several books, including The Star and the Scepter: A Diplomatic History of Israel, a a reference book that has been translated in five languages. Previously, he was a consultant for ARTTIC, where he advised Israeli companies on building partnerships in Europe and on obtaining R&D funding from the European Commission; CEO of BNIC, an organization that trained Israeli business leaders for public diplomacy in Europe; and founding partner of The Navon-Levy Group, a consultancy that promoted Israeli agriculture and energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Navon graduated from Sciences-Po Paris and holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin

Chair of ELNET's Forum of Strategic Dialogue, ELNET-Israel
Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin served for more than a decade as Director of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). Moreover, he served 41 years in the IDF, as a member of the General Staff, Deputy Commander of the Air Force, Commander of Combat Squadrons, and Commander of Air Force Bases. During his service in the Air Force, he crossed multiple enemy lines and participated as a combat pilot in the Yom Kippur War, in addition to taking part in attacks on nuclear reactors in Iraq. Formerly an IDF attaché to the United States, Maj. Gen. (res.) Yadlin served as Head of the Defense Intelligence Directorate from 2006-2010. In 2015, he was a candidate for defense minister of the “Zionist Union.”

Pascaline Wagemans

Director of ELNET's Forum of Strategic Dialogue, ELNET-Israel
Former Deputy Director (2017 to 2022) and Project & Research Manager (2014 to 2017) at the FSD, Project & Research Coordinator at ELNET (2013 to 2014), and an evidence-based consultant (2010 to 2011) and Business Analyst (2008 to 2009) at IMS Health, a leading global information and technology services company. Ms. Wagemans holds an MA in conflict resolution and mediation from Tel Aviv University, as well as an MA and a BA in Business Engineering from Solvay Business School.

Yossi Abravanel

Deputy Director for Incoming Delegations, ELNET-Israel
Yossi Abravanel is a former entrepreneur in the fields of telecom and homeland security in Israel and beyond, with extensive experience in work vis-à-vis governments in West Africa and Israel, and as a Jewish Agency’s Aliyah representative in Paris. He holds an MBA from the University of Sorbonne and a BA from Jerusalem College of Technology.

Benjamin Touati

Deputy Director for Government Relations, ELNET-Israel
Benjamin Touati is a former representative of the Jewish Agency in Paris, political advisor of Israeli ministers and director in national institutions, including World Mizrahi Movement, with vast experience in project management in public and non-governmental sectors. He holds an MBA from the Jerusalem College of Technology and a BA in History from Paris University.

Jill Wyler

Delegations Program Manager, ELNET-Israel
Jill Wyler held various professional positions in Israel and her last position prior to joining ELNET was as the Israel representative of a Washington based independent academic organization which focused on enhancing knowledge about modern Israel at universities in the United States and around the world. At ELNET she is a Program manager within the Delegations department, which deals with dozens of ELNET parliamentarian delegations visiting Israel each year. Jill has a master's degree in International Relations, with a focus on diplomacy and foreign policy, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Bachelor's degree in International Relations and German Literature.

Daniel Shadmy

Spokesperson & Communication Manager, ELNET-Israel
Daniel Shadmy has extensive experience in the field of Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs. Prior to joining ELNET, Daniel held several positions at the Israeli MFA. Such as Political Adviser at Israel’s Mission to the United-Nations in New-York, Political Officer at the Embassy of Israel in London and lastly as Congressional Affairs Officer at the Embassy of Israel in Washington D.C. Daniel holds a double Major B.A. in International Relations and Chinese Studies from INALCO University in Paris and an M.A. in Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution from Reichman University in Herzliya.
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Ben Rosemblaum

Deputy Communication Manager, ELNET-Israel
Ben Rosemblaum evolved in the art field, both as a painter and a photographer. In between artistic projects, he graduated from Reichman University in Herzliya, where he specialized in Counter-Terrorism and European studies. In parallel to exhibiting his artwork worldwide, Ben was a communication manager at the “France-Israel” Foundation, later specializing in the Maghreb region while working in the private sector. Before joining ELNET, he was an educator in Mikve Israel Boarding School in Holon, and opened his own art gallery in Tel Aviv to help young artists gain recognition, by developing a program of “socially involved” art in Israel.

Genoveva Barrios

Project Manager - Innovation & Partnerships,
ELNET-Israel
Genoveva Barrios is as Project Coordinator responsible for ELNET’s innovation projects GINSUM and GIHF-AI in the Israeli office. She studied Intercultural Communication and Economics at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen and then worked in the real estate industry for several years. While focussing first on the sales and later on the asset management field, she completed a second bachelor degree in Real Estate. After moving to Israel in 2021, Genoveva Barrios was able to gain extensive experience in the Israeli high-tech and innovation scene.
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Dalmionë Shkodra

Project Manager for ELNET’s Forum of Strategic Dialogue, ELNET-Israel
Dalmionë has an extensive background in diplomacy and homeland security. Prior to joining ELNET-Israel she worked as a recruiter specialist for the International School of Reichman University. She served in the Israeli Defense Forces in the International Branch Unit. Dalmionë holds an MA in Government and Homeland Security from Reichman University, Hezliya.

Yasmin Burk

Account Manager, ELNET-Israel
Yasmin Burk is an accounting professional with experience in management and accounting in private and non-governmental sectors. She studied accounting and economics at the Open University in Tel Aviv.
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Aliya Slepkov-Dror

Logistics and Office Manager, ELNET-Israel
Aliya Slepkov-Dror has an extensive background in project management, logistics, event organizing and program development, both in the US and in Israel. She was born and raised in Jerusalem and did her army service with the IDF Intelligence Unit. Aliya recently returned to Israel after 17 years in Los Angeles where she worked as an Executive Secretary for 6 years at The Jewish Federation in Los Angeles, and 7 years as a Programs Membership and Events Administrator at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles.

Executive Board Members »

Andrew Hochberg

Chair, ELNET Israel
Mr. Andrew Hochberg is a board member of Friends of ELNET and Chairman of the Board of ELNET-Israel. Mr. Hochberg is a leader in the Chicago Jewish community, serving as Chairman of the Board for the Jewish Federation of Chicago, and formerly chairing its Overall Planning and Allocation Committee and Government Affairs Committee. Mr. Hochberg led fundraising for the Jewish Day School Guaranty Trust Fund and served as a presidential appointee to the US Holocaust Memorial Committee. He is a founder and CEO of a real estate investment firm Next Realty. He holds BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business and Juris Doctor from Northwestern University.

Sam Pinto

After a career in the banking world in France, Asia and the USA, mainly in the Edmond de Rothschild Group, Sam Pinto made aliyah to Israel in 2009. After moving to Israel, Pinto decided to devote himself mainly to philanthropic activism including: Baït Ham which helps young adolescents in difficulty, and Kiah-Alliance - Israeli branch of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, the Franco-Israeli high school of Mikve Israel and Agudat Sabah, which supports activities in the Israeli periphery.

Claude Grundman-Brightman

Claude Grundman-Brightman is a French-born Israeli architect, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She is the president of the Netanya Academic College’s French-speaking campus, where she’s built cross-border partnerships with francophone countries and regions around the world, and where she chairs international conferences with the world’s top scholars and decision-makers. As an architect, she has designed prestigious museums in Europe, in Israel, and in Africa. Claude is a board member of the Ghetto Fighter’s Museum, and of the “Larger than Life” charity for the struggle against pediatric cancer. She was awarded the légion d’honneur, France’s highest distinction, for her contribution to French culture and to France-Israel relations.

Albert Levy

Albert (Abraham) Levy is an economist and an entrepreneur who has founded and managed successful companies in the fields of computing, air quality, and real estate in France, the United States, the Far East, and Israel. Albert holds an MA in economics from Paris University and an MBA from ESSEC. He also holds a political science degree from Sciences-Po and has pursued graduate studies in political science at Tel Aviv University. Albert is a seasoned sailor who crossed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans on his own sailboat together with his wife Joëlle (Yael), a medical doctor.

Janet Gordon

Ms. Janet Gordon serves as Vice President of the Geller Foundation. The foundation provides financial support to 43 private Jewish schools throughout the U.S. She assists approximately 1,500 students at ten different universities in Israel with accounting and interest free loans. Ms. Gordon studied business at the Pratt Institute in New York City. She has held positions in France, Germany and Israel in the private sectors as an accountant. Ms. Gordon is also a member of Israeli American Council (IAC), Merona Leadership Foundation, StandWIthUs and AIPAC.

Edward Gelbard

Edward Gelbard s an Australian businessman who has operated as an investor in the Flexible Plastics Industry for over 40 years. His investments have been multinational and have included manufacturing plants in Australia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Russia, the Baltic States, and Romania. He also has hands-on industry experience in France, Germany, Holland, Poland, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Gabriel Goldberg

Gabriel Goldberg is an American-born Israeli engaged in public diplomacy on behalf of Israel for four decades, primarily in German-speaking Europe and in Scandinavia. He is the Director of Hasbara Yisraelit in Israel and CFO of the charitable fund LZI, assisting various humanitarian and educational institutions in Israel. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in history from UCLA, specializing in Holocaust studies.

Advisory Board Members »

Danielle Abraham

Danielle Abraham has spent her career in Israel dedicated to connecting Israeli expertise to global needs. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of Volcani International Partnerships. an NGO tackling food and nutrition insecurity worldwide with Israeli agricultural expertise. Danielle served as a senior policy advisor in MASHAV, Israel’s agency for International Development Cooperation at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In this role she represented Israel, as a guest speaker, at the UN, OECD and German Development Bank. Danielle made Aliyah from London, where she worked for the British Government. Danielle holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Oxford and lives in Tel Aviv with her family.

Maj. Gen. (Res) Yaakov Amidror

General Amidror was National Security Advisor to Prime Minister Netanyahu and chairman of the National Security Council (2011-2013). He served for 36 years in senior IDF posts (1966-2002), including as a commander of the Military Colleges, military secretary to the Minister of Defense, director of the Intelligence Analysis Division in Military Intelligence, and chief intelligence officer of the Northern Command. Today, he is Senior Fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies, a leading security think tank.

Amb. Danny Ayalon

Danny Ayalon is an Israeli diplomat, columnist and businessman. He served as Deputy Foreign Minister and as a member of the Knesset. He was the Israeli Ambassador to the United States from 2002 until 2006. Previously, he worked as senior foreign policy advisor to Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon, Ehud Barak, and Benjamin Netanyahu. He has also served as a Member of the Executive Board, University Center, Ariel; Vice Chair of the Israel-America Chamber of Commerce, and a Board Member of the America-Israel Friendship League.

Amb. Dani Dayan

Dani Dayan is the Chairman of Yad Vashem. Previously, he was the Consul General of Israel in New York, accredited also to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Ohio. Previously he served as the Chairman of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria. For more than two decades, he was Chairman and CEO of a group of information technology firms. Dayan holds an M.Sc. in Finance and B.Sc. in Economics and Computer Science.

Shimrit Meir

Shimrit Meir is the former diplomatic advisor to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. Prior to that, she served as the CEO of ‘Link – the Center for Strategic Communication in the Middle East’. She is the founding editor of Israel's largest Arabic media outlet Al-Masdar, is a leading Middle East analyst and longtime journalist with more than 15 years of experience researching and covering the Arab world, and the Palestinians in particular. Fluent in Arabic, Hebrew, English and French, Ms. Meir was the Arab affairs correspondent and commentator for Galei Zahal, one of Israel’s top news channels, and worked for both Israeli public television and for Channel 2 News, the country’s largest commercial station. Ms. Meir headed a Jewish-Arab team of young journalists that delivers stories from Israel to the Arab world, using web and social media platforms. The team has a Facebook community of more than 2.2 million people across the regions and operates a highly popular news website.

Dan Meridor

Dan Meridor is former Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy, and Minister of Justice. Mr. Meridor was Chairman of Israel's Defence Doctrine Committee and served as Chairman of The Jerusalem Foundation, Deputy Chairman of the Board of INSS (Institute for National Security Studies), and a Senior Fellow at Israel Democracy Institute. He served also as the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee of the Knesset.

Itamar Rabinovitch

President of The Israel Institute in Washington, he is also Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern History of Tel Aviv University and a Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He is the Vice-Chairman of the INSS, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He formerly served as Israel’s Ambassador to the US. He was Chief Negotiator with Syria in the mid-1990s. He served as President of Tel Aviv University from 1999 to 2007. Ambassador Prof. Rabinovich served as Ettinger Professor of Contemporary History of the Middle-East, Chairman of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Director of the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Dean of Humanities and Rector. He is the author of 14 booked the latest being: 'Middle Eastern Maze, Israel, The Arabs and The Region 1948-2022'.

Brig. Gen. (Res) Sima Vaknin Gill

Brig. Gen. (Res.) Sima Vaknin Gill is a former intelligence officer in the IAF, the former Chief Censor of the State of Israel, and the former Director General of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy. She is a member of the Governing Board of CAM - Combat Antisemitism Movement and the VP, and board member of strategy and development at ISGAP – The Institute for the Study of Antisemitism and Policy. Sima is an expert in intelligence work, web monitoring and research, data and research-based activity, contemporary Antisemitism, de-legitimization and BDS against Israel. Sima holds a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies and International Relations and an MA in National Security Studies from the National Defense College. Currently she is involved in several initiatives to combating Antisemitism. SHe is a board member of Schlichut School of JAFI, Hetz, NCRI, and more.

Dr. Einat Wilf

Dr. Einat Wilf is a leading thinker on Israel, Zionism, foreign policy and education. She was a member of the Israeli Parliament from 2010 to 2013 where she served as Chair of the Education Committee and Member of the influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Born and raised in Israel, Dr. Wilf served as an Intelligence Officer in the Israel Defense Forces, Foreign Policy Advisor to Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres and a strategic consultant with McKinsey & Company. Dr. Wilf has a BA from Harvard, an MBA from INSEAD in France, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Cambridge. She was the Goldman Visiting Professor at Georgetown University and is a lecturer at Reichman University in Israel. Dr. Wilf is the author of seven books that explore key issues in Israeli society.

Dr. Sarah Fainberg

Dr. Sarah Fainberg is Senior Researcher and Head of Great Powers Research Program at Tel Aviv University's Elrom Center for Air and Space Studies. where she focuses on Russian and Chinese policy in the Middle East and North Africa. In addition, she serves as Lecturer in the MA Program for Security and Diplomacy Studies at TAU and Adjunct Professor of Israeli Affairs at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. She previously served as Policy and Strategic Issues Adviser for Israel’s Ministry of Defense and Research Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv (Russia Program). She was also involved in NGO activities in the United States, Russia, and Ukraine. Sarah works, writes, and lectures in four languages (English, Hebrew, French, Russian). A graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, she holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Comparative Politics from Sciences Po, Paris.

Contact Information »

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Tel: +972 (0) 73 7370 546
E-mail: info@elnetwork.eu