Its all about Timing: TAU Alumni talk about the results of the 2020 US Elections

In the run-up to the inauguration of the incoming US president Joe Biden, and during the hours the Congress decided on former President Trump's 2nd impeachment, the TAU Alumni Organization, Headed by Sigalit Ben Hayoun, held a previously planned webinar, which dealt with the dramatic results of the US presidential, Senate and Congressional elections, and their consequences, both globally and locally for Israel.

14 January 2021

The webinar was participated by inspiring TAU Alumni who chose academia as a way of life and became Tel Aviv University faculty after graduating:

  • Dr. Udi Sommer, Head of the Center for the Study of the United States at TAU with the Fulbright Program, Alumnus of the TAU School of Psychological Sciences
     
  • Prof. Miriam (Miri) Shefer Mossensohn, Head of the Zvi Yazetz School of Historical Studies, Alumna of the Zvi Yavetz School of Historical Studies
     
  • Dr. Liora Hendelman-Baavur, Director of the Alliance Center for Iranian Studies at TAU, Alumna of the TAU Faculties of Social Sciences and Humanities.

 

The event was moderated by two prominent media people and TAU Alumni, who deal with current events and what is happening in the United States on a daily basis:

  • Tal Schneider, Diplomatic & Political correspondent, Zman Israel by The Times of Israel, Alumna of TAU's Buchmann Faculty of Law
     
  • Uri Pasovsky, Senior commentator, Globes, Alumnus of the Zvi Yavetz School of Historical Studies and the Shirley and Leslie Porter School of Cultural Studies in the TAU Faculty of Humanities, and the Coller School of Management

 

The panel discussed complex and major questions:

How will America recover from the storming of the United States Capitol that occured this past weekend?

What can this week's events teach about the state of democracy in the United States, and the democratic rift around the world?

Will Biden be able to bridge the gaps in American society?

What are the consequences of violating the freedom of expression? And what are the limits of freedom of expression?

How will the end of Trump's tenure and the insane damage to his status affect US-Israel relations?

What does Iran think?

And are these historical times?

 

Prof. Miri Shefer Mossensohn:

"Leaders in the Middle East, led by Erdogan, are cynically saying to the United States today, 'Told you so': the image you radiated to the outside world as the guardian of democracy – Now even you can't tell us how to behave. Similar Hand-rubbing is taking place in Moscow and Tehran.

 

As a historian, I can say that when there is a sense of chaos and loss of compass, people do things they would not do in other situations. We have seen examples of this throughout history, when pandemics (such as COVID-19) have brought about dramatic changes."

 

Dr. Liora Hendelman-Baavur:

"From the point of view of Iran and other Middle Eastern countries, the US administration, which has been preaching morality on human rights issues for years, is at a low point when its own treatment of American citizens is revealed (like the George Floyd scandal). It seems that Iran's general feeling following the US election results is relief. Along with anti-American statements to which we are already accustomed, there is a keen anticipation for the future, especially for a removal of the sanctions Iran faced since Trump's withdrawal of the "Iran Nuclear Deal" in 2018.

 

Iran is expected to hold presidential elections in the summer of 2021 and there is great pressure to get Washington to lift the sanctions, or at least some of them, by then.

 

Beyond that, there is a global trend where the balance of power is shifting, and the zeitgeist is calling for “strong” leaders of a certain kind. Biden is a politician with many years of experience in Congress, and there are many expectations of him. Many see him as a kind of knight on a white horse who will bring about a kind of world correction after 4 years of Trump."

 

Dr. Udi Sommer:

"If Trump is Impeached, he will be the first president in American history who'll be Impeached twice.

 

The ultimate criterion for democracy is the peaceful transfer of power. The idea that a party that lost an election peacefully transfers the reins to a winning party is a cornerstone of any democratic system. The violent incidents on Capitol Hill last week undermine these foundations.

 

In addition, one of the basic criteria in the American Constitution is the principle of separation of powers aimed at preventing the concentration of excessive power and the abuse of that power. The fact that the head of the executive branch has led to the cessation of a fundamental constitutional procedure that is at the core of the activity of the legislature, and violently, also undermines this fundamental principle.

 

And yet, 74.2 million voters voted for Trump. A president whose many messages throughout his tenure have been in a similar spirit. And no less, many of the Republican politicians to this moment are in no hurry to distance themselves from Trump.

 

One of COVID-19's most notable influences on American politics stems from the unprecedented turnout in envelopes. It made possible, despite the difficult circumstances of a global pandemic, for an unprecedented number of voters to vote. Beyond that, many of those voters were Democrats. And that’s also what gave a lot of the dramatic garnet of Election Day and the days that followed, when the votes counted from the envelopes were from urban areas that are mostly Democratic strongholds.

 

The Abraham Accords are a paradigm shift in Middle Eastern reality. A change in light of American foreign policy in the Middle East will need to be updated. First, in contrast to the 1990s and the bilateral reality advocated by the US State Department at the time, it is a multilateral reality that affects the system of regional alliances, axes of power, and ways of dealing with Iran.

 

 Second, the Palestinians, whose perception was that until there was no progress with them there would be no progress with any other factor in the Middle East, are no longer in the same status. Their status has changed radically from the moment the trend was established, according to which Israel and other regional factors are getting closer without the precondition of progress towards an agreement with the Palestinians."

 

Among the hundreds of Alumni who viewed the webinar in real time:

  • Michael Kenny, Owner & CEO of Eastronics LTD
  • Eran Elizur, CEO of IKOMED Technologies Inc
  • Justice Daniela Shirizli
  • Zeev Kirschenbaum, President and CEO of ACS Motion Control LTD
  • Gideon Reis, CEO of Pavilion-Spark
  • Jerry Mandel, Managing Director of Galil Capital Finance
  • Former TAU President Prof. Joseph Klafter and his wife Pirchiya

and many more.

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