From the Iron Dome to Yeminite Jews: Ellie Cohanim addresses the crises in the Middle East
From Iran’s nuclear program to the US pullout from Afghanistan to the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Yemen, the Middle East, and beyond is going through a cataclysmic change.
To help explain the dangers in the region and why it matters to Americans, CBN News talked with Iranian-born Middle East expert Ellie Cohanim. She currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies and also served as the US State Department’s first Iranian-born Envoy. During her tenure, she helped forge groundbreaking partnerships in the Arab world with the Abraham Accords.
In this wide-ranging interview, we asked Cohanim about this week’s attempt by Progressive Democrats to defund Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile defense system; her recent address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva concerning ethnic cleansing of Jews in Yemen and the geopolitical fallout of the US pullout from Afghanistan.
Ms. Cohanim was the State Department’s first Iranian-born Envoy, and led diplomatic initiatives which resulted in forging groundbreaking partnerships in the Arab world to combat anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and Islamophobia. Ms. Cohanim also persuaded the first-ever Muslim faith group to adopt the IHRA working definition of anti-Semitism, all as part of the Abraham Accords efforts. As Deputy Envoy, Ms. Cohanim was the lead official for the State Department in creating and implementing policy on countering anti-Semitism in the Near East and Western Hemisphere regions. She worked closely with Jewish communities in Venezuela, Chile, Argentina and Colombia in confronting local issues of anti-Semitism.
Ms. Cohanim can often be seen on Fox News and Newsmax; and is a contributor to National Review, Newsweek, The Hill and Washington Examiner.
Ellie Cohanim arrived as a child refugee to the US, after she and her family fled the escalating anti-Semitism in Iran during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Previously, Ellie Cohanim was Senior Vice President and Special Correspondent for the Jewish Broadcasting Service (JBS) and was an executive at Yeshiva University; The Jewish Theological Seminary; and UJA-Federation of New York. She serves on the boards of the Iranian-American Jewish Federation of NY and Latino Coalition for Israel; and has previously served on the boards of the American Jewish Committee (AJC-NYR), the New York Jewish Community Relations Council, and the Ester Chapter of Hadassah.
Ellie Cohanim received her B.A. in Political Science, Cum Laude, from Barnard College, Columbia University; and conducted graduate study in International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is fluent in Hebrew and Farsi, familiar with German, Arabic and Spanish.
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