Lawrence Rubin has an op-ed article published in the AJC discussing another Mideast battle brewing - the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, "Another Mideast battle brews".

Excerpt from op-ed...

"Until a few weeks ago, the most volatile area of the Mid-east — the Palestinian-Israeli conflict — was one of its quietest. But this just changed. The gruesome slaying of a Jewish family in the West Bank settlement of Itamar — including a mother and her young children — shocked Israelis from across the political spectrum and reduced chances of a settlement freeze in the near future.

Since then, Israeli airstrikes against targets in Gaza in response to Qassam rocket fire into southern Israel have killed innocent civilians, and there has been a bombing in Jerusalem — the first in four years. These are ominous signs of greater escalation of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the potential costs this could have for Israeli and Palestinian populations are reasons alone for the U.S. to intervene."

**Full op-ed can be read on ajc.com

Assistant Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Lawrence Rubin’s research interests include comparative Middle East politics and international security with a specific focus on Islam and politics, Arab foreign policies, and nuclear proliferation.  He holds a PhD in Political Science from UCLA and has earned degrees from UC Berkeley, the London School of Economics, and the University of Oxford. Rubin has been a Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs with the Dubai Initiative in the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (2009-2010) and has served as a lecturer on the Robert and Myra Kraft chair in Arab politics at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University (2008-2009).  Rubin is currently the Associate Editor for the journal Terrorism and Political Violence.  Outside of Academia, Rubin has held positions at the National Defense University's Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies and the RAND Corporation. Rubin has conducted research in Morocco, Egypt, Israel, the UAE, and Yemen.