"Israel's Political System in the Age of Coronavirus" With Retired Israeli Ambassador Ido Aharoni 

Ambassador Ido Aharoni serves as a global distinguished professor at New York University’s School of International Relations in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Ambassador Aharoni is a 25-year veteran of Israel’s Foreign service, a public diplomacy specialist, founder of the Brand Israel program and a well-known nation branding practitioner. Ambassador Aharoni, who served as Israel's longest serving consul-general in New York and the tristate area for six years, oversaw the operations of Israel’s largest diplomatic mission worldwide.

Ambassador Aharoni has been a member of Israel’s Foreign Service since the summer of 1991 and held two other overseas positions in Los Angeles and in New York.

In the spring of 2006 Aharoni was appointed to serve as a senior advisor and press secretary to Israel's Foreign Minister and Vice Prime Minister Ms. Zippy Livni. In that capacity he introduced nation branding methods and country positioning strategies as pillars of Israel’s public diplomacy.

Between the years 1994-1998, Aharoni served as Israel’s consul for communications and public affairs in Los Angeles and the southwestern United States. Between the years 2001-2005, Aharoni served as Israel’s consul for media and public affairs at Israel's Consulate General in New York and the Tri-State area. He assumed this position several weeks prior to the terror attacks of 9/11. As the head of the department, Aharoni oversaw the operation of Israel's largest public diplomacy and media relations apparatus worldwide. He handled public diplomacy, media relations, community outreach, social media platforms, as well as a variety of informational services.

Prior to his arrival in New York, Aharoni served as a policy advisor to the director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. Over the years Aharoni served five different directors-general.

In the spring of 1993, upon completion of the Foreign Ministry's cadet program, Aharoni was appointed to serve under then Foreign Minister Mr. Shimon Peres, as Policy Assistant to Israel’s Chief negotiator with the Palestinians. In that capacity Aharoni took place in the back-channel negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians in Europe and in the middle-east that led to the signing of the Declaration of Principles and the mutual recognition agreement (also known as the ‘Oslo Accords’). Aharoni was a member of Israel’s official delegation to the signing ceremony at the White House in September of 1993.

In 2013, the news magazine 'Algemeiner' named him among ‘Top 100 People Positively Influencing Jewish Life’ commonly known as the "Jewish 100."

In 2015 he was awarded the ‘Honorary Governor’ status by Tel Aviv University. 

Aharoni is a sought after public speaker. Over the years he has delivered lectures on the middle east, Israel’s foreign relations, mass media, new media, the information revolution, public marketing, non-product branding, country Positioning and nation Branding .
Aharoni has regularly appeared on national television and radio and has frequently published articles in the national and the international media.

In 2013 Aharoni was invited by Google to take part in their renowned speakers’ series ‘Authors at Google’.

He is married to Julie Goodman-Aharoni, a native of Los Angeles. They have three children: Talia (26), Sharon (23) and Adam (18).

If you were not able to join the lecture with Ambassador Aharoni today and are interested to watch the recording, you can find it here.