Stanford University

There’s Got to Be More to This Ceasefire Deal

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Amichai Magen
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Lore has it that the late President Ronald Reagan loved telling “the one about the pony.” In his rendition of the story, the parents of twin brothers—one a diehard pessimist, the other an eternal optimist—consulted a psychologist who recommended a unique experiment. On the twins’ next birthday the pessimist was shown into a room packed with the most expensive gifts the parents could afford, while the optimist was invited into a room full of horse manure. An hour later, when the parents checked on the pessimist, he complained bitterly about some arcane detail in one of his expensive gifts. In contrast, when they cautiously opened the door to check in on the optimist, they found him digging joyfully through the manure. “Mom! Dad! This is incredible!” the optimist shouted with glee. “With all the shit piled up in this room, there’s got to be a pony!”

Read the full article in Persuasion.

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Amichai Magen hunts for the pony in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.

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Financial market exposure increases generalized trust

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How can we build trust, especially in polarized societies? We propose that exposure to broad financial markets—where individuals place their assets in the hands of large groups of unfamiliar agents who nonetheless have the incentive and ability to promote their interests—can contribute to generalized trust. In a randomized controlled trial, we encourage Israelis to hold or trade stocks for up to seven weeks. We find that participation in financial markets increases the probability of expressing generalized trust by about 6 percentage points, equivalent to a quarter of the control group mean. The effects seem to be driven by political partisans along the left–right spectrum in Israel, and are robust to negative price changes. Thus, trust is not only a cause but can also be an effect of participation in financial markets.

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Journal Articles
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Journal of Public Economics
Authors
Saumitra Jha
Moses Shayo
Chagai Weiss
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February 2025, 105303

Alon Tal

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Professor Alon Tal’s career has been a balance between academia and public interest advocacy. Between 2021–2022, he was a member of Knesset, Israel’s parliament, where he served as chair of the subcommittee for environmental and climate impact on health. Presently he has an appointment as professor in the Department of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University. Tal has held faculty posts at Stanford, Ben Gurion, Hebrew, Michigan State, Otago, and Harvard Universities. He has also founded several Israeli environmental organizations, including Adam Teva V’Din, the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, and the Arava Institute. He has served as deputy chair of Keren Kayemeth L’Yisrael, where for many years he oversaw national forestry policy in Israel and is currently co-chair of Zafuf, the Israel Forum for Population, Environment and Society. He plays fiddle and mandolin in the Arava Riders, a leading Israeli bluegrass band.

Visiting Fellow in Israel Studies
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Aleeza Schoenberg

Encina Hall, C139-d
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Aleeza is the Israel Program Manager at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. She moved to Stanford from Boston in August 2024. Prior to working at CDDRL, she worked in programming and community engagement at a university and a synagogue, as well as in IT, customer success, and marketing. Aleeza studied in Israel for a year before attending Princeton University, where she received her bachelor’s in psychology. She loves arts and crafts, theater, animals, and long walks with friends.

Israel Program Manager
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Sheryl Sandberg Screens & Discusses Documentary on Oct. 7 Sexual Violence

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Clifton B. Parker
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Sheryl Sandberg, former Chief Operating Officer of Meta and founder of LeanIn.org — an NGO dedicated to empowering women and girls — told a Stanford audience that the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks and sexual violence against women drew her back to the spotlight with a message for the world:

“What is at stake is actually important for all of humanity,” she said at a Nov. 19 film screening of her documentary, Screams Before Silence. The event was hosted by the Visiting Fellows in Israel Studies program, housed at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, and Hillel at Stanford.

The film included eyewitness accounts from released hostages, survivors, and first responders. During the Hamas attacks on Israeli towns and at the Nova Music Festival, women and girls were raped, assaulted, mutilated, and killed. Released hostages have revealed that Israeli captives in Gaza have also been sexually assaulted.

Yet, as Sandberg noted, the atrocities have received little scrutiny or attention from human rights and feminist groups, international organizations, and others. Some denialists have even said Hamas’ sexual violence never took place or that it was invented by Israel itself — an echo of 9/11 denialism and antisemitic conspiracy theories. So, Sandberg undertook the challenge of creating a 60-minute documentary, which has now registered almost three million YouTube views while also being screened around the world.

‘Make people see this’


Sandberg interviewed survivors and witnesses and survivors and traveled to the site of the Nova Music Festival, where 364, mostly young revelers, were murdered in the worst terrorist attack in the country’s history. She viewed hundreds of photos of dead bodies of women who displayed clear signs of sexual abuse and harm.

She noted that even war has rules of law and that what she discovered while making the film was often incomprehensible, tragic, and heartbreaking.

Rape should never be used as an act of war, she said, and silence is complicity. “We know we have to keep fighting and trying to make people see this.”
 

We know we have to keep fighting and trying to make people see this.
Sheryl Sandberg
Founder, LeanIn.org


‘A Moral Eclipse’


In his introduction of Sandberg, Amichai Magen, the inaugural Visiting Fellow in Israel Studies at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), explained the film’s title.

“There is the obvious meaning, capturing the silence of death after the acts of violence. But there is also the silence of the international community, the complete shock experienced by Jewish communities all around the world, that on Oct. 8, some people denied this ever happened … After the screams, we experienced a moral silence, a moral eclipse. And then there is the silence of the invisible wounds, the broken minds, the broken souls, the broken families,” Magen said.

Amichai Magen delivers opening remarks at a podium before a screening of "Screams Before Silence." Amichai Magen delivers opening remarks before a screening of "Screams Before Silence." Rod Searcey

After leaving Meta a few years ago, Sandberg said she was completely committed to being private and not public anymore. “I'd had it, and it was done.” And then, Oct. 7 took place, and subsequent reports about sexual violence seemed to be met with an eerie silence.

Why the silence? Sandberg offered that people are so politically polarized today that they want every fact to fit into their particular narrative. And for some, sexual violence may not fit into their narrative.

“What is happening is that politics — polarization and extreme politics — are blinding us to something that should be completely obvious. I shouldn't even have to say this. Rape is not resistance. Never. Under any circumstances. Rape is not resistance. It never has been, it never will be,” she said.
 

Rape is not resistance. Never. Under any circumstances. Rape is not resistance. It never has been, it never will be.
Sheryl Sandberg
Founder, LeanIn.org


Anyone who has a mother, a sister, a daughter, a wife, or a friend should join together to unite against rape in war or elsewhere, she added.

“It threatens all of our values,” Sandberg said about Hamas’ massacres of Israelis.

In one interview that Sandberg conducted, she spoke with Ayelet Levy Sachar, the mother of 19-year-old Naama Levy, whose kidnapping that morning was filmed by Hamas. The horrific sight of her pajama bottoms, drenched in blood at the back, was a clear indicator that sexual brutality was carried out by Hamas.

‘He’s just a hero’


After the film concluded, Sandberg joined Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, and Rabbi Idit Solomon for a conversation and question-and-answer session with the audience. Gundar-Goshen is a clinical psychologist who has personally treated Nova survivors. This quarter she is lecturer and artist-in-residence at Stanford’s Taube Center for Jewish Studies. Rabbi Idit Solomon is the interim associate director at Hillel at Stanford.

Ayelet Gundar-Goshen in conversation with Sheryl Sandberg. Ayelet Gundar-Goshen in conversation with Sheryl Sandberg. Rod Searcey

Sandberg expressed heartache over the current situation in Gaza and said she is a supporter of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

“War is a terrible thing. Terror is a terrible thing. Oct. 7 is a terrible thing. What happened after that is a terrible thing. None of this should happen. We have to believe in peace. We have to get to peace. But in order to have peace, you need two people who are willing to let the other side live in peace,” she said.

In the film, she spoke with Rami Davidson, who heroically saved over 100 lives at the Nova Music Festival.

“He's just a hero,” Sandberg said about her interview with Davidson near the spot of the Nova festival. They stood close to the trees where he recalled seeing naked and mutilated bodies tied to them on Oct. 7.

“And he starts crying. He said, ‘I could have saved them. He rescued over 100 people, mostly from the Nova … For 10 hours, he went in and out in his little car, rescuing people, risking his own life. And he was just crying about the ones he didn't get to.”
 

We have to believe in peace. We have to get to peace. But in order to have peace, you need two people who are willing to let the other side live in peace.
Sheryl Sandberg
Founder, LeanIn.org


‘A threat to our values’


Sandberg urged the audience to embrace the point that such terror will never have a place in a civilized world.

“It may take time and it may take a lot of work by people like you and all the brave people who are here today. But we are going to persuade people that this is terror. We are going to get to a world where people don't tolerate this terror and recognize the threat to our values that this is,” she said.

The documentary was released for private and public use without any licensing fees. “We're trying to get everyone we can to see it,” she said. It can be viewed for free on YouTube.

Sandberg recalled a discussion with Denis Mukwege, a Congolese physician who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict. Mukwege said the most horrible aspect of sexual violence as a war tool is that it's incredibly effective and free.

“It doesn't just take real lives, but it destroys communities in many places around the world. When a woman is raped, in some cultures, she's then outcast from her society. It systematically destroys the fabric of communities. You have the single most effective tool of war, and it is available for free. You don't have to buy a bomb or a gun. That is so devastating because you realize what we're up against,” Sandberg said.

She concluded, “We will come through this. Not everyone will come through this. These people, some of these people will not. But we will come through this. And so, this event gives me hope.”

Ayelet Gundar Goshen, Sheryl Sandberg, and Rabbi Idit Solomon discuss Sandberg's documentary "Screams Before Silence" following a Stanford screening on November 19, 2024. Ayelet Gundar Goshen, Sheryl Sandberg, and Rabbi Idit Solomon discuss Sandberg's documentary "Screams Before Silence" following a Stanford screening on November 19, 2024. Rod Searcey

If you are someone you know has been affected by sexual violence, the following resources are available for support:
 

  1. CAPS: Stanford Counseling and Psychological Services
    CAPS provides an array of mental health services available to students: clinical services, groups and workshops, and options for care outside of CAPS. Additionally, satellite clinics in multiple community centers offer "Let’s Talk in community."
    Phone: 650.723.3785
     
  2. Confidential Support Team (CST)
    Supports connection, healing, and thriving among Stanford community members impacted by sexual, relationship, and gender-based violence through confidential, trauma-informed consultation, counseling, and outreach. Legally confidential (non-reporting) support for sexual assault or relationship abuse.
    Phone: 650.736.6933
    24/7 urgent support hotline: 650.725.9955
     
  3. Hillel@Stanford Brief Therapy Program
    Up to 5 sessions are free for students who identify as part of the Hillel community.
    Email: ekrohner@brieftherapycenter.org
     
  4. 211 Santa Clara County
    Free sexual assault hotline.
    Phone: Dial 211
     
  5. Shalom Bayit
    Support for Jewish battered women.
    Helpline: 866.742.5667 (SHALOM-7)

Read More

Family and friends of May Naim, 24, who was murdered by Palestinians militants at the "Supernova" festival, near the Israeli border with Gaza strip, react during her funeral on October 11, 2023 in Gan Haim, Israel. (Getty Images)
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FSI's Visiting Fellow in Israel Studies Reflects on What Lies Ahead for Israel and the Middle East

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cover link FSI's Visiting Fellow in Israel Studies Reflects on What Lies Ahead for Israel and the Middle East
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Sheryl Sandberg said that filming a documentary about the sexual brutality of Hamas’ attacks on Israelis on Oct. 7 was the most important work of her life and that she wants to turn the world’s attention to the inhumanity that took place.

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Yoav Heller — The Fourth Quarter: What Will Israel Look Like in 2048?

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Yoav Heller webinar

In recent years, creeping demographic changes and deep political divisions have made many Israelis worry about the fragmentation of their society into several contending “tribes.” In a 2015 talk that became known as “The Four Tribes Speech,” Israel’s President, Reuven Rivlin, observed that Israel was rapidly transforming from a country defined by a unified national ethos into one where secular, nationalist-religious, ultraorthodox Jews, and Israeli Arabs increasingly possess separate identities. But some are fighting back, seeking to renegotiate the Israeli social contract and rejuvenate a cohesive center.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Yoav Heller is co-founder and chairman of “The Fourth Quarter”, an Israeli NGO and mass movement dedicated to rebuilding Israeli modern democratic centrism. A historian by training, Yoav has had a rich career in media – including Ynet, Israel's largest online media site, which he helped establish and in which he served as senior editor – education and community leadership. Yoav Heller holds a BA in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies and an MA in Management and Education from Tel Aviv University. He completed his Ph.D. in History at the University of London, Royal Holloway College Holocaust Research Institute.

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Amichai Magen
Amichai Magen

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Yoav Heller
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Yuli Tamir — Can Liberal Nationalism Save Israel?

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Yuli Tamir webinar

Since its modern rebirth in the aftermath of the Second World War and the Holocaust, Israel has always sought to balance nationalism with liberalism, and to reconcile Jewish particularism and the need for a strong national military with an great societal diversity and a desire to be part of the free world. What is the relationship between nationalism and liberalism? Can the two coexist over time? Did Israel ever get the balance right? Is 2024 Israel too nationalistic and not liberal enough? And can it rediscover a formula that to successfully reconcile its simultaneous need for particularism and openness?

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Professor Yuli Tamir is President of Beit Berl College. She served as Member of Knesset for the Labor Party between 2003 and 2010, and as Minister of Immigrant Absorption and Minister of Education. She received a Ph.D. in Political Philosophy from Oxford University, a BA in Biology and an MA in Political Science from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. A leading scholar of liberalism, education, nationality, feminism, and human rights, Tamir is the author of Liberal Nationalism (1993) and editor of Democratic Education in a Multicultural State (1995) and Moral and Political Education (2001).

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Amichai Magen
Amichai Magen

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Yuli Tamir
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Ari Shavit — Existential War: From Catastrophe, to Victory, to Revival

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Ari Shavit webinar

Ari Shavit – one of Israel’s most experienced, critical, and erudite political analysts – was one of the first people in the world to put pen to paper in the aftermath of the October 7th, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack. In his latest book (published in Hebrew, with an English edition forthcoming), Shavit argues that Israel now finds itself in an existential war with Iran. It is a crisis from which, Ari Shavit argues, Israel will either emerge victorious and transformed or cease to exist.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Ari Shavit is a leading Israeli columnist, author, and political analyst. Born in Rehovot, Israel, Shavit studied philosophy at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, before embarking on a distinguished career in journalism. In the early 1990s he was chairman of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, and in 1995 he joined Haaretz, where he served on the editorial board until 2016. His recent books include the New York Time bestseller My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel (2013) and Existential War: From Catastrophe, to Victory, to Revival (2024) [Hebrew].

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Amichai Magen
Amichai Magen

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Ari Shavit
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Einat Wilf — Twenty-First Century Zionism: Idea Foundations for Israel After October 7th

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Einat Wilf webinar

“Zionism” – once an innocuous term favored by socialists and liberals alike to denote support for the right of the Jewish People to equal national self-determination in the Land of Zion – has become a deeply contested word. Postcolonial and critical theories, in particular, have radically reinterpreted the term, with some weaponizing Zionism to accuse Israel and its allies of everything from racism and genocide to police brutality in Portland, Oregon, and even climate change. So, what is “Zionism”? Where did the word and concept come from? And why has it become so heatedly contested?

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Einat Wilf is a leading thinker on Israel, Zionism, foreign policy, and education. She was a Member of Knesset 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, Einat served as Foreign Policy Advisor to then Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres and as a strategic consultant with McKinsey & Company. Her recent books include The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace (2020, co-authored with Adi Schwartz) and We Should All Be Zionists (2022) – a collection of her essays on Israel, Zionism and the path to peace.

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Amichai Magen
Amichai Magen

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Dr. Einat Wilf
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