A Dialogue of Civilization: Can Two Women’s Friendship offer Clues to Solving Political Conflict? 

From Plato to the American founders and de Tocqueville, friendship has occupied a central place in politics. Though contemporary political theories neglect this tradition, the lecture will look at the politics of a remarkable friendship. For 40 years the friendship between Ruth Dayan, the widow of Israeli General Moshe Dayan, and Raymonda Tawil, the mother-in-law of Yasser Arafat, has enabled them to defy the historical forces separating Palestinians and Israelis into warring camps. In this respect, their story is an extraordinary instance of the “dialogue of civilization.” This theme is the subject of the acclaimed book, An Improbable Friendship: The Remarkable Lives of Israeli Ruth Dayan and Palestinian Raymonda Tawil and Their Forty-Year Peace Mission, published in 2015.