Yossi Beilin is former deputy foreign minister, justice minister, and minister of religious affairs in the Israeli Labor Party. In 1995, he formulated the “Beilin–Abu Mazen understandings” that became a basis for future peace initiatives. Between 2004 and 2008, he joined and headed the Meretz-Yachad Party. Beilin initiated both the Oslo process and the Geneva Initiative, launched on December 3, 2003, for which he served as chief negotiator. He also negotiated the Cairo–Taba PLO–Israeli talks in 2001. He is the author of Touching Peace: From the Oslo Accord to a Final Agreement; His Brother’s Keeper: Israel and Diaspora Jewry in the Twenty-first Century; and Israel: A Concise Political History.