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For 30 years, the Jackson Hole Jewish Community has organized an annual forum on U.S.-Israel relations. Director Mary Grossman said that until three years ago, she worked with the pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
She valued the “ rare, incredible opportunity that the small town of Jackson Hole had,” Grossman said.
But in 2022, AIPAC discontinued this program.
“And so we thought, well, why don’t we just carry one on our own,” Grossman said.
The two-day forum is a unique meeting of Middle East experts, Wyoming’s congressional delegates and residents.Last year’s event featured Jonathan Conricus, a former Israel Defense Forces spokesperson and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. It drew a packed crowd —and about 10 protestors —according to reports from the Jackson Hole News&Guide. Though the keynote speakers had similar views, this year’s event had noticeably fewer attendees and no protestors.
It comes as the war in Gaza nears its second year, following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. The war has so far killed 1,200 Israelis, according to the Israeli government and over 60,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Most attendees are members of the Jewish community. However, the keynote address is open to the broader public. Egyptian scholar Dalia Ziada delivered the keynote.
Ziada talked about factions within the Muslim and Arab world. She described layers of the Palestinian conflict — one that started as a territorial conflict in the early 20th century, but today Ziada said, is more about Islamic political extremism.
“It affected the life of everyone in the Middle East, honestly, including people, or especially people like me who work for peace.
Ziada said she was part of a stark minority to publicly condemn Hamas and its October 7 attack.
After receiving death threats and failing to receive protection from the Egyptian government, she is now living in exile in the United States.
Jacksonite Ben Read attended the event. He said he walked away with a deeper understanding of the complexities of the region’s politics.
“I’m very curious to touch spaces with what I’ll call different narratives, from disparate points of view within the Islamic community,” Read said.
