Yossi Alpher

Yossi Alpher was born in 1942 in Washington, D.C.

Alpher was born in Washington, D.C. in 1942. When he was a boy, his mother was called before the House committee on un-American activities and lost her job as a teacher, though she was not charged. After this he decided to move to Israel in 1962.

He spent a year on a kibbutz learning Hebrew, then returned to the United States. He completed a bachelor's degree in Middle East studies at Columbia University in 1964.

He joined the IDF in 1964 and served as an intelligence officer. In 1968 he joined the Mossad, where he worked on aid to the Kurds, served in London and assessed intelligence on Iran. In 1974 he was one of 10 officers who wrote to Mossad head Yitzhak Hofi about corruption and failures in the agency.

He joined the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University and became its director in 1993. From 1995 to 2000 he directed the American Jewish Committee's Middle East office in Jerusalem. In July 2000 he was special adviser to Prime Minister Ehud Barak during the Camp David Summit.

In 2001 he founded the Bitterlemons website with Palestinian politician Ghassan Khatib. He has written several books on Israel and the region, including Periphery: Israel's Search for Middle East Allies. He also appeared in the film Brüno.