Breakfast with Hoffman

Laniado UK was host to Mr Gil Hoffman, Chief Political Correspondent and Analyst of the Jerusalem Post for a private briefing on the situation in the Middle East.

The board room of Blackstone Group in Berkley Square was full on a crisp London morning with Executive Board member, Raphael de Botton as host. The guests were privy to a full analysis and update on the political unrest in the region, the short and long term effects of the Egyptian and Libyian uprising and the future of democracy in Israel and the Middle East.

Mr Hoffman, dubbed by the media as the "Most Positive Man in the Middle East", was articulate and clear in his message.

He said, "The Arab upheavals are an opportunity for a bottom-up approach to building democracy and peace that can work. The World must learn the lesson that we have to make peace not with corrupt dictators but with the people. The Arab people can use Israel as a model for their democracy and enable Israel to be the light unto the nations that its prophets and founders said it would be."

Well-connected to Israeli and Palestinian leaders, he has interviewed every major figure across the Israeli political spectrum, has been interviewed by top media on six continents and is a regular analyst on CNN, Al-Jazeera and other news outlets. Gil was raised in Chicago, graduated Magna Cum Laude from Northwestern University's School of Journalism and wrote for the Miami Herald and Arizona Republic before moving to Israel. A reserve soldier in the IDF's Spokesman's Unit, he has lectured in seven countries and 36 US states. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife, and two children.