Dahlia Scheindlin

Dahlia Scheindlin (Hebrew: דליה שיינדלין) is an American-Israeli political consultant, pollster, and journalist; she is the author of The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel, Promise Unfulfilled. She supports liberal causes and is an advocate of a confederation of two states as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She is a regular columnist at Haaretz newspaper.

Early life and education Scheindlin is from New York. Her mother is Judge Shira Scheindlin, who in 2014 ruled that stop and frisk is unconstitutional. Her father, Raymond, is professor emeritus at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She received a BA from McGill University in comparative religion and an MA from Harvard Divinity School. She moved to Israel in 1997 and later received a PhD in political science from Tel Aviv University.

Career

Political consultant Scheindlin was a political consultant on nine Israeli national elections over 26 years. She has done similar work in 15 countries and regions. She has had fellowships at Columbia University, Mitvim, the University of Pennsylvania, and The Century Foundation.

Polling Scheindlin has conducted extensive public opinion and policy research on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict including, since 2016, participating in a 25-year-old series of Israeli-Palestinian public opinion surveys with the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. Findings indicated declining support for the two-state solution. Polling in 2024 showed strong support for the Gaza war, but support for Israeli leadership at its lowest level ever.

Journalism Scheindlin has written for Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, Haaretz, The Guardian, Time, and other publications. She is the co-founder of +972 Magazine, She has called Israeli leaders of the war effort "madmen". Confederated two-state solution: Scheindlin recognizes the difficulty of getting Israeli and Palestinian support for the idea, but has said "that doesn't mean we should not try". Oslo Accords: She feels the accords should have been a path to peace. But since 1993 Israeli governments have been using it as a cover for the occupation, "enabling Israel's profound penetration into Palestinian life, through physical, military, bureaucratic, and cyber-surveillance mechanisms" and maintaining "Israel's military control over all of the West Bank, and over Gaza by controlling its borders, airspace, and seaports." She describes this as a betrayal of the accords' intent. Democracy: In her book The Crooked Timber of Democracy in Israel, she documents the flaws and missing pillars of democracy in Israel from pre-state Zionism through to the mass democracy movement of 2023. But she says, "Zionism cannot be predicated on preventing the self-determination of Palestinians and still be democratic" and that Israel is "democratic enough to know how undemocratic it is".