Dr. Makovsky has worked extensively on U.S.-Israel defense ties, U.S. policy toward Iran, Syria, Iraq, Gaza, the Persian Gulf, the role of energy in U.S. national security policy, and the Eastern Mediterranean. Previously, he served as Foreign Policy Director for the Bipartisan Policy Center, special assistant in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and an energy market analyst for various investment firms.

Dr. Makovsky has written articles, op-eds and editorials for various publications on U.S. national security issues primarily involving the Middle East as well as energy markets. He is also author of Churchill’s Promised Land (Yale University Press), a diplomatic-intellectual history of Winston Churchill’s complex relationship with Zionism. He has a Ph.D. in diplomatic history from Harvard University, an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School, and a B.A. in history from the University of Chicago.

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He holds a B.A. from Yeshiva University and a J.D. from the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law. In several Israeli court cases, Abe has been retained to submit expert opinions on American law, particularly regarding issues of corporate and securities law.

He’s been published in the following publications: Daily Beast, American Thinker, Breitbart, Israel Hayom, Ha’aretz, and The Jerusalem Post.

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General Ayish served in the IDF for 36 years and retired in 2016, concluding an accomplished career during which he attained the rank of Major General. Throughout his distinguished service, he served in core and operational command positions in the IDF ground forces and in senior command and managerial positions in the IDF General Staff. In his last position, General Ayish served for four years as Israel’s Defense and Armed Forces Attaché to the United States in Washington, D.C.

General Ayish was previously the Head of the IDF General Staff Operations Branch where he was responsible for planning and managing the operational activities of the Israeli Defense Forces according to political and strategic guidelines. He was also a member of the IDF General Staff forum, a position that was filled with sensitive and complex managerial challenges and which encompassed multidisciplinary systems and functional dynamism in an era of changes in the characteristics of all the arenas and the army’s activities.

Prior to this assignment, General Ayish headed the IDF’s overall renewal program. In this position, and in cooperation with the international consultancy firm McKinsey & Co., he worked to make structural and organizational changes, improve the efficiency of resource-rich work processes, consolidate plans for deep budget cuts, and plan for improved efficiency and savings.

General Ayish’s term as the Ground Forces Chief of Staff coincided with the Second Lebanon War in 2006. In this role, he managed the operational-organizational activities of the IDF’s ground forces, leading the creation of short and long-term work-plans with high-volume budget allocation. He also managed a large armament R&D project with special focus on programs for quality and efficient use of resources and infrastructures.

General Ayish’s other command and staff positions included his positions as commander of a multi-corps division, commander of the 7th Brigade (Armored Corps), and commander of the 82nd Battalion (Armored Corps).

General Ayish holds a BA degree in Social & Political Sciences from Haifa University and an Executive MBA degree from Tel Aviv University. He is a graduate of the British Military Command and Staff College in Camberley and Harvard University’s Senior Executives in National and International Security program in Boston.

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