FOUNDERS

Anat Berko is a world-renowned expert on terrorism and a policy maker whose research focuses on suicide bombers and their handlers. She is a former member of the Knesset and Lieutenant Colonel (res.), Israel Defense Forces. She is the author of two books and numerous articles on terrorism and government policy in confronting it.

Anat accepted Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu's request that she join the Likud list for the 20th Knesset and she was elected in March 2015. While a Knesset member, she served as a strategic and security advisor to the Prime Minister. She was the head of the classified subcommittee dealing with cyber security and served as a member of the Knesset’s Security and Foreign Affairs Committee and of the classified subcommittee dealing with intelligence and security services. She also served as head of the Israeli mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). As a legislator, Anat introduced 12 bills which became law, the majority of which are related to counterterrorism and protecting democracy.

Prior to her service in the Knesset, Anat conducted original research for Israel’s Counterterrorism Team and Israel’s National Security Council and served as an advisor to senior government officials.

Anat has lectured on counterterrorism for NATO and before the United States Congress, State Department, FBI, and armed forces, as well as at many universities throughout the United States and elsewhere abroad.

A sought-after commentator, Anat appears frequently in the international media to provide professional insight about terrorist attacks throughout the world. After a distinguished 25-year career in the military, Anat retired from the Israel Defense Forces in 2003. She holds a PhD in criminology from Bar-Ilan University and is the author of The Path to Paradise: The Inner World of Suicide Bombers and Their Dispatchers, and The Smarter Bomb: Women and Children as Suicide Bombers.