Shaul Arieli was the head of the Negotiating Administration in former Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s office. He is a member of the board of the Council for Peace and Security and one of the initiators of the Geneva Initiative. Arieli was one of the signatories to a letter sent by a group of Israeli security figures, academics, and intellectuals to the prime minister, defense minister and foreign minister after the Lebanese war, calling upon them to pursue negotiations now.