Sign up for Weekday J and get the latest on what's happening in the Jewish Bay Area.

Tel Aviv University sources close to the Jaffee Center said the appointment of Arad is an attempt to return to the high-profile status the center enjoyed under the leadership of its late founder, Aharon Yariv, a former chief of Israeli military intelligence.

With Yariv at the helm, the center became known as the home of generals-turned-academics who wrote numerous policy studies.