As the dust clears from bitterly contested U.S. elections, prominent Middle East scholars and policy experts will gather Thursday at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School (WWS) to discuss what the election results mean for the Israeli-Palestine peace process.

Guest speakers at the 7 p.m. forum in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall will include Shai Feldman, director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, and Khalil Shikaki, political science professor and director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah, Palestine.

Daniel C. Kurtzer, U.S. ambassador to Israel from 2001 to 2005, U.S. ambassador to Egypt from 1997 to 2001 and currently professor of Middle Eastern Policy Studies at WWS, will introduce the topic and speakers for the discussion that will be moderated by Princeton politics professor Amaney A. Jamal, director of the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice and director of the Workshop on Arab Political Development at Princeton University.

Commenting on the good fortune of getting two such well known and credible speakers, Mr. Kurtzer stated that the key issues at the forum are likely to be “whether the new president will take an active interest in resolving the conflict,” what the U.S. will do in the meantime in the Middle East “if the new president chooses not to play a role in working towards resolution,” and “what our current president might do in his last two months after the election. Will he make a big speech to try to promote a new resolution at the U.N.?”

Author of numerous publications, including six books on conflict and peacemaking in the Middle East, Mr. Feldman was head of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University from 1997 to 2005 and a member of the U.N. Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters from 2001 to 2003. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Harvard’s Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and an associate fellow of the Royal United Services Institute in London.

Described by Mr. Kurtzer as “the leading pollster in Palestine ”whose “polls are used by governments around the world,” Mr. Shikaki has conducted hundreds of polls among Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and, working jointly with Israeli colleagues, he has conducted dozens of joint polls among Israelis and Palestinians. He has taught at several Palestinian and American universities. His research has focused on Palestinian state building, transitioning to democracy, public opinion, and the impact of domestic Palestinian politics on the peace process.

A senior fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Mr. Shikaki has written numerous articles and books and is co-author, with Mr. Feldman and Abdel Monem Said Aly, of the 2013 book Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East.

In commenting on likely directions for Thursday’s discussion, Mr. Kurtzer pointed out a sharp difference between the Democratic and Republican campaigns. “The Trump campaign,” he said,” has indicated they are not interested in working to resolve the conflict, but rather in taking sides and promoting Israeli interests,” as opposed to the Clinton campaign, which “has been more conventional in discussing the two-state solution and the possibility of a resolution between the two sides, though they have provided few additional details.”

Mr. Kurzer added that, though both candidates had met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited the United Nations in September, Ms. Clinton’s “level of understanding and experience is exponentially deeper than Trump’s.” He mentioned that Ms. Clinton — as first lady, as U.S. Senator, and as secretary of state — had met often with both Mr. Netanyahu and with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

“What would help the most,” Mr. Kurtzer speculated in looking ahead to the elections, “is if Democrats regain control of the Senate and the House. That would give President Clinton the power to pursue her foreign policy agenda.” He noted, however, that “we are only a third party and the big question is whether the two sides — Israelis and Palestinians — are willing to move forward.”

Thursday’s event, part of the Conversations About Peace lecture series that is jointly sponsored by WWS and the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice, is free and open to the public.