I certainly agree with 80,000 hours that it is counterproductive to overthink career plans (something I am prone to doing). I don't need all of the answers now, I just need to know that it's possible and that I am not barking up the wrong tree. It seems to me that your answers are ambiguous. It's possible, but not easy? I already messaged Effective Thesis about the topic.

I'd love to talk to you over the phone if you would be interested. I'll send you my number in a PM.

Edo, thank you so much for your reply!

I have recently joined the FB group, though I have yet to explore it.

You mention in relation to my first question that I would need to have local collaborators from related fields. Do such potential collaborators exist in Israel? It would be a number of years before I finished my PhD, so hopefully the community in Israel will expand by then.

From your answer to my second question it seem that you think that getting my PhD at HUJI (or potentially TLV U) would not put me at a significant disadvantage. Am I understanding that correctly?

How difficult would it be to find an advisor that would allow me to work in one of those two fields (Global Priorities or AI policy) or in something similar that could serve as a springboard to working in one of those fields in the future?

At the moment I am doing an internship at an Israeli foreign policy think tank, and I committed to work with them for a year. That plus mandatory volunteer work for a scholarship plus getting good grades seems to be enough on my plate right now. Next year I was planning to work as a research assistant in the economics department to get a taste of real research, plus hopefully help get some recommendations. Does that sound like a good plan?

Thank you again so much!

Lev