Despite its leaders' sometimes bellicose rhetoric and international reputation for intransigence, on closer examination Israel seems to be having an identity crisis in its sixtieth anniversary year.
Never-ending political crises and growing economic inequalities beg the question - does Israel risk imploding from within?- Battle of Ideas
Bio
Karl Sharro
Karl Sharro is an architect, writer and co-founder of Manifesto: Towards a New Humanism in Architecture (ManTowNHuman)
He has practiced architecture in London and Beirut, and taught for five years at the American University of Beirut where he participated in various research projects on post-war reconstruction and urban renewal. He also taught a seminar that looked at the relationship between art and the city in which a number of artists, film-makers and writers participated.
Karl has written for a number of international publications, such as Springerin (Austria), Mark Magazine (Holland) and Blueprint (UK). He wrote a chapter entitled ‘Density versus Sprawl’ in the upcoming book The Future of Community: Reports of a Death Greatly Exaggerated.
Avi Shlaim
Avi Shlaim is a Fellow of St Antony’s College and a Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford. In 2003-6 he held a British Academy Research Professorship. In 2006 he was elected Fellow of the British Academy.
He was born in Baghdad in 1945 and grew up in Israel. He read History at Jesus College, Cambridge, 1966-1969 and did an M.Sc. (Econ.) in International Relations at the London School of Economics, 1969-70. He was a Lecturer then Reader in Politics at the University of Reading, 1970-87.
Avi Shlaim is based at the Middle East Centre at St Antony’s College and his main research interest is the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is author of British Foreign Secretaries since 1945 (joint author, 1977); The United States and the Berlin Blockade, 1948-49: A Study in Crisis-Decision Making (1983); Collusion across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine (1988); The Politics of Partition (1990 and 1998); War and Peace in the Middle East: A Concise History (1995); The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (2000); and Lion of Jordan: King Hussein’s Life in War and Peace (2007). He is co-editor of The Cold War and the Middle East (1997) and The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948 (2001, 2nd ed. 2007).
Professor Shlaim is a frequent contributor to the newspapers and commentator on radio and television on Middle Eastern affairs.
Asher Susser
Professor Asher Susser earned his PhD in Modern Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University (TAU) and is presently the Director for External Affairs of the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at TAU. He was the Director of the Center from 1989 to1995 and again from 2001 to 2007and has taught for over twenty-five years in the University’s Department of Middle Eastern History. Professor Susser’s research and teaching at TAU has focused on Modern Middle Eastern History, Religion and State in the Middle East and Arab-Israeli issues, with special reference to Jordan and the Palestinians. He has been a Fulbright Fellow, a visiting professor at Cornell University (1986-7), the University of Chicago (1990) and Brandeis University (1998, 2007-8), and a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (1987, 1996-7).
Professor Susser wrote the Political Biography of Jordan’s Prime Minister Wasfi al- Tall (London: Cass, 1994) and is the author or editor of seven other books, the most recent of which are:
* Challenges to the Cohesion of the Arab State (editor, Moshe Dayan Center, 2008).
*Jordan: Case Study of a Pivotal State (Washington Institute, 2000).
*Six Days-Thirty Years, New Perspectives on the Six Day War (Hebrew) (editor, Am Oved, 1999).
He is presently engaged in the writing of a new book on Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians.
In 2005, he was one of 33 Israelis (academics, security experts and politicians) included in a book (Hebrew) of interview/essays on the pros and cons of Israel’s disengagement, compiled by Ha’aretz columnist Ari Shavit. In 2006 Professor Susser was selected as TAU’s Faculty of Humanities Outstanding Lecturer.
Ned Temko
Born in Washington DC, spent 15 years as a foreign correspondent. For five years, was the Christian Science Monitor's Chief Middle East Correspondent, covering not only Israel and the PLO and the Lebanese civil war but the wider Arab world and the aftermath of the revolution in Iran. Wrote To Win or To Die (biography of the late Israeli PM Menachem Begin, 1987). Was also based in Moscow (1981-84), Johannesburg (1986-87) and finally London (1987-90). Became editor of The Jewish Chronicle (1990-2005) before joining The Observer as Chief Political Correspondent.
Bruno Waterfield
Bruno Waterfield has been the Brussels correspondent for The Daily Telegraph since December 2006. He has been reporting on European affairs for eight years, first from Westminster and then from Brussels since January 2003. Bruno was part of the founding editorial team on www.ePolitix.com. He was then editor for a daily online EU news service, EUpolitix.com and ran the fortnightly Parliament Magazine.
Zionism is not over until all Arab Nations-All Muslim countries recognize the Jewish State. Zionism will continue until Egypt stops teaching their children "Kill a Jew go to Heaven" and to readdress the Koran calling Jews monkeys and pigs. Zionism is here to stay just as anti-semitism, Jew-hating stops, Zionism fades into history. Jews have been treated with violence for 4000 years, now 5771, and only 14 million jews in the world. I get confused Israel gets attacked every 7 years since 1949, and yet no punishment for starting the conflict every single time, Arabs thought they could defeat Jews, Think Again, can trust those who attack every 7 years I can`t see it Arabs lie, Koran says its Ok to Lie to Jews, so why bother! Land grabbing is the punishment for attacking Wow that is easy, no whining no attacking no land grabbing like the blockade, no rockets no blockade. Key problem is ISLAM Your kidding yourself if you think differently. 8000 rockets makes a big difference. Suicide bombing makes a difference. Zionism is the Shield of King David. Zionism is the separation of church-temple and State.7 million Jews in Israel compare to 1 billion Arabs-
Muslims, odds are that Israel will win every time so stop attacking Israel, Arabs learn from your mistakes. The way the narrator frames this issue is very bias to palestinians. Very poor questions Aussies know little about Jews as a collective comsciousness. Roots Jewish Roots run deep! Get used to it!I`m sorry to say the narrator has a hidden agenda, to slight Israel. Security Wall knocked out, almost all suicide bombing. The Wall is now called segragation,aparteid! Thanks Fora TV: Nobody has the solution or the answerts especially this Panedl however goode falls far short of reality on the ground! Aussies are not in tune with this Jewish History, they too need to read, forget their own opinions. Zionism never thought of peace not yet! Justice is the road to peace not submission, NEVER AGAIN is still not understood.
member. 
