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by naihma white:


Israel and Lebanon: The World Watches While the U.S. Waits a Week
Over the last week conflict and tensions are escalating across the globe, especially in the Middle East. The fighting between Israel and Lebanon is especially troubling, threatening to erupt into more widespread violence and spread to neighboring countries.
International calls for a cease-fire have been issued, but without the voice of the United States. Instead the US is trying to get diplomatic support for a cease-fire of "lasting value" according to Condoleezza Rice.
Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad criticized the international community for "procrastinating" on ending the conflict. This statement appears to be a direct challenge to President Bush, as the President stated that Israel can continue attacks for another week or so, before intervening with diplomatic action.
The unequal use of force between Israel and Lebanon is evident. According to the NY Times, some 230 Lebanese are dead, most of them civilians, compared to 25 Israeli dead, 13 of them civilians. This imbalance has led some countries like France and the European Union to accuse Israel of disproportionate use of force. What are Israel’s strategies, goals and ambitions? Is there a way to resolve this crisis?
The Mainstream Media Project Offers the Following guests for Interviews:
On Lebanon/Hizbollah:Dr. Stephen Zunes (CA), Professor of politics and Chair of the Peace & Justice Studies Program, University of San Francisco, founding director of the Institute for a New Middle East Policy, Middle East editor of the Foreign Policy in Focus Project, IPS; author, Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism; culture and politics of the Middle East and the impact of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq on the Middle East and on U.S. Middle East policy
Ussama Makdisi (TX), Associate professor of history, Rice University. Author of "The Culture of Sectarianism: Community, History and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon" (2000), "Anti-Americanism in the Arab World: An Interpretation of a Brief History" in the Journal of American History, and an editor with Paul Silverstein of "Memory and Violence in the Middle East and North Africa" (2006).
Hussein Ibish (DC), Executive Director of the Hala Salaam Maksoud Foundation for Arab-American Leadership; also Senior Fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP); perceptions of the Iraq elections in the Arab world; democracy-building in Arab countries; American Iraqis voting in the election; impact of U.S. policies toward Iraq on Arab and Muslim views of U.S.; how the trial of Saddam Hussein is perceived in the Arab and Muslim world; Lebanon and Hezbollah
Jews for Peace:Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Ph.D. (PA), Director of The Shalom Center. Author of The Freedom Seder, Seasons of Our Joy, Down-to-Earth Judaism, Godwrestling, and Godwrestling -- Round 2. In 1996 at the Habitat II conference, the United Nations named him one of forty Wisdom-Keepers from around the world. In 2001 he was presented the Abraham Joshua Heschel Award. Rabbi Waskow frequently leads Shabbat and weekday explorations for synagogues, campuses, retreat centers, and inter-religious gatherings.Rabbi Michael Lerner (CA), Editor of TIKKUN Magazine, which he founded in 1986. Studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary in NYC and was mentored by Abraham Joshua Heschel. He received a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley in 1972 and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the Wright Institute in 1977. In 1979 he became principal investigator for an NIMH study described above. Rabbi Lerner is the author of "Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation".
On Lebanon under attack, Internally displaced people in Beirut Bassam Haddad (Syria), Assistant Professor of Political Science, St. Joseph's University; author of "The Formation and Development of Economic Networks in Syria: Implications for Economic and Fiscal Reforms, 1986-2000", published in Networks of Privilege: The Politics of Economic Reform in the Middle East (2004). Currently working on his first book on Syria's political economy. Haddad is co-producer and director of the award-winning documentary film, "About Baghdad", (www.aboutbaghdad.com) and the director and executive producer of the documentary series "Arabs and Terrorism" (http://www.arabsandterrorism.com/project.cfm).
NOTE: The Following 4 guests are in Lebanon. Due to disruption to phone systems, it may take more than one call to connect to them
Ghassan Makarem, One of the main organizers of the grassroots coalition, Sanayeh Relief Center (http://sanayehreliefcenter.blogspot.com/), which provides relief to displaced Lebanese. He works on Al Yasari, a multi-tendency leftist magazine, as well as with Beirut Indymedia.
Ahmad Farhat, Representative of ATTAC Lubnan, which is part of the coalition Sanayeh Relief Center (www.sanayehreliefcenter.blogspot.com), organizing relief for the displaced Lebanese now in Beirut.
Muna Kanafani, Serves on the municipal council in Sidon. She is helping to organize relief work in the city. Ghanem Bibi, Director of the Arab Resource Collective, a non-profit development organization that works to better childhood, health, education, communication and community development. The Arab Resource Collective’s mission is to build on the capacities of each person and on people’s experience in order to develop knowledge and translate rights into reality. The collective adopts a holistic and integrated approach to development, and practices collective work through consultation, networking and partnerships.
Israel at War: Analysis of Goals
Joe Volk (DC) Executive Secretary, Friends Committee on National Legislation; conflict between Israel and Lebanon; Syria; consequences of the warring between Israel and its neighbors; how to bring peace and mutual security to the region; intensive and sustained diplomatic initiatives
Ilan Pappe (Haifa) Senior Lecturer Department of Political Science, Haifa University; Chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian Studies in Haifa; Academic Director of the Research Institute for Peace at Givat Haviva. Author of many books relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, who, with the publication of each, has been both acclaimed and smeared. Ilan Pappe’s most recent books are The Modern Middle East (Routledge, 2005), and A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples (Cambridge University Press, 2004), in which he documents the expulsion of Palestinians as an orchestrated crime of ethnic cleansing that tore apart Jews and Arabs coexisting peacefully. His newest work is entitled "Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine," and is scheduled for publication this fall.Robert Dreyfuss (VA) Journalist and author. He has written for Rolling Stone, Columbia Journalism Review and Washington Monthly, among others. He currently covers national security for Rolling Stone’s National Affairs section and is a contributing editor for The Nation and a contributing writer for Mother Jones. His articles have also appeared in The New Republic, Newsday, Worth, California Lawyer, The Texas Observer, E, In These Times, The Detroit Metro Times, Public Citizen, Extra!, and, in Japan, in Esquire, Foresight and Nikkei Business. Online, he writes for TomPaine.com produces a popular blog for Tom Paine called The Dreyfuss Report. Robert Dreyfuss is the author of the recent book "Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam."
Trita Parsi (DC) Specialist in Israeli-Iranian relations, wrote the article "Israel Readies for Iran Showdown by Attacking Lebanon". Parsi's articles on Middle East affairs have been published in the Financial Times, Jane's Intelligence Review, the Globalist, the Jerusalem Post, The Forward, BitterLemons and the Daily Star. He is a frequent commentator on US-Iranian relations and Middle Eastern affairs, and has appeared on BBC World News, PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Al Jazeera, C-Span, NPR, MSNBC, Voice of America and British Channel 4. Author of "Treacherous Triangle -- The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States," scheduled for publication next year.