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Lecture by Prof Aaron Klieman (Tel Aviv University), Monday, 7 September 2009 at 7 pm. Venue: ZfL, Schützenstraße 18, 10117 Berlin, Room 308
In-depth interviews with some 50 Israeli direct participants
in talks with Palestinians both before and since the 1993 Oslo
initiative offer a number of original insights into the deeper nature
of Middle East bargaining. Sharing their thoughts and personal
experiences on the negotiating process - as opposed to the
substantive issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict - the interviewees
challenge, in particular, three pillars of conventional wisdom.
* That the cultural gap between Israeli ("Western") and
Palestinian ("Oriental") interlocutors is deep and unbridgeable.
* That the relationship between the two antagonists is clearly
one-sided, disproportionate and asymmetrical.
* That the need for third-party intermediaries is imperative if a
diplomatic breakthrough is to be achieved, while the role of the
United States becomes increasingly indispensable.
Rather, from Israel's perspective, the lessons of nearly two
decades of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue argue for bilateral and
unbrokered negotiations between two basically stalemated,
interdependent parties who in fact understand each other and
the rules of the game far better than is usually assumed.
Prof Aaron Klieman is Holder of the Dr. Nahum Goldmann Chair
in Diplomacy and lecturer on international relations since 1969,
in the Department of Political Science at Tel-Aviv University. He
is Professor Emeritus and Founding Director of the Abba Eban
Graduate Program in Diplomatic Studies. A native of Chicago,
Illinois, his doctorate is from The Johns Hopkins University's
School of Advanced International Studies, with an M.A. from the
School of International Affairs at Columbia University in Middle
Eastern politics.
Professor Klieman has written and edited 24 books, monographs
and documentary collections in English and Hebrew, and has
authored over 30 book chapters in addition to journal articles.
Current writing projects involve a book on the 1937 Palestine
Royal Commission's partition initiative, which merits study as the
first truly "missed opportunity" in Middle East peacemaking.
The Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) is the only German research institute devoted to an interdisciplinary and comparative study of the Middle East, Africa, South and Southeast Asia from a historical perspective. Current research focuses on the interaction between predominantly Muslim societies and their relations with non-Muslim neighbours. ZMO was founded in 1996 as one of six independent, non-profit research centres. Its current director is Prof. Ulrike Freitag, a Modern Middle East historian.
http://www.zmo.de Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin
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