Maureen Weston (Pepperdine) provides this intriguing post from the Ofer military base in Israel. The conflict over the sacred land in the West Bank, which includes East Jerusalem, in Israel is deeply rooted and profoundly intense.  This region has been under rule by the Turks in the Ottoman Empire (1517- 1917), Britain (1917-48), Jordan (1948-67), … Continue reading DR Faculty Seminar in Israel – Israel’s Military Courts: Adjudicating Alleged (Palestinian) Crime and Terror in the West Bank and Gaza →

This guest post comes from one of the blogs founders, Nancy Welsh (Texas A&M). Dr. Moshe Ma’oz is Professor Emeritus of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was Director of the University’s Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace.  His presentation explored the complexity of Israel’s … Continue reading DR Faculty Seminar in Israel – I Don’t Recognize My Country Any More →

I’m looking at a new year’s card printed by my friend, Steve Harris, proprietor of Hands Press in Berkeley, that really expresses the values of our community.  Let us hope that these values will be increasingly honored in the coming year. Happy New Year Wishing You a New Year Filled With Old-Fashioned Values: kindness modesty … Continue reading New Year’s Greeting →

We’ve been back for a few days from Israel and today I woke up thinking about how the next generation of kids in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could ever be reconciled.  We heard repeatedly how this conflict is identity based and how children on each side no longer have any exposure to the “other.” Observers of … Continue reading DR Faculty Seminar in Israel–Identity & Education →

This guest post is authored by our good friend Michael T. Colatrella, Jr. (McGeorge). On the sixth day of our trip, we met with an Israeli security and negotiation expert Ron Schatzberg. Ron works for the Tel Aviv-based think tank, the Economic Cooperation Foundation (ECF), whose mission is to promote a stable, peaceful and prosperous … Continue reading DR Faculty Seminar in Israel – Welcome to the Mouth of the Volcano →

After spending almost a full week in Israel learning about the unfathomable complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, some of us (me included) expressed growing pessimism and even despair about the prospects for peace here. So it was uplifting to start our last full day of the Academic Partners for Peace DR Law Faculty Seminar talking … Continue reading DR Faculty Seminar in Israel – Shorashim and “Anger as Idolatry” →

This afternoon we had the pleasure of meeting with Amos Hausner, the son of Gideon Hausner, the prosecutor in the Adolf Eichmann trial – what many believe to be the trial of the 20th century.                      Gideon Hausner                                       Adolf Eichmann For readers wondering who Eichmann was, he was a Nazi officer who … Continue reading DR Faculty Seminar in Israel – Revisiting the Eichmann Trial →

From FOI Deb Eisenberg: We spent our third night of Hanukkah at the kibbutz Kfar Haruv (which means Carob Village) in the southern Golan Heights. Founded in 1974 by native Israelis and U.S. immigrants, Kfar Haruv was the sixteenth Israeli settlement established in the Golan Heights and now has approximately 400 residents. Kfar Haruv has … Continue reading DR Faculty Seminar in Israel – Kibbutz Life to Yad Vashem (or from the best of humanity to the worst of humanity) →

This guest blog post comes courtesy of Lydia Nussbaum (UNLV). This afternoon we visited the Ziv Medical Center in Zafet (aka Safed, Tzfat), a small hilltop town located on the hills above the Sea of Galilee. Although Zafet has a long history and is well known for being the center of Jewish mysticism (Kabbalah), our … Continue reading DR Faculty Seminar in Israel—“Medicine has no borders” at Ziv Hospital, Zafet →