![[Meria Journal Image]](../../IMAGES/MERIA.GIF)
Editor, Prof. Barry Rubin
Managing Editor, Avi Rembaum
|
WANTED:
WE WANT TO HAVE A MUCH BROADER REPRESENTATION OF INFORMATION BUT ARE DEPENDENT ON YOUR HELP! WRITE US.
CONTENTS
Special Announcements: Discounts for MERIA readers
1. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF MEETINGS, CONFERENCES, AND LECTURES 2. CALLS FOR PAPERS; GRANTS
a. Conference on Political Geography 3. RESEARCH QUERIES--PLEASE HELP
a. U.S.-Syria, Israel-Syria Relations 4. NEW PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST
a. Stuart Cohen on the Israeli Army 5. Syllabus David Newman, "The Geography of the Arab-Israel Conflict" 6. WEBSITES/GROUPS ONLINE
a. Settlements page
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS: DISCOUNTS FOR MERIA READERS We are contacting relevant publications and publishers to seek special discounts for MERIA readers. If you can offer such inducements, please contact MERIA: a. Middle East Quarterly: The Middle East Quarterly is pleased to offer MERIA readers a 20% discount on a one-year subscription: $30 for individuals ($7.50 off the regular rate) and $40 for institutions ($10 off the regular rate). For addresses outside of the United States, airmail delivery costs an additional $20; surface mail costs an additional $5. To subscribe, write the Middle East Quarterly, AM&M, P.O. Box 1897, Lawrence, KS 66044-8897, USA; e-mail your order, or call 1-800-627-0629. b. Keesings Guide to the Middle East: This book, reviewed in the last MERIA News, costs 45.00 British pounds. The publisher, Cartermill International, offers any MERIA reader who wishes to order a copy a 10% discount. For information, write Customer Services Manager, Liz Godden. 1. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF MEETINGS, CONFERENCES, AND LECTURES March 25: Dayan Center conference, Syria and Lebanon: Domestic Politics and the Peace Process, Amb. Edward Djerejian and Itimar Rabinovich on U.S/Syria/Israel diplomacy; Martha Kessler and Eyal Zisser on Syrian politics; Martin Kramer on Lebanese politics. Transcripts will be available. Email the Center for information. March 31: BESA, "The Jordanian-Israeli Relationship: The Peace Treaty and On," a lecture by Jordanian Ambassador to Israel, Omar Rifai, 2:00 p.m., Senate Hall, Bar-Ilan University April 7: Dayan Center, Prof. Uriel Dann Memorial Lecture: Prof. Asher Susser, "The Maturing Process of Jordanian Identity." 6:15 p.m., Malka Brender Hall of Justice, Law Building, April 7: BESA: "The Israeli-Korean Strategic Dialogue," an international confernce, 9:30 a.m., Room 401, Economics Building, Bar-Ilan University April 14: "The Formation of Israeli Foreign Policy," David Institute, 9AM-1PM, Hyatt Regency Hotel, for information: 02- 5882312 April 17: Barry Rubin, "Rethinking the History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict," Center for ME Studies, University of Texas, Austin. April 20: 11:00 a.m._4:00 p.m., Tolentine 215. Lebanon Today: Villanova University, Philadelphia, Pa., cosponsored by The Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, Political Science Department, and Center for Peace and Justice. Free. Lunch costs $6 for students and $12 for others. Reservations for lunch must be made before April 13. Email for information. May 26-27: BESA terrorism conference: two-day international conference on contemporary ME terrorism. Panels include: Strategic Relevance; ME Politics, Terrorism Versus the Peace Process; International Aspects; Media and Political Violence; Worst-Case Scenarios; and Counterterrorism. For more information write the BESA Center. 2. CALLS FOR PAPERS AND GRANTS a. THIRD ISRAELI SEMINAR IN POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY: HAIFA/BEERSHEVA 25-31 January, 1998. Abstracts and Pre-Registration. Suggested themes: Political Geography - Toward the 21st Century; Geopolitics after the Cold War: Global/Regional Perspectives; Diffusion of Democracy; Scarce Resources and the Threatened Environment; The Role of International Organizations and N.G.O's; Cleavage between Developed and Developing Realms; Population Movements, Migration, Refugees; Boundaries in a Global World; Postmodernity and the Territorial Discourse of Peace; Shared Spaces Vs. Separate Spaces; Implementing Peace Processes on the Ground; The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process; Governance of Localities and Regions. Send or fax pre-registration and abstracts (200 words) by May 15, 1997. Details including accommodation and cost will be sent in June 1997. Includes field trip to Jordan. Local Organizers: Nurit Kliot , Geography Department, Haifa University; David Newman Geography Department, Ben Gurion University. PRE-REGISTRATION AND ABSTRACT
Name: Affiliation: Address: Phone: Fax: Email: Nationality/Citizenship: Passport No: (to arrange visa for field trip to Jordan) Preference: single or double room: single: _____ double: ______ Title of Paper: Abstract (200 words): Send form to Nurit Kliot, Department of Geography, Haifa University, Hacarmel, Haifa, Israel: Or Fax to:972-4-8246814. b. April 1998, "Urban Development: A challenge for Frontier Regions," Negev Center for Regional Development, Ben- Gurion Univ. See web page or email Harvey Lithwick. c. Yitzhak Rabin Award: Academic exchange grant of up to $50,000 awarded annually to a senior Israeli scholar. Nominations and applications accepted until April 30. For scholars and researchers to go to the US for research dealing with conflict resolution or civic eduation. The U.S.-Israel Educational Foundation administers the program for the Fulbright Foundation. Contact USIEF. 3. RESEARCH QUERIES PLEASE SEND RESPONSES AND SEND COPIES OF ANY CORRESPONDENCE TO MERIA SO WE CAN SHARE INFORMATION WITH OTHERS. a. Christopher Barder seeks references and opinions on U.S. policy and perceptions of Syria and American pressures for Israel-Syria negotiations. Initial suggestions: Efraim Inbar, "Israel Negotiations with Syria," Israel Affairs, Summer 1995; Moshe Ma'oz, "Syria, Israel, and the Peace Process," in Barry Rubin et al., eds., From War to Peace: Arab-Israeli Relations, 1973-1993 (New York: New York University Press, 1994). Daniel Pipes, Syria Beyond the Peace Process (Washington, D.C.: Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1996) b. Nora L. Quiroz Reyes needs readings on the ideology of Israel's Likud party especially regarding its position toward the peace process. Initial suggestions: Recent articles include Efraim Inbar and Giora Goldberg, "Is Israel's Political Elite Becoming More Hawkish, International Journal 45, Summer 1990; Efraim Inbar, "Netanyahu Takes Over," Israel Affairs, Summer 1997. c. umsasley@cc.UManitoba.CA is doing a thesis on Israel-Turkey military training cooperation agreements and their significance for the region. What is written on this topic? Initial suggestions: Amikam Nachmani, Israel, Turkey and Greece: Uneasy Relations in the East Mediterranean, includes a lot on Turkish Israeli relations, (Frank Cass) and he is doing a further study on military relations between the two countries. George Gruen NYC, has also written on this topic during the years. Alon Liel published a book (Hebrew), 1994, entitled : Turkey in the ME: Oil, Islam and Politics. (Dayan Center + Kibbutz Ha'meouchad). Has a chapter on Israel-Turkey. d. Avner Cohen's response to Jeffrey Nadaner's request for information on Kennedy and the ME in MERIA News #3. He's written several pieces on Kennedy and Israel (especially on Israel's nuclear development). Aside from his forthcoming book on the subject he wrote: "Most Favored Nation," The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists," January 1995; "Stumbling Into Opacity," Security Studies, 1994; "The Untold Kennedy Eshkol Dimona Correspondence," Journal of Israeli History, 1995 or 1996; "Kennedy, Ben Gurion and the Battle over Dimona: April-June 1963," Iyunim Bitkumat Yisrael, 1996 (Hebrew). See also Zaki Shalom, "Kennedy, Ben-Gurion and the Dimona Project 1960-1963," Israel Studies, 1/1 Spring 1996. 4. NEW PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST a. Stuart A. Cohen, The Scroll or the Sword? Dilemmas of Religion and Military Service in Israel, Harwood Academic Publishers, 152 pp. $22, ISBN90-5702-083-1. Distributed by Marston Book Services, POB 269, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4YN, UK; NYU Press. Classic and contemporary Jewish views on war and peace; Role of Religion in the Israel Defense Forces; and Religious Military Units in the IDF: Sources of Pride and Subjects of Concern. b. Peoples Rights: LAW -The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment announces a new human rights magazine, People's Rights, published in English and Arabic, on human rights and the development of democracy and civil society in Palestine. The first edition is free. c. Ben-Zion Zilberfarb, "The Israeli Economy in the 1990s," Israel Affairs, Autumn 1996. Notes that in recent years Israel's growth rate has been one of the world's highest "more than double the rate of the OECD countries, the G-7, or of the United Kingdom." He attributes this mainly to immigration from the ex-USSR and secondarily to the peace process. The author predicts a short-turn slowdown to adjust the balance of payments, and "promising" medium- term prospects which "depend to a large extent on the continuation of the peace process." d. The Spring 1997 issue of Israel Studies includes articles by Angelika Timm on negotiations; Michael Perko on Israel-Vatican relations; Chaim Waxman, "Critical Sociology and the End of Ideology in Israel"; along with articles on Druze history, culture, and other topics. For submitting articles or information, email them, or check out their web site. e. Making Oslo Work. The text of this paper by Max Singer and Michael Eichenwald is now available on the BESA Center's web page and can be downloaded. f. The Middle East Economies: The Impact of Domestic and International Politics by Eliyahu Kanovsky is now available on the BESA Center's web page and can be downloaded. g. The Islamism Debate, edited by Martin Kramer, Dayan Center Paper #120. Includes: Daniel Brumberg: Rhetoric and Strategy: Islamic Movements and Democracy in the Middle East; Francois BURGAT: Ballot Boxes, Militaries, and Islamic Movements; Daniel Pipes: The Western Mind of Radical Islam; Olivier Roy: Islamists in Power; and articles on Europe, the US, human rights, future trends, and analyzing political Islam. ISBN: 965-224-024-9 Paper, 178 pp., $12.95/ Order from Syracuse University Press, 1600 Jamesville Avenue, Syracuse, NY 13244-5160, 315-443-5546; fax: 315-443-5545 In Israel, from the Dayan Center. 5. SYLLABUS "The Geography of the Arab-Israel Conflict." First of a series of course syllabi which MERIA News plans. Send yours. Thanks to Professor David Newman, Department of Geography, Ben-Gurion University and director of the Humphrey Institute for Social Research a. A Political Geography of the Arab-Israel Conflict. This course is designed to focus on the geographical and territorial aspects of the Arab-Israel conflict, past and present. The student is introduced to a variety of material dealing with geographical and spatial elemnts of the conflict, at both the macro and micro scales. Concepts drawn from political geography, most notably the evolution of political territories, the demarcation and function of boundaries, the control of territory and other physical resources are discussed with their application to the Arab-Israel context. The final section of the course deals with a geographical analysis of the peace process and the evolution and formation of new political territories. Weekly Topics:
1. Introduction to basic concepts in Political Geography. Selected readings. (The following are a list of relevant books from which relevant chapters are chosen. There are numerous papers on these topics , the most common authors being: Falah, Yiftachel, Portugali and Soffer. Most of these studes appear in the international geographical, and sometimes political science, journals)
1. Brawer, M (1987) Israel's Boundaries: Yavneh Press (Hebrew) 6. WEBSITES/GROUPS ONLINE a. Settlements page: The Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ) and the Map Unit of the Arab Studies Society have a new homepage analyzing Israeli settlement activity, including photos and maps. b. Middle East Cooperation newsletter: The Search for Common Ground has a quarterly newsletter on regional projects, grants, meetings, etc. Email for a copy. c. Turkish sites: The Turkish Foreign Ministry has a site which could use updating but nonetheless has good material. The Strategic Studies Center (Ankara) publishes an English-language magazine, "Perceptions" on current issues, with some excellent articles. Go through the Turkish Foreign Ministry. A very useful source is the daily T urkish Daily News. d. Gerald Steinberg, Senior Fellow, BESA. His homepage includes: Accountability and Confidentiality in Israeli Military Procurement; Middle East Peace and the NPT Extension Decision; Peace, Security and Deterrence in the Middle East: Obstacles to a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone. e. The Web Page of IPCRI is moving to: http://www.ipcri.org f. Research Institute for European Studies-RIES (Athens, Greece) has a clever program creating a network of young international affairs' scholars, publishing and distributing their papers. Includes Mediterranean issues. |