Tuesdays 2:30 – 4:30 PM
January 11 through March 1, 2005
D.O.C. House
This study group will attempt to find relevant facts toward better understanding of the Israel/Palestine conflict and its significance in current tension in the Middle East and the "War on Terrorism." The study group will be led by a country lawyer who does not pretend to be an expert on the Middle East; rather he will join with the group participants in a shared effort to study the history of Israel and Palestine from Biblical times to the present through access to such works on the subject as : Thomas Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem and Benny Morris, Righteous Victims which will be the texts for the course and selected readings from Paul Johnson, History of the Jews, David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace, Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre, O Jerusalem, and Michael Oren, Six Days of War.
This eight-session course will be organized by continuing themes as well as historical eras, with class discussion based on selected readings and book reports. The final session will be led by a genuine expert on the region, looking to the future. Otherwise, this will not be an issue course, nor will we attempt to determine who is right or wrong; rather the focus will be on ascertaining relevant facts.
Class is limited to 20 participants
ARTHUR MUDGE, a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, has divided his career about equally between New Hampshire law practice and USAID foreign service, combining the two over the past eighteen years as an international development consultant working mostly in rule of law. In addition to war service in Korea, he lived and worked for thirteen years abroad as USAID lawyer and mission director in Latin America and Africa, with subsequent consultant service in those regions and in countries of the former Soviet Union. His foreign service career included three years exposure to the Middle East as USAID Mission Director in Sudan from 1980 to 1983. During the 1979 academic year he was a diplomat fellow at the Harvard Center for International Affairs, where he researched, wrote and lectured on U.S. response to Third World revolutionary movements. He has also lectured at Dartmouth, Oberlin and Wellesley, as well as leading ILEAD study groups on Selling War, Regime Change, and a previous course on Israel/Palestine.
