Solomonia Archive: Questions for Shlomo Ben-Ami

Sunday, February 5, 2006

Received this note from the folks at the Oxford University Press blog:

Live Chat with Shlomo Ben-Ami

Monday, Feb. 6, 3:30 PM EST

Shlomo Ben-Ami, the former Foreign Minister of Israel and author of Scars of War, Wounds of Peace will be in our office on Monday and he has graciously agreed to sit down to answer your questions in a live chat beginning 3:30 PM EST!

Scars of War, Wounds of Peace is a balanced and evenhanded history of the Arab-Israeli conflict and includes behind-the-scenes accounts of the Oslo, Madrid and Camp David summits. President Clinton says it "should be read by everyone who wants a just and lasting resolution" to the Middle East peace process.

An Oxford-trained historian, Ben-Ami had a distinguished career at the University of Tel Aviv before he was appointed Israel's ambassador to Spain in 1987. He later became a member of the Knesset, Minister of Public Security, and finally Minister of Foreign Affairs. He has been a key participant in many Arab-Israeli peace conferences, most notably the Camp David Summit in 2000.

Click here to read Ben-Ami's reaction to Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections

Submit your questions in the comments section below or by email blog.us (at) oup.com. Then, check back to http://blog.oup.com between 3:30 - 4:00 PM on Monday.

I have the book but haven't read it yet, but I submitted the following question:

At a recent Harvard-sponsored debate between Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowitz, a major point of contention emerged concerning the nature of the concessions offered by Israel to Arafat. Dershowitz held up a map, claiming the offer to Arafat was recognized far and wide as extremely generous and offered up Dennis Ross as one source. Chomsky insisted that the map was not accurate and that Ross is an American and therefore his statements should be discarded as untrustworthy out of hand, instead insisting that the Israeli position was giving of nothing more than a series of "Bantustans" that no one would ever agree to.

Could you comment on this dispute and the offer made to Arafat at Camp David and Taba? Was the offer as generous as we've heard, or is the word "Bantustan" an accurate description and was there some sort of deal breaker sprung at Taba as Professor Chomsky insisted?

(I actually just edited something in that question from the way I originally sent it.) Feel free to suggest a change to my question, a better one yourself (and I'll toss it their way if it gets here in time), or hop over to the comments at OUP and post your question directly.

Posted by Solomon at 3:29 PM on Sunday, Feb 5, 2006 | Comments (3)
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» Live Chat with Shlomo Ben-Ami at the blog OUPblog

Hello everyone - I am very happy to be here today and to answer your questions, so, let's get started! At a recent Harvard-sponsored debate between Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowitz, a major point of contention emerged concerning the nature Read More

3 Comments

#1 Antonio LÃ³pez Alemany | March 11, 2006 5:33 AM

Estimado SeÃ±or,
soy el presidente de una AsociaciÃ³n Cultural cuya sede esta en XÃ tiva, Valencia, EspaÃ±a. Entre nuestras actividades esta la ediciÃ³n de publicaciones cuyo tema es la historia y evoluciÃ³n de nuestra civilizaciÃ³n en el area de refencia. Actualmente estamos preparando la ediciÃ³n de un libro sobre la figura de Lluis Alcanyis (1440-1506) nacido en XÃ tiva, Valencia, primer Catedratico de Medicina de la Universidad de Valencia y de familia judia-conversa. Desgraciadamente murio en la hoguera despues de un proceso de la inquisiciÃ³n espaÃ±ola en Valencia. Como sabemos que usted es un gran conocedor de la realidad judia espaÃ±ola, quisieramos solicitarle una introducciÃ³n o prologo para este libro. Este libro constara de un apartado donde se describira la vida y obra de Lluis Alcanyis y la reproducciÃ³n en fascimil de sus dos obras conocidas: Regiment Preservatiu e Curatiu de la Pestilencia (Valencia, 1490) y un poema dentro del libro "Trobes en lahors de la Verge Maria" (Valencia, 1474). Por si usted no es conocedor, XÃ tiva tuvo una gran juderia igual que una gran moreria que se termino con la llegada de los cristianos. Para algunos de nosotros fue una ciudad que durante unos siglos convivieron las tres culturas con grandes resultados sociales y culturales.
Estariamos encantados de contar con su prologo para esta publicaciÃ³n que queremos que sea un referente para el conocimiento de la figura de Lluis ALcanyis y de los judios en nuestra ciudad y area de influencia.
Saludos y muchas gracias.
Dr. Antonio LÃ³pez Alemany
Presidente de A. C. Ulleye

#2 nida syed | July 25, 2006 2:57 PM

i just wanna say that what ever israel and america is all fate.they are doing theseall thing to become world power.they want to finish muslims.

#3 tablas web | October 27, 2006 5:53 PM

sitio dedicado a la kabaka judia y a la religion y todos sus misterios y su sabiduria