DEBATE!: "Is the Pro-Israel lobby a dominant factor determining U.S. Middle East policy?"

UNPRECEDENTED BAY AREA DEBATE ON THE ISRAEL LOBBY:

After a considerable effort, this first of its kind public debate on the role and power of the Pro Israel Lobby in influencing U.S. foreign policy will be coming to the University of San Francisco at the McLaren Conference Center on Thursday, February 22, at 7:00pm.

If you are anywhere in or near the San Francisco Bay Area you won't want to miss it!

(Such a debate - on the "no" side, denying the power and influence of the Israel lobby and its constituent organizations such as, e.g., AIPAC, the ADL and the JCRCs - has been EVADED by such people as Noam Chomsky of MIT, Joel Beinin of Stanford, and Mitchell Plitnick of JVP, and other such figures. But, people like Ralph Nader, Robert Fisk, Alexander Cockburn of CounterPunch, and other progressive icons not afraid of the lobby have attested to its power.)


DEBATE: "Is the Pro-Israel lobby a dominant factor in determining US Middle East policy?"


YES side:

DR. HATEM BAZIAN is a Palestinian-American senior lecturer in the Departments of Near Eastern and Ethnic Studies, and an adjunct professor of law at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley, as well as a longtime progressive activist, a frequent radio & television consultant-commentator, an international public speaker in high demand on Middle East, Arab and Muslim issues, and a former undergraduate & graduate student leader at SFSU and UC Berkeley.

JEFFREY BLANKFORT, an anti-Zionist Jewish-American, a veteran photojournalist who has covered the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, the Vietnam anti-war movement, the anti-apartheid movement, various wars in Lebanon, the Iraq anti-war movement, was former editor of the Middle East Labor Bulletin, and also hosts public affairs programs, Connecting the Dots on KPOO in San Francisco and Takes on the World, on KZYX, the public radio station for Mendocino County, and a former host on KPFA in Berkeley. Blankfort is a long time observer of the Israel-Palestine conflict and an expert on the pro-Israel lobby.


NO side:

STEVE NIVA, a professor at Evergreen College, has written
for CounterPunch, has taught at Beir Zeit.

STEPHEN ZUNES is a professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco and the Middle East editor for Foreign Policy in Focus."


Moderator: KHALIL BENDIB is a Berkeley-based, sculptor, artist, political cartoonist and commentator as well as a producer and host of KPFA-94.1 FM radio's weekly show Voices of the Middle East and North Africa.


University of San Francisco
McLaren Conference Center (MC), Rm 250
(near the center of the main campus)
2130 Fulton Street
San Francisco

February 22, 2007

7:00pm

Admission $20

Sponsors: Global Information Services and Alternate Focus

For any further information contact Fred Shepherd at 415-459-8738 or altencon [at] aol.com

For those of you out of the area or who cannot attend the USF event, a DVD/VCR video will be made of the debate and available from its sponsor, Global Information Services, 336 Bon Air Center, Suite 441, Greenbrae, CA 94904, or email altencon [at] aol.com .


For USF campus map (ref. MC):
http://www.usfca.edu/online/gen_info/map_c.html


Tickets at leading Bay Area bookstores or at the door (advance purchase will assure you a seat). Due to extraordinary interest, advance ticketing is recommended.

San Francisco:

City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Ave., San Francisco, CA 94133 (415) 362-8193

Modern Times Bookstore, 888 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 282-9246


Berkeley:

Black Oak Books, 1491 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94709 (510-486-0698)


Oakland:

Walden Pond Bookstore, 3316 Grand Ave., Oakland, CA 94610 (510) 832-4438


Marin County:

Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Boulevard, Corte Madera, CA 94925 (415)927-0960