MIAMI, Florida (Press Release) — Over 150 experts, representing many disciplines and fields, as well as a number of current and former government officials, participated in a recent conference on the U.S.-Israel special relationship held here. The conference, sponsored by Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and hosted by the Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Jewish Studies of the University of Miami, took place January 16-18, 2011.
Keynote speakers were Michael Oren, Israel Ambassador to the United States; Samuel Lewis, former United States Ambassador to Israel; Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard University and Irwin Cotler, Member of the Canadian Parliament, former Canadian Justice Minister and international civil rights lawyer.
More than 60 other scholars from North America, Europe, South America and Israel, gave presentations on the US-Israel relationship and related aspects of Middle East policy. One panel focused on Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer’s book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, and the impact it has had on popular discussions about the US-Israel special relationship. Other academic topics included “Security Issues and the Special Relationship”; “Iran, Oil, and the Arab and Islamic Lobbies”; and “International Relations and Law.”
As part of the conference, a number of sessions were devoted to topics of specific interest to SPME. These include the organization’s highly successful Faculty Fellowship to Israel Summer Institute, SPME’s move to organize chapters in Latin America, and SPME’s efforts to address the growing incidents of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism on campus. The overall intent of the Conference was to allow for discussions of the Middle East crises in an academic and civil environment.
Governed and directed by academics, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) is a grass-roots community of nearly 60,000 university and college professors, researchers, administrators, teachers, librarians, and students on more than 4,000 campuses worldwide. The organization is dedicated to combating the demonizations of Israel and Islam that too often characterize debates of the Middle East on campuses in North America, Europe and other parts of the world. SPME has approximately 40 chapters in North America, Europe, and Australia, and is forming chapters in Latin America.
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Preceding provided by Scholars for Peace in the Middle East