Item Description:

The issue of Palestine has dominated the world of the Middle East for almost the entire last century. Many solutions, ideas, treaties and agreements have attempted to achieve an equitable settlement of the Arab-Jewish dispute regarding the Holy Land. This series reviews the history of these attempts from the time of World War I until the 1970's and deals with the failure to achieve the goal of peace and stability. Anyone desiring to understand the true roots of this ongoing struggle will benefit from knowing the background to today's events.

Individual lectures:

Palestine 1917 - The story of the Balfour Declaration is one that marries human relations with politics. On one side, it represented England's attempt to retain its imperial interests in the Middle East, yet it could not have come about without the friendship between Lord Balfour and Chaim Weizman, truly a case of strange bedfellows. With vivid detail Rabbi Wein captures both sides of the picture, presenting us with the personalities who dominated the world scene after the First World War.

Palestine 1947 - World War II and its aftermath turned the world upside-down. The British Empire was on the decline while the United States emerged as the single strongest world power. These political reversals, coupled with the sympathy for Holocaust survivors, opened the door for the creation of a Jewish state. Rabbi Wein recounts the frenzied days of Zionist lobbying and international politicking that led to the State of Israel and the War of Independence.

Israel and the Arabs, 2003 - Though the leadership has changed over the decades in the Arab-Israeli conflict, as we well know, the Arab goal of destroying Israel is as deadly as ever. From the defeats of Abdul Nasser to the rise of Yassir Arafat, Rabbi Wein shows how pan-Arab enmity was re-labeled into the more politically correct "Palestinian oppression," an approach that could garner the Arab cause more success than any of the wars.