Middle East conflict

Writer Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior writer for "The Jerusalem Report." He's the author of Memoirs of A Jewish Extremist: An American Story, (Little, Brown) which tells the story of his involvement with Jewish right-wing movements in the United States, and with the extremist rabbi Meir Kahane. Halevi eventually broke away from the movement.

Ze'ev Chafets columnist for "The Jerusalem Report," a news magazine published in Israel. Chafets is an Israeli who grew up in Pontiac, Michigan. He was the director of the government press office under prime minister Menachem Begin. He's also the author of several novels.

Award-winning Israeli journalist Danny Rubinstein. He has a new book called The Mystery of Arafat (Steerforth Press) which looks into the image of the P-L-O leader, Yasser Arafat. Rubinstein is a columnist for the Hebrew daily Ha'aretz and has been writing on Palestinian issues since 1967. He is also the author of the book The People of Nowhere. Rubinstein presently lives in Jerusalem where he teaches in the department of Middle East History at Ben-Gurion University.

Hanan Mikhail-Ashrwai, former spokesperson for the PLO from 1991 to 1993. Ashrawi was the chief spokesperson for the Palestinian delegation at the Middle East peace negotiations. There are two books about her life and her role in the peace process: her personal account, This Side of Peace, and A Voice of Reason: Hanan Ashrawi and Peace in the Middle East by Barbara Victor.

New York Times defense correspondent Michael Gordon and retired Marine Corps General Bernard Trainor. They have collaborated on a book about the Persian Gulf War, called "The General's War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf." The book examines why the war was "an incomplete success."

Journalist Youseff Ibrahim, reporter at "The New York Times" since 1977. He has been the regional Middle East correspondent for the paper for seven years. He talks about the current debates among Arab intellectuals about the current political and cultural trends in the region.

Journalist Youseff Ibrahim, reporter at "The New York Times" since 1977. He talks about the current situation in Israel and the Occupied Territories.

Journalist and professor Fred Halliday. He's a professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics, and has written extensively on the Cold War and the Third World for "The Nation," and "The Middle East Report." He'll talk about the possible threat of another military showdown in Iraq.

Thomas Friedman is a Middle East correspondent for "The New York Times," and author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning book "From Beirut to Jerusalem." He'll talk about last week's pact between Israel and Jordan.

Israeli political scientist Ehud Sprinzak. Sprinzak has written a book called "The Ascendance of Israel's Radical Right" (Oxford University Press 1991). He follows the emergence in Israel since 1984 of a radical right-wing movement shaped by religious fundamentalism, extreme nationalism and aggressive anti-Arab sentiment. Sprinzak believes that the influence of the radical right pervades Israeli politics and culture as well as Arab-Israeli relation. He sees Israel's radical right exercising increasing control over the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.