The future of "The Holy Land" pits Israelis against Palestinians in the world’s most intractable conflict. There is no hotter international topic nor one that President Obama has placed higher on his global agenda than bringing peace to Israel/Palestine.

Millions of American Christians, Muslims, and Jews want to know why, after more than 60 years of strife and almost 20 years of negotiating, we are still far from a solution to this conflict. Why is this problem so hard to deal with? Whose land is it anyway?

Anisa Mehdi, an American Arab Muslim, and Michael Lame, an American Jew, offer fresh insights and opposing perspectives.

They respectfully disagree about almost everything concerning the Israeli-Palestinian dispute: who started it and when, the roles of religion, real estate, ethnicity, economics, international law, the United Nations, refugees, and Jerusalem.

In this lively, interactive program, students and community members are encouraged to speak up and challenge the speakers – which they do! Most of the event is given over to questions from the audience and competing answers from Anisa and Michael. The entire conversation is designed to provoke the audience to rethink their own views of the conflict.

Michael Lame

Anisa Mehdi, with a lifetime of professional and personal experience engaged in the Middle East region – from Iran to Algeria – strives to bring a new kind of listening to old-fashioned disputes.

In 2009-10 Anisa was a Fulbright Scholar in Jordan where she coached professional journalists. She is an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster specializing in religion and the arts. Mehdi directed and produced National Geographic Television’s acclaimed documentary "Inside Mecca", aiming to transform viewers’ appreciation of the practice of the Muslim pilgrimage. Her CINE Golden Eagle-winning Frontline special "Muslims" took viewers into the lives of Muslims from Malaysia to Iran to Egypt and Nigeria. The film’s emphasis on economic, cultural and political diversity shatters the notion that all Muslims are the same. Her work on ABC News Nightline exposed historic and insidious stereotyping of Arabs in pop culture.

A graduate of Wellesley College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, she combines news coverage and scholarship to go where others have not gone in seeking answers to difficult questions.

Michael Lame is the founder of Re-Think the Middle East, a tax-exempt non-profit organization designed to encourage new thinking and to question old assumptions about the causes and solutions of Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He blogs at www.rethinkme.org.

Earlier, Michael set up The Foundation for Mideast Communication to promote face-to-face dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East and among Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the United States and Canada. To accomplish that, he developed, led, and trained others to lead workshops which were conducted in the Middle East and across North America.

Michael lived for several years in Israel and has traveled extensively in the region, from North Africa to the Gulf states. He has met with the founders of Fatah and Hamas, with Egyptian, Jordanian, and Israeli government ministers, politicians, scholars, journalists, and political activists.

A member of the California Bar Association, Michael holds a law degree from Hastings Law School in San Francisco and a BA in history from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Reviews

"The debate went really well. We had a great turn out (over 200) and we got a lot of feedback with the general consensus that everyone learned something, whether it was a pro-Israel person learning something about the Palestine side, or vice versa. It met our goals of providing an educational outcome on a very intense international issue—plus it created dialogue amongst the community… Anisa and Michael…have great synergy and great compassion…"
- Colorado State University

"Outstanding presentation… Anisa Mehdi and Michael Lame were extremely effective at engaging the audience.  I have never seen our community so engaged in thinking as a political act--it was impressive.  Be assured that this team is an excellent program.  I would encourage any other college or university to bring them to campus."
- Illinois College

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