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UC Davis experts: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The following University of California, Davis, faculty are available to comment on aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other aspects of Middle East politics. If you need assistance on similar topics, please call Claudia Morain, News Service, (530) 752-9841, cmmorain@ucdavis.edu.

Israeli and Palestinian politics

Zeev Maoz, political science professor at UC Davis, is an expert on Middle East security, including politics, economics and strategic military issues. He can talk about domestic instability in both the Palestinian Authority and Israel, as well as about more general Middle East political problems. The former director of Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, Maoz is finishing a new book, "Defending the Holy Land?" to be published in 2005. Contact: Zeev Maoz, Political Science, (530) 752-1989, zmaoz@ucdavis.edu.

Israeli politics

David Biale, the Emanuel Ringelblum Professor of Jewish History and director of Jewish Studies at UC Davis, can speak about intersections among Palestinian, Israeli and U.S. politics and religion. Biale can also analyze religious tensions among Jews in Israel over Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza and the West Bank. He is the author of "Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History" and "Eros and the Jews" and editor of "Insider/Outsider: American Jews and Multiculturalism" and "Cultures of the Jews." Biale is a regular columnist on issues pertaining to Israel and the Middle East for the San Francisco Chronicle. He's writing a new book, "Blood and Belief: The Circulation of a Symbol Between Jews and Christians." Contact: David Biale, History, (530) 752-1640 (office), (510) 524-9607, dbiale@ucdavis.edu.

Religious conflict inevitable?

What is it that makes some religious groups able to live together in peace and others in unending conflict? Comparative religion scholar Naomi Janowitz, who directed the UC Education Abroad Program in Israel between 1999 and 2001, can talk about whether living in a multicultural and multireligious world means we are destined to see violent conflicts between people of differing religions. She can also discuss how religious groups draw boundaries about claims to land, truth and divine power. Janowitz is author of "Magic in the Roman World: Pagans, Jews and Christians" (2001). Contact: Naomi Janowitz, Religious Studies, (510) 841-9159 (home) or (530) 752-6255 (office), nhjanowitz@ucdavis.edu.

Arab women in politics

UC Davis anthropologist Suad Joseph is an expert in gender, family, politics, and culture and identity in the Middle East. Joseph is following a cohort of children in a Lebanese village, observing over time how they learn their notions of rights, responsibilities, nationality and citizenship; how these ideas come to be thought of as male or female; and how the notions are transferred from the family into political and public arenas. She is the general editor of The Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures and founded and coordinates the Arab Families Working Group, a consortium of scholars, planners and policy-makers who carry out research on Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt. She is also founder and first president of the Association of Middle East Women's Studies, the main U.S.-based organization for scholars who conduct research about women in the Middle East. Contact: Suad Joseph, Anthropology, (530) 752-1593, sjoseph@ucdavis.edu.

Why hate predominates

UC Davis psychologist Phillip Shaver can talk about the biopsychological basis of fear, hostility and hate that Palestinians and Israelis are feeling in the current conflict. "A normal aspect of human conflict is insecurity, and this automatically foments hostility," Shaver says. He and Mario Mikulincer, a psychology professor at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, have been studying how to reduce that sense of threat at a deep unconscious level by activating associations to love and security. Their subjects have been Israeli Jewish college students. They published an article about their work in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and are continuing their research using a $100,000 grant from the Fetzer Institute of Michigan. Contact: Phillip Shaver, Psychology, (530) 752-1884, prshaver@ucdavis.edu.

The dynamics of apocalypic war

John R. Hall, professor of sociology and affiliated with the Religious Studies Program, can talk about Palestinian suicide bombers and the organizations that use them against Israel. He researches and writes about religious social movements. His books on the subject include "Gone From the Promised Land: Jonestown in American Cultural History" (1987) and "Apocalypse Observed: Religious Movements and Violence in North America, Europe and Japan" (2000). Recently, he has drawn on this research to discuss a wider array of circumstances in which violence and religion are connected in the forthcoming "Handbook for the Sociology of Religion." Contact: John Hall, Sociology, jrhall@ucdavis.edu.

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Last updated July 21, 2006