TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE 

PROMO FOR HOUR ONE  5/18/2008 "Can Writers Save Israel?"
*The state of Israel turns Sixty this year, but what is its future as a
Jewish democracy?  The Arab population in Israel will soon outnumber the
Jews.  Even diehard Zionists are calling for the creation of a
Palestinian state.  In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, a look
at the role Israeli writers play in the Middle East Peace Process. 
Also, America's role in the area, which goes back to the eighteenth
century.


PROGRAM RUNDOWN:    "Can Writers Save Israel?"


0:01 - 21:54        SEGMENT 1: (21:55)
            Jeffrey Goldberg wrote the cover story for the May issue
            of the Atlantic magazine which describes a very public
            dispute between the Prime Minister of Israel and one of
            the country's leading novelists.  Goldberg talks with Jim
            Fleming about the role of the "public Intellectual" in
            Israel, the coming demographic problem the country faces,
            and expresses some doubt about Israel's long-term
            viability as a Jewish democracy. Also, Susan Abulhawa,
            author of "The Scar of David" and of Palestinian descent,
            and Margot Singer, an American Jew and author of "The
            Pale of Settlement" talk with Steve Paulson about their
            experiences and writing about life in the refugee camps
            of the West Bank.  

            Segment One Outcue:  "...PRI - Public Radio
            International."

21:55 - 22:24  LOCAL OPTION with music bed (:29)

22:25 - 41:35       SEGMENT 2: (19:12)
            Meir Shalev is one of Israel's most respected and beloved
            novelists. His latest novel is "A Pigeon and A Boy" and
            is set in the present day and during the war of
            Independence.  Shalev tells Jim Fleming that he thinks
            the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem reached
            at the conclusion of that war was a just one and that the
            parties should return to the 1948 agreement.  Etgar Keret
            is read by a younger generation of Israelis.  His fiction
            is surreal and explosive. He tells Anne Strainchamps that
            he is the child of Holocaust survivors and that his work
            reflects life in Israel as it really is today.  His
            latest collection in English is called "The Girl on the
            Fridge."   
                    
            Segment Two Outcue:  "...PRI - Public Radio
            International."

41:36 - 42:05       LOCAL OPTION with music bed (:29)

42:06 - 53:00       SEGMENT 3: (10:54)
            Historian Michael Oren is the author of an exhaustively
            researched book called "Power, Faith and Fantasy: America
            in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present."  Oren talks
            with Steve Paulson about how the Barbary Pirates brought
            the Marines to the shores of Tripoli and why they went
            into the Middle East six times during the 19th century.
                    
            Segment Three Outcue: PRI Audio Logo


For a copy of this hour, call 1-800-747-7444, and ask for program number
5-18-A.