"Intellectuals and Terror: the Fatal Attraction (Present vis-à-vis the Past, Aspects of Theory and History)"

Chair of the Jewish Heritage

May 3-5 2010

The Raab Building

With the conference's central theme of "Intellectuals and Terrorism": we are seeking to create a forum in which to explore "the third side of terrorism"-not the perpetrators of terror or their victims but representatives of the intellectual milieu who contribute to a cultural environment conducive to terror. The goal of the conference is to produce a comparative-typological analysis of real-life case studies and narratives, in order to develop a broad conceptual model of intellectual attitudes toward terrorism. Interest in terror and death has been exhibited by intellectuals in a range of societies, cultures, and historical periods, past and present. Bearing in mind the mass murders that resulted from death ideologies under Nazi and Communist regimes, it is necessary to examine the current situation, and to try to learn from the mistakes of the past. What happens when marginal intellectual currents become normative? What happens when the dominant academic discourse not only systematically challenges the founding principles of academia and its cultural foundations, but even incites towards radicalism and terror? Interdisciplinary in its approach, this conference encompasses the spheres of history, politics, psychology, literary criticism, and theory of culture. Participants in the conference will include key specialists in these fields from Israel and abroad, representing a variety of political and ideological stances.

Intellectuals and Terror: the Fatal Attraction - Programe

Monday, May 3, 2010

Opening

17.00-17.30 Registration and refreshments

Opening Session (In Hebrew)

Chairperson: Prof. Ortzion Bartana, Israel Heritage Department, Ariel University Center

17.30-18.15 Greetings: Prof. Michael Zinigrad, Ariel University Center

Mr. Yuli Edelstein, Minister of Information and the Diaspora

Prof. Israel Nebenzahl, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ariel University Center

Dr. Uri Zur, Head of the Israel Heritage Department, Ariel University Center

Prof. Ortzion Bartana, Introduction

18.15-18.45 Joel Fishman, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, George Orwell on the Intellectuals of His Time, and the Key Concepts: Intellectuals, Terror and Political Correctness

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Terror and Values

9.00-9.30 Reception and refreshments

9.30-11.00 Session One: Terror and Values: Historical Precedents (in English)

Chairperson: Dr. Uri Zur, Israel Heritage Department, Ariel University Center

Richard Landes, Boston University, Intellectuals and Terrorism: from "Useful Idiots" to "Useful Infidels"?

Anna Geifman, Boston University, The Liberal-Left Opts for Terror

Irma Ratiani, Maka Elbakudze, Tbilisi State University, Anti-totalitarian Text - The Reaction of Literature against Intellectual Terror

Paul Hollander, University of Massachusetts, The Appeal of Righteous Political Violence for Intellectuals

11.30-12.30 Session Two: Intellectuals in the Shadow of Terror: The Present vis-à-vis the Past (in Hebrew)

Chairperson:

Golda Akhiezer, The Hebrew University, Jewish Identity and National Consciousness: A Case Study of Radical Participation in the Russian Empire, 1881-1917

Meir Seidler, The Beauty and the Beast:Sartre's Relation to Baader-Meinhof

David Bukay, Haifa University, Islam and Terrorism: Religious and Cultural Foundations

Eliezer Shargorodsky, The Open University of Israel, The 21^st Century Version of the Blood Libel.

15.00-16.30 Session Three: Intellectuals and Terror in Israel and in the World (in Hebrew)

Chairperson: Prof. Noach Milgram, Ariel University Center

Ron Schleifer, Ariel University Center, Political Warfare in the Arab-Israeli Conflict: Organization, Messages, Methods

Ronen A. Cohen, Ariel University Center, The Other Voice - An Intellectual Debate inside the Islamic World between the Western Agenda Devotees and those Embracing a Mistaken Interpretation of Islam

Yossi Goldstein, Ariel University Center, The Organized Terror against Britain, November 1945-June 1946

Yuval Arnon-Ohanna, Ariel University, Center, War and Peace Negotiations: Approaches in Islam versus Approaches in the West

17.00-18.30 Session Four: Round Table: "The Fatal Attraction" and Its Causes (In Hebrew)

Chairperson:Prof. Yossi Goldstein, Israel Heritage Department, Ariel University Center

Alek D. Epstein, The Open University of Israel, Intellectuals' Fascination with Totalitarian Utopias

Yitzhak Klein, Efrata College, Jerusalem, Darkness at Noon: Israeli Academics Justify Terror against Israel

Noach Milgram, Ariel University Center, The Road to Violence Is Paved with the Misguided Intentions of Left Wing Intellectuals

Uri Milstein, Ariel University Center, The Attitude of Intellectuals towards Terror, according to the General Theory of Security: The Survival Principle

Wednesday, 5.5.2010

Images of Terror

9.00-9.30 Reception and refreshments

9.30-11.00 Session Five: Literary Representations of Terror (in English and in Hebrew)

Chairperson: Dr. Nitza Davidovitch, Israel Heritage Department, Ariel University Center

Helena Tolstoy, The Hebrew University, “Azefovzhina” in the works of A.Krandiyevskaya

Ortzion Bartana, Ariel University Center, Self-Hate, the Wandering Jew Model and the Deceit of the Six-Day War in the Pseudo-Intellectual Hebrew Prose

Leonid Katsis, The Russian University of the Humanities, Moscow, Problems of Terrorism in Unknown Articles by Zeev Jabotinsky (1903-1905)

Helena Rimon, Ariel University Center, The Poetics of Lucrimax and the Historiography of the Hebrew Literature

11.30-13.00 Session Six: Terror and the Cinema (In Hebrew)

Chairperson: Dr. Ziva Feldman, Israel Heritage Department, Ariel University Center

Hananel Rosenberg,The Hebrew University, "The Interview with the Terrorist": Israeli Youth's Reception of the Television Meeting with the Enemy

Yuval Rivlin, Israeli Films: The Act of Terror in Israeli Cinema

Kinneret Guterman, College of Management Academic Studies, Rishon Lezion, Representation of Terror, Arabs and Muslims in American Popular Media

Sariel Birnbaum, The Hebrew University, Egyptian Cinema as a Way to Fight Islamic Terror

13.45-16.00 Lunch - Trip to Tel Shilo

16.00-18.30 Session Seven: Terror, Mass-Communication and Society (In Hebrew)

Chairperson: Dr. Amnon Shapira, Israel Heritage Department, Ariel University Center

Elina Bardach-Yalov, Bar Ilan University, The Russian Dilemma: Are the Media the Oxygen of Terrorists?

Amnon Lord, Makor Rishon, The Intellectuals’ Temptation: The Political Warfare Strategy of Willi Münzenberg

Eyal Pascovich, Ariel University Center, Social-Civilian Apparatuses of Terrorist Organizations and their Intellectual (Religious and Social) Justification

19.00-20.30 Closing Session: The Role of Mass Media in Shaping the Image of Terror

Chairperson: Dr. Ronen Cohen, Department of Israeli and Middle Eastern Studies, Ariel University Center

Minister of Science, Prof. Rabbi Daniel Hershkovitz, Ben Dror Yemini (Maariv), Dov Kontorer (Vesti) Sophy Ron-Moria (Makor Rishon)

20.45 Festive Dinner (by invitation)