Speakers: Daniel Sokatch, Anshel Pfeffer

Can’t you just explain the Israel situation to me? In, like, 10 minutes or less? This is the question Daniel Sokatch, head of the New Israel Fund, is used to answering on an almost daily basis. Can We Talk About Israel? is the story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and of why so many people feel so strongly about it without understanding it at all. It is an attempt to grapple with a century-long struggle between two peoples, seeking to explain why Israel (and the conflict) inspires such extreme feelings – why it seems like Israel is the answer to “what is wrong with the world” for half the people in it, and “what is right with the world” for the other half. As Sokatch asks, is there any other topic about which so many intelligent, educated and sophisticated people express such strongly and passionately held convictions, and about which they actually know so little? In conversation with journalist Anshel Pfeffer.