Dr. Gershon Baskin is the founder and Israeli co-director of IPCRI (Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information) founded in Jerusalem in 1988. IPCRI is the only joint Israeli-Palestinian public policy think tank in the world. It is devoted to developing practical solutions for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. IPCRI is an independent institution, not affiliated to any political party. Dr. Baskin holds a Ph.D. in International Affairs, and is the author and editor of numerous publications seeking balanced solutions to issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians, including Creating a Culture of Peace (IPCRI, 1999).

Hanan Mikhail-Ashrawi, Founder and Secretary General of the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, was born in Palestine in 1946. A world-renowned and much honored scholar and activist, she currently also serves as Commissioner of Information and Public Policy for the Arab League and as a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Jerusalem District. A tireless worker for human rights both at home and abroad, Dr. Ashrawi is involved in organizations ranging from the Jerusalem Center for Woman and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights to the Fund for the Future of our Children in Washington, D.C., the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and International Human Rights Council. A distinguished educator and writer as well, Dr. Ashrawi's publications include This Side of Peace: A Personal Account, Contemporary Palestinian Poetry and Fiction, and Contemporary Palestinian Literature Under Occupation.

Dennis B. Ross comes to the 2002 Borah Symposium with a distinguished career in formulating and developing U.S. foreign policy in the Reagan, first Bush, and Clinton administrations. As Special Middle East Coordinator under President Clinton, Ambassador Ross was instrumental in assisting the Israelis and Palestinians in reaching the 1995 Interim Agreement; he also successfully brokered the Hebron Accord in 1997, facilitated the Israeli-Jordan peace treaty, and worked to bring Israel and Syria together. His efforts in the pursuit of peace in the Middle East have not gone unrewarded. Ambassador Ross was the recipient of the Presidential Medal for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service, awarded by President Clinton, and the Department of State's highest award, presented by Secretaries of State Baker and Albright. Ambassador Ross is currently a Distinguished Fellow and Counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Alwyn R. Rouyer is a professor of political science at the University of Idaho specializing is Middle Eastern politics. He studied Arabic and Islamic culture at the American University in Cairo and was a Fulbright Scholar at Mamara University in Istanbul, Turkey and over the last decade his researched has focused on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. During the 1993-94 academic year and again in the summer of 1998 he was a visiting scholar at Birzeit University in Ramallah. During this period he has published "Turning Water into Politics: The Water Issue in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict" (Palgrave, 2000) and several articles on the conflict in academic journals including Middle East Policy.

John Wallach is Founder and President of Seeds of Peace and an award-winning author and journalist. He founded Seeds of Peace in March 1993 to provide an opportunity for the children of war to plant the seeds for a more secure future. In 1997-98, Mr.Wallach was a Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). He was the founding editor of WE/Mbl, the first independent weekly newspaper in Russia, and was the creator of the Chautauqua Conference on U.S.-Soviet Relations, for which he received the 1991 Medal of Friendship, the highest civilian award, from President Mikhail Gorbachev. President Jimmy Carter presented him with the Congressional Correspondents Award for his coverage of the 1978 Israeli-Egyptian Camp David accords. Mr. Wallach's books include The Enemy Has A Face: The Seeds of Peace Experience and (co-authored with his wife, Janet) Arafat: In The Eyes of the Beholder (with a Foreward by Shimon Peres); Still Small Voices; and The New Palestinians: The Emerging Generation of Leaders.

NOTE: Mr. Wallach will not be appearing at the talk. The co-founder of Seeds of Peace, Ms. Barbra Gottshcalk will be speaking in his place.

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