TIM SEBASTIAN
Ladies and gentlemen, good evening to you and welcome to a very special edition of the Doha Debates coming to you for the first time from the United States and sponsored by the Qatar Foundation. We’re in Washington on the campus of Georgetown University which was founded in 1789, the same year that the US constitution took effect, and it’s no coincidence that so many of Georgetown’s students went into politics including Bill Clinton, former CIA director George Tenet, and the current US Defence Secretary Robert Gates. Our focus tonight though is on Middle East politics and the special relationship between the United States and Israel. Will it change with President Obama at the helm, and should it change? Is Israel simply in need of support and encouragement from its closest ally, or should the US take a tougher line on issues such as the Israelis’ policy on settlements? Our motion tonight: ‘This House believes that it’s time for the US administration to get tough on Israel’ – and as ever our panellists bring with them very different views. Speaking for the motion, Michael Scheuer, a 20-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency who founded and ran the Bin Laden Unit. He believes the current US-Israel relationship undermines American national security and says he was removed as a fellow from the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington research body, for making that point. With him is Avraham Burg, a well-known Israeli politician and peace activist, former Speaker of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, former Deputy Chairman of the World Jewish Congress and author of the book “The Holocaust is over, we must rise from its ashes.” Speaking against the motion Dore Gold, former Foreign Policy Adviser to Binyamin Netanyahu, and former Israeli Ambassador at the United Nations. He’s taken part in a number of major peace initiatives and was part of the Israeli delegation to the Madrid Peace Conference in 1991. He’s now President of the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs. And with him Alan Dershowitz, Professor of Law at Harvard University, who’s been labelled ‘The Jewish State’s lead attorney in the court of public opinion.’ He’s the author of 27 books including ‘The Case for Israel,’ ‘The Case for Peace,’ and ‘The Case against Israel’s enemies, exposing Jimmy Carter and others who stand in the way of peace’. Ladies and gentlemen, our panel. And now let me call first on Michael Scheuer to speak for the motion.

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