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This week on Uprising:

* An hour-special with journalist Reese Erlich on his new book, Conversations with Terrorists: Middle East Leaders on Politics, Violence, and Empire.

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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met recently with the Saudi King over stalled peace talks with Israel. The talks, sponsored by President Obama, have reached a standstill due to the Israeli resumption of settlement building after a ten month freeze. Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has called on the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to quit the talks saying, “To negotiate without a position of strength is absurd.”

Meshaal is one of several prominent figures in the Middle East interviewed by US based journalist Reese Erlich and is featured in his brand new book Conversations with Terrorists: Middle East Leaders on Politics, Violence, and Empire. In addition to Meshaal, Erlich explores the politics of the Middle East and Muslim world through figures like the Zionist leader Geula Cohen, the Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, the late Grand Ayatollah of Lebanon Mohammad Fadlallah, a former Iranian Revolutionary Guard-turned democracy activist Mohsen Sazegara, and a top Taliban leader now working with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Mohammad Nizami. Through his extensive research, first-hand interviews, and years of experience reporting from the Middle East, Reese Erlich brings us views from a region we are constantly at war with but know little about. With a foreword by former CIA field officer Robert Baer, and an afterword by Noam Chomsky, Reese Erlich’s book Conversations with Terrorists is, as Medea Benjamin says “a fascinating journey inside the heads and homes of those we are taught to hate and fear… Erlich’s book is a must-read for all who want to live in a world where we rely on diplomacy, not war, to resolve our differences.”

Reese Erlich spoke recently in Los Angeles where this program is recorded, at the Levantine Cultural Center. Today we present for you the entirety of his talk along with questions from the audience. Special thanks to Global Voices for Justice for this recording.

Find out more at www.reeseerlich.com.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.” — Galileo Galilei