Recent Events

Conference of the Air:

ISIS AND ITS THREAT TO INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

Sunday, October 26, 2014
  10:30 pm - 1:30 am PST  (1:30 pm -  4:30 pm  EST)

Streamed live on the Internet and then archived. Log in from anywhere in the world and listen at any time at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/westernwordradio/2014/10/27/the-isis-threat-to-international-security

The ISIS phenomenon has aroused the deepest concern in the West about the future of the Middle East.  An organization labeling itself Jihadist, which will brook no opposition and  will use be-headings and summary executions of entire populations as a means of enforcement, is not an entity to be ignored or trifled with.  The West's general response can be described , until now, as tepid.    This conference, drawing on the expertise and experience of journalists and commentators in five countries will seek to uncover the long term goals of ISIS, its threat to Israel and moderate Arab regimes in the region and how the United States and its allies should best confront it.

About the Speakers:

Avi Davis is an attorney, journalist, travel journalist, commentator, documentarian and Senior Fellow of the American Freedom Alliance. He is currently a Senior fellow of the American Freedom Alliance – a Los Angeles based organization formed to identify threats to Western civilization and uphold Western values and ideals. In this capacity he has coordinated seven major international conferences The Collapse of Europe? (Pepperdine University, June 2007); Identity Crisis: Can European Civilization Survive? (Rome, March 2008); How Free is the University? (USC, June 2008); Is the (Real) News Dead? (Pepperdine University, June 2010); Big Footprint: Is Green the New Tyranny? (UCLA, June 2011) and Global Governance vs National Sovereignty (Los Angeles, June 2012).

David Pryce-Jones is the author of books dealing with contemporary events and including ten novels. In 1967 and 1973 he covered the wars in the Middle East for the Daily Telegraph and afterwards wrote The Face of Defeat (1974) about the Palestinians, and the best-selling The Closed Circle (1989) about the Arab world. He has published regularly in Commentary, New Criterion, the Wall Street Journal, and since 1999 has been a Senior Editor of National Review. He lives in London.

Mordechai Kedar  (born 1952 in Tel Aviv; Hebrew: מרדכי קידר‎; Arabic: مردخاي كيدار‎) is an Israeli scholar of Arabic literature and a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University. He holds the Ph.D. from Bar-Ilan University. Kedar is an academic expert on the Israeli Arab population. He served for twenty-five years in IDF Military Intelligence, where he specialized in Islamic groups, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic press and mass media, and the Syrian domestic arena.[1] The Los Angeles Times‘ Edmund Sanders described him as “one of the few Arabic-speaking Israeli pundits seen on Arabic satellite channels defending Israel”.

Omri Ceren  is the Managing Director for Press and Strategy at Israel Project, where among other things he sits on top of TIP's press and issues operations. He is a political operative, journalist, and academic who has been involved in politics and media for over a decade. Ceren is a PhD Candidate at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, with expertise in political persuasion, media influence, and the use of new communication technologies. He has been involved in journalism since 2003, and has been a formal contributor to dozens of outlets. He regularly appears as an expert panelist on television and radio news shows, including on the BBC, VOA, and Sky News.

Sarit Horwitz is a researcher at the International Institute for Counter Terrorism where she analyzes and translates Arabic documents relating to terror activities. Her professional background started in an elite unit in the army in the field of Arabic and Intelligence and continued in advanced studies in the Arabic department of Bar-Ilan University while focusing on Islamic Fundamentalism in connection with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Sarit’s other main specialties include teaching literary Arabic and lecturing on the Middle East, Islam and Terror (in English or Hebrew).

Martin Sherman  served for seven years in operational capacities in the Israeli Defense establishment.  He was a ministerial adviser to Yitzhak Shamir's government and lectured for 20 years at Tel Aviv University in Political Science, International Relations and Strategic Studies. He holds several university degrees: a B.Sc. (Physics and Geology), an MBA (Finance), and a PhD in political science and international relations. He was the first academic director of the internationally renowned Herzliya Conference and is the author of two books and numerous articles and policy papers on a wide range of political, diplomatic and security issues.

Nonie Darwish authored three books, ‘Now They Call Me Infidel”, “Cruel and Usual Punishment”, and “The Devil We Don’t Know; the dark side of revolutions in the Middle East”. She is president of Arabs For Israel and Former Muslims United.

Thomas Joscelyn is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and senior editor of The Long War Journal, a widely read publication dealing with counterterrorism and related issues. Much of his research focuses on how al Qaeda and its affiliates operate around the globe. Mr. Joscelyn was the senior counterterrorism adviser to Mayor Giuliani during the 2008 presidential campaign. He has testified before Congress on numerous occasions, including before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, House Homeland Security Committee, House Foreign Affairs Committee, and House Judiciary Committee.  Mr. Joscelyn is also a frequent contributor to The Weekly Standard. His work has been published by a variety of other publications and cited by the Associated Press, Reuters, The Washington Post, USA Today, TIME, Foreign Policy, and many others, and he makes regular appearances on television and radio programs.

Walid Shoebat is a self declared former terrorist"who was a member of the PLO in the 1980s. He has has since become an aggressive defender of Western values and ideals, denouncing terrorist organizations and their affiliates in the United States. He is the author of " Why We Want to Kill You: The Jihadist Mindset and How to Defeat it" ( Top Executive Media, 2007) and "God's War on Terror: Islam, Prophecy and the Bible" ( Top Executive Media, 2008)