Can writers save Israel? [audio 1st 40min]

The state of Israel turns Sixty this year, but what is its future as a Jewish democracy? The Arab population in Israel will soon outnumber the Jews. Even diehard Zionists are calling for the creation of a Palestinian state. In this hour of"To the Best of Our Knowledge," a look at the role Israeli writers play in the Middle East Peace Process. Also, America's role in the area, which goes back to the 18th century. Jeffrey Goldberg, writer of the cover story for the May issue of the Atlantic magazine, talks with host Jim Fleming about the role of the 'public Intellectual' in Israel, the coming demographic problem the country faces, and expresses some doubt about Israel's long-term viability as a Jewish democracy. Susan Abulhawa, an author of Palestinian descent, and Margot Singer, an American Jew and author, talk with executive producer Steve Paulson about their experiences and writing about life in the refugee camps of the West Bank. Meir Shalev, one of Israel's most respected and beloved novelists, tells Fleming that he thinks the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem reached at the conclusion of that war was a just one and that the parties should return to the 1948 agreement. Etgar Keret, whose fiction is read by a younger generation of Israelis, tells interviewer Anne Strainchamps that he is the child of Holocaust survivors and that his work reflects life in Israel as it really is today.