摘要
While creating a lasting peace process in the Middle East,particularly between Israel and the Arab world,and more specifically with Palestine,has a history of more than 2000 years,this article outlines its history from Theodore Herzl’s famous 1896 statement about the“Jewish state”to the present time.The article’s emphasis is on gaining new intercultural understandings through reading the discourse that developed over more than a century on the peace process.Rhetorical discourse,on one hand,is speaker/Author-message-channels-and audience-centered,persuasive,and language-based.On the other hand,discourse analysis is descriptive and text oriented,established by setting frames for speaker/author involvement in the discourse,and is always contextual in its orientations.Considering both of these formats of analysis,this article explores Michael Prosser’s personal readings on discourse from several different perspectives,the Israeli discourse,Palestinian discourse,Arab discourse,and western discourse,tracing the history of this aspect of the Middle East peace process from Herzl’s statement to 2011,a historical period of one hundred and five years.A positive result of reading this discourse is a challenge to offer new intercultural understandings,or a“dialogue among civilizations.”
