Tom Gross speaks to Palestinian academic and peace activist Mostafa Elostaz about his life and views. Mostafa grew up in Kuwait to parents who moved there from Gaza. He taught many years at Al Quds University in east Jerusalem, and now teaches at Tel Aviv University. The political part starts at 15 minutes in: Should the Palestinians welcome the UAE-Israel peace deal, and take up Trump & Netanyahu’s offer to negotiate?

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Among other conversations in this series:

* Pianist Evgeny Kissin (Prague) Described by The Economist as “the world’s most acclaimed classical pianist” Kissin talks about being a child prodigy; his favorite musicians; learning new repertoires and visiting Kafka’s grave during covid lockdown; about Stalin’s murder of Yiddish writers, his own love for Yiddish, Russia & the West. https://youtu.be/6zKvyjlvleg

* Tom Gross speaks about his own life experiences and views: growing up surrounded by cultural and literary luminaries in London and NY; brunches with Elvis Presley’s songwriter; crossing Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin with his grandmother during communism; helping the Roma when almost no one else would; his close relationship with his godmother Sonia Orwell (the model for the heroine Julia of her husband’s masterpiece ‘1984’); being in Manhattan on 9/11; the Mideast; the importance and legacy of the Holocaust; & other matters. https://youtu.be/T4Pg-IDYJYE

* Writer David Pryce-Jones (Wales) discusses his childhood escape from the Nazis, and about his friendships with Isaac Bashevis Singer, Arthur Koestler, Stalin’s daughter Svetlana, John Gross and others. https://youtu.be/hK8kppwX7UI

* Oscar-nominated filmmaker Hossein Amini (London) Born in Tehran to a distinguished family (his grandfather was prime minister under the shah), he speaks about Iran before and after the Islamic revolution, his career as a filmmaker, his work with Martin Scorsese and Harvey Weinstein, the MeToo movement. https://youtu.be/_llnKPTT0FE

* Historian Amanda Foreman (NY) talks about her father Carl Foreman (who wrote Bridge on the River Kwai, High Noon & Guns of Navarone); her books & TV series on the ascent of women; curating an exhibition in Buckingham Palace. https://youtu.be/lFHkJcf0qO0

* The last Nazi-hunter Efraim Zuroff (Jerusalem) speaks about his worldwide pursuit of war criminals, his efforts to make Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Croatia and other countries admit their own very substantial collaboration with the Nazi genocide; and the future of Holocaust education. Why did the Vatican and Red Cross help Nazi criminals escape? Why were so many doctors Nazis? https://youtu.be/KEaUhSYX3hI

* Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland, asks whether Britain can learn from the US system of government, and discusses Donald Trump, early Zionism -- and how as a teenager he was a mentor to Sasha Baron Cohen. https://youtu.be/Y_3phYh8WMU

* In a separate shorter conversation Jonathan Freedland & Tom Gross discuss left-wing & English antisemitism https://youtu.be/D8Zcppjh6Tw

* John O’Sullivan (Budapest) Born to working class parents near Liverpool, John rose to become one of Margaret Thatcher’s most trusted advisors. He discusses Thatcher and other leaders he met, including Reagan. He also discuss Trump, the future of journalism and his love for musical theatre. https://youtu.be/TKspJwfsibg

* Bahra Saleh (Kirkuk) 0n being a woman, and fleeing Saddam as a Kurd in Iraq. https://youtu.be/tQM0a9qJ1Jk

* Orit Yasu (Shoham) talks about growing up Ethiopian-Israeli https://youtu.be/xKihFpFrOUg

* Lord Young talks about his ten years in Margaret Thatcher’s government, his five years working with David Cameron, and about Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, and modern multicultural Britain. https://youtu.be/AzmrBuZ0OoM

* Zoe Johnson is the second woman ever to be appointed Senior Treasury Counsel by the attorney general to prosecute the UK’s most serious cases including terrorism, organized crime, and honor killings. And she has done this with the added difficulty of being confined to a wheelchair her whole life. https://youtu.be/Zs_pr7-6mxs

* Shmuel Bar (Herzliya), who worked for Israel’s government for 30 years in various clandestine capacities, discusses the state of the US, Europe, & the Mideast. https://youtu.be/j_ekSPVLMAg

* Charlotte Cunningham (Yorkshire) discusses her arts organization that helps people with disabilities, her grandmother who was the ruling monarch of Luxembourg; and her grandfather who served in the cabinets of Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson. https://youtu.be/kva8JQ1Jgsw

* Nidra Poller (Paris) discusses hanging out with James Baldwin and other African-American writers and musicians in 1970s Paris, the origins of her name, how her Japanese partner introduced her to Israel, and the position of women today. https://youtu.be/wHky3gPi0oA

* Susan Lourenco (Berlin) talks about being the child of refugees and how she reconciled herself with modern Germany. https://youtu.be/wjS4DSh4DBw