IVAN MANNHEIM

Both Syria and Lebanon still labour under their media stereotypes as places of religious fanaticism, terrorism and intractable conflict. True, the region has had more than its fair share of wars, atrocities and suffering, and the Arab-Israeli conflict continues to cast its tragic shadow. Indeed, this is a conflict which goes right back to the dawn of history, resonating through the Old Testament stories of the origins of the Israelites, and the Exodus, when Moses led his people from exile in Egypt back to the Promised Land.