introduction

Two days after the turn of the current millennium, 700 of the wittiest and most brilliant people from all over the world gathered at the University of Sydney, in order to compete, for the twentieth time, in the world championship in competitive discussion (debate). When I walked around that fascinating crowd, and even more so when I participated in the competition itself, I saw the very high level of analysis and rhetoric reached by speakers from certain countries. There was a feeling of almost laxity "we will never be able to reach such a level in Israel", on the one hand, and a feeling on the other hand of "we have to do something to raise the level in Israel". I very much hope that this book will be that necessary step in the journey of a thousand and one million words.

A few points require clarification before we begin. In terms of language and language, it is quite difficult to come up with an exact translation for the many English concepts involved in DEBATE. Since accepted translations for some of the concepts do not exist yet, I did my best to reach the closest concept, and even more, I tried to maintain consistency (Consistency...) in those concepts, and attach their English equivalents to them the first times they are mentioned.  
In addition, the nature of the Hebrew language requires you to speak mostly in the masculine. Of course, it is not intended in any way to harm the more successful 51 percent of the human race. And I believe that it is very important that more women participate in the debating clubs because history shows that almost all women who have been prime ministers in the current century were debaters in their youth (Margaret Thatcher and Benazir Bhutto, for example, headed the Oxford Club).
Considerable parts of this guide are written in the first person or in the formulation of a personal recommendation, and there are two reasons for this. The first is that I saw a guide for debaters of the Cambridge University Club that was written like this and I really liked it. The second is that this emphasizes the significance of this guide.
This book is not based, unfortunately, on public opinion polls and in-depth psychological research, but on my personal impressions and those of people I knew in the field of debating, and speaking in the first person makes this clear. Of course, I used material written by people older and wiser than me, but it became clear to me that they too, each in turn, took the trouble to clarify that infallibility (this is the characteristic of the Pope who never errs...) from him onwards and that there are no iron laws in debating.

Since I tried not to write too much about things I don't understand, this book deals almost entirely with debating in the standard English-parliamentary style (four groups of two 21 speakers). I did not deal with the style of the schools (two groups of three speakers), or the American "cross-examination" style. Nor did I engage in a humorous debate. Each of these has different rules and different emphases.

In short, I hope that this book will advance everyone who reads it in their ability to improve their level of expression and analysis. And if I did succeed in doing so, even if only a little, it's my fault.