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Exchange of views
A little piece of peace was made this summer at the first Middle East Insight Policy Forum, designed to draw Arab and Jewish Washington, D.C. interns into discussions and "build bridges for the next generation of peace makers," according to Insight Forum Executive Director Jonathan S. Kessler. Interns from various congressional offices and more than 45 different organizations, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Anti-Defamation League, Arab-American Institute and National Council on U.S./Arab Relations, spent five lunch breaks during the summer listening to each other and trying to understand "the other side." As a result, three students two Jewish and one with a Lebanese background are working together to extend similar programming into the school year. The Middle East Insight Policy Forum differs from other intern programs in that at each session one speaker represented the Israeli view and another the Palestinian view, but both came from the same professional background, such as diplomacy, journalism and legislation. (One session, at which only State Department Deputy Special Middle East Coordinator Aaron David Miller spoke, did not follow this format). After the speakers presented their views, students asked questions and then discussed the issue among themselves. The variety of opinions was broadened by visiting students from Iran, Israel, Lebanon and Kuwait who participated, and also by diplomats from the Israeli, Syrian, Lebanese, Algerian, Yemenite, Jordanian and Egyptian embassies who showed up at some of the sessions. "This program showed that you can bring people with different perspectives together not just once, but on a regular basis," Kessler said. "These students, who for 40 hours a week represent organizations that are in direct conflict with each other, could still come together for two hours a week to articulate not just their differences alone, but also explore the possibility that certain commonalities do exist." One of the biggest things that the students found they had in common is that they all are intensely interested in U.S. foreign policy and "interested in seeing the United States engaged and involved in searching for peace in the Middle East," Kessler said. Next year, Kessler hopes to use input from a group of students to choose discussion topics and speakers as well as to provide feedback. "The students are seeking an explanation for why the government has chosen the course that it has, and how decisions are made by the government as to which path to pursue. They also are very interested in knowing the downsides of each path," Kessler said. Three issues surfaced most often, according to both Kessler and participant Matt Kirshen: human rights and the way each group treats its own and others, what the American role should be in the search for Middle East peace and what students themselves can do. "Sometimes it was hard because we came very entrenched in our own views and were ready for debate," said participant Shari Dollinger. "It was the first time I ever was in the same room with someone who stood up and listed the human rights violations he thought Israel had committed and it made me uncomfortable. But more so, it made me frustrated and angry." "When we first started the program, we would go around and introduce people," said Middle East Insight intern Marc Hebert. "But at the last program, people were all sitting together without us nudging them, and they really knew each other's names, knew each other as individuals and not organizations." As far as expansion in the program for next summer, Middle East Insight intern David Herzog said: "When we had Aaron Miller speak, the phones were ringing off the hook, so having some more big names next summer might improve the program. But, actually, some of the less well-known officials we had speak actually know more about the issues than the big names they represent." Three students plan to pioneer programing similar to the Middle East Insight Forum in the Boston area, where two of them attend school, and also in the Washington area. One of the students is Marissa Jacobs, an intern with a Lebanese background who is working at the Arab American Institute and attends Boston College. The two ingredients of the forum she found most important were the unique diversity of views presented and the open, civil environment to engage in discussion of highly sensitive and heartfelt issues. "You really have to exercise communication skills, listen, raise your hand. It was a challenge to uphold my organization's view and not become unfocused, not overdo my view and remember that these are people, not organizations," Jacobs said. "One thing that I have really strengthened this summer is my belief in the peace process. It is vital and stagnation just hurts all sides," Jacobs said. As far as bringing the forum home, Jacobs said she is contacting other participants to serve as liaisons on their campuses and deciding on a format speaker sessions with professors to promote dialogue and more social, informal gatherings where dialogue will result from interaction. Kirshen, an AIPAC intern from Orange County, Calif., who plans to work with Jacobs from his school, Brandeis University, said one thing really became apparent to him this summer: "I will never fully understand where the other side is coming from," Kirshen said. "I can learn to see the validity of their arguments, but there is that little piece in the Palestinian heart that I will never understand, just as they can never completely understand my Israeli heart." Kirshen said he liked the use of speakers with different professional backgrounds to show the whole picture, but more important was the environment. "The core of the program, the part that we want to imitate during the school year at programs in Boston and in D.C., is the creation of a safe environment in which you only have to listen; you don't have to be persuaded to change your view," Kirshen said. Kirshen said he and Jacobs are thinking about arranging a one-day student conference without professional speakers at which students would lead their own discussions about Middle East issues. Dollinger, an AIPAC intern and student at Brandeis University who will be spending the fall semester at American University for a special peace-and-conflict-studies program, will work with Jacobs and Kirshen to do programming with Washington-area schools. "The speaker from Search for Common Ground [John Marks, director of the think tank] spoke about `track two diplomacy,' which is establishing relationships away from the bargaining table," Dollinger said. "Once a trusting relationship is developed, then more successful deals can be worked."
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