"We cannot solve today’s problems with the same kind of thinking that produced them.”We need a new approach that calls for an understanding of the other side.
— Albert Einstein
“An enemy is someone whose story we have not heard.”
— Ms. Gene Knudsen-Hoffman
“As a Hebrew teacher for Palestinians in Gaza, and an Arabic teachers for the Jews in Israel, I have heard the same kinds of questions and comments expressed by both sides, showing how ignorant we are about one another. We know nothing about each other, in spite of being the children of sister Semitic languages and having the same cultural roots."
— Samira Shaa'ban Srur Fadil, Director, Palestinian Abraham Language School, Rimal, Gaza
"There are two stories here and there is a quality of transcendence — seeing beyond the 'Jewish Narrative' or the 'Palestinian Narrative' — to a perspective that can humanize both sides and hear the 'other' story. A transcender after all has abandoned the exclusive quality of his or her narrative of origin."
— Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener, Hartford, CT
1. Explore more, new diverse news, Internet, and library sources of information. Listen. “Think outside the box.”
2. Participate in a sustained dialogue group in your city or campus. Contact us to ask if a group exists near you. Ask to be informed when people begin meeting where you live.
3. Begin a new group. Start with compassionate listening and with dialogue resources. Contact us for help.
4. Discover useful resources and links at the Dialogue Web site at http://traubman.igc.org/global.htm .
5. Ask at the Web site for printed dialogue guidelines and background materials by mail at no cost.
6. Request at the Web site that you be included in the e-mail circle to receive news about dialogue successes.
7. Tell others that Palestinians and Jews are beginning to listen to each other, hear one another’s stories, and see each other as human and equal in a “public peace process” with its descriptive graphic visuals. We are beginning to want the best for one another and to cooperate as never before. This is a big, missing part of the peace process. There is hope living in people and our relationships!
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