Jews and Arabs, in search of
their "adults," continue to discover their young women and men as
their "cultural creatives," their "leaders" into the
future.
Two summer camps in North America again have brought
together Arab and Jewish youth to discover their shared humanity and get
creative side by side.
Read below about Seeds of Peace and The
Middle East Peace Camp for Children, which helps young people discover:
"Who We Are," "Seeing the World," "Steps to
Peace," "The Middle East," and "Conflict Resolution."
What new kind of adult helps plan these camps?
What distinctive kind of youth respond and become stronger and more --
together?
Discover clues about this new kind of person, from the
2002 book -- "LOVE IS THE KILLER APP: How To Win Business And Influence
Friends."
"Love
is the killer application," says Tim Sanders, successful Chief
Solutions Officer of Yahoo, and consultant to Fortune 500 executives and others
worldwide.
Sanders describes "how to win business and
influence friends," on his Web site:
http://www.timsanders.com
A "killer app" is an excellent new idea that
either supersedes an existing idea or establishes a new category in its field.
It soon becomes so popular that it devastates the original business model.
He says that the killer application for today is love
-- use "caring" if you wish.
Those of us who use love as a point of
differentiation. . will separate ourselves from competitors just as world-class
distance runners separate themselves from the rest of the pack trailing behind
them.
Sanders says that "the most important new trend in
business is the downfall of the barracudas, sharks, and piranhas, and the
ascendancy of nice, smart people."
"Show me the love" begins to have a ring to
it in the context of the business of life.
Some prefer "caring;" Sanders chooses
"love."
He describes this new breed -- distinctive by the
ability to help others grow to become the best people they can be.
And this isn't just a feel-good message, not
touchy-feely, but prudent business with "bizpartners."
Who are these potential "bizpartners?"
Potentially, they are each and every person in your
work life, even competitors.
Love in this new world is sensibly sharing with your
bizpartners your intangibles -- your knowledge, your network, and your
compassion. These are the keys to true "bizlove."
Among Arabs and Jews, where's the love -- the
caring?
Below are two examples for you.
You can cause it to happen where you live, too.
.
-- L&L
==== 1 ====
The Middle East Peace Camp for Children
in Seattle, Washington just completed its week for the second year.
It was sponsored by the Arab Center of
Washington, Kadima Jewish Community, and Beyond Borders.
Seattle Channel 4 KOMO-TV offers a story and video
coverage for you to see with QuickTime Player, after clicking on:
http://www.komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=26579
The Camp has a Web site at:
http://www.middleeastpeacecamp.org/
For
more information, you can contact:
Susan
Davis: (206) 547-3914 -- SDavis@kadima.org
Maha Gebara: (206)
533-0152 -- Gebara@attglobal.net
==== 2 ====
Palestinian and Israeli youth have returned to
the 11-year-old Seeds of Peace summer camp in Maine, despite
death of friends, and family and community criticism "back
home." Their Web site is at:
Read
how both Palestinian and Israeli "seeds" move from fear and
resentment, to understanding, then to courage, leadership and teaching in the
"public peace process."
Published
in the Christian Science Monitor -- Thursday, August 14, 2003
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0814/p12s01-lire.html
One year later, Middle East teens
still cling to ideals
By Amanda Paulson -- Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
OTISFIELD, MAINE -- When Saja Abuhigleh returned home
to the Palestinian town of Ramallah last year, her friend Donia stopped
speaking to her.
The problem: Saja was bursting with enthusiasm for
Maine's Seeds of Peace camp, where she had just spent three weeks, and for her
friends there - including Israelis.
"She told me, 'I can't believe after everything
that happened to your family, you can make friends with them,' " Saja
recounts sadly.
Adar Ziegel, one of Saja's Israeli bunkmates last
summer, also had her ideals from camp tested. Her friend Tom was riding the No.
37 bus in Haifa in March when a suicide bomber blew it up. Tom and his father
were killed, along with 13 others. It was the first time that the violence of
her homeland had touched Adar so personally.
Seeds of Peace, a lakeside enclave northwest of
Portland, is dedicated to helping teenagers from the Middle East begin to
overcome their differences - or at least put a human face on the
"enemy." But it's one thing to express optimism in the Maine woods;
it's another to test that optimism against the violence and hatred back home.
Last summer, the Monitor followed both Adar and Saja -
along with Ariel Tal, an Israeli at camp for his third year, and Sami Habash, a
blond, intense Palestinian - through the challenges and triumphs of learning to
live with those from the other side. (See the story on the Web at:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0815/p11s01-lihc.html
After three weeks of bonding in a safe setting, all
four teenagers had felt hopeful, and were determined to keep working for peace
at home. They were worried, too, about what would happen once the
"bubble" of camp gave way to the harsh realities of checkpoints,
tanks, and suicide attacks.
Returning after a year of change
In the end, Saja, Sami, and Adar all returned for
a second summer - something only about 10 percent of campers do. (Ariel, after
three years at Seeds of Peace, was too old.) Their reasons varied, from wanting
to learn more patience to simply missing friends and the fun of camp. They have
no illusions about how much change a few teenagers can effect. But their
commitment to peace is a year stronger, and their decision to return,
ultimately, an act of hope.
It was a year of changes for all four. Saja put on the
hijab, against her family's wishes. Sami was offered a full scholarship
to Brandeis University in Massachusetts, but will follow his mother's desire
that he attend Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Ariel finished high school and
will be drafted into the Israeli army this fall. And, for the first time, the
violence was made truly personal for Adar.
She still remembers every detail of March 5 - her
birthday. She was at the beach celebrating when a friend called: A bus had
exploded right next to the bakery where she and her friends hang out. A flurry
of phone calls revealed that most of her friends were fine. Only Tom was
missing. It wasn't until the next morning, as she was putting on her shoes,
that Adar heard Tom's name read over the radio. She fell to the floor crying.
Rather than destroy Adar's belief in peace, however,
Tom's death strengthened it. One of the first things she did was write a letter
to the network of Seeds of Peace alumni, pouring her heart out to people she
thought might understand. She was amazed at the responses she got - from good
friends and people she'd never met; from Israelis and Palestinians.
"They wrote and called me and supported me in
ways I couldn't have asked for," Adar remembers.
Three days after the bombing, against the protests of
some of her friends in Haifa, Adar went to the Seeds of Peace center in
Jerusalem, seeking support but also feeling a renewed sense of purpose.
"Before, it was talking to them, and listening, and understanding.... But
now I felt that I owe it to someone to actually do it."
Saja's year has been calmer. She has emerged as a
leader, helping the new campers with their English, and displaying authority as
she teaches a group of Palestinians to perform the dabke, a traditional
dance, for the talent show. And she wears the hijab - one of the few
campers to do so - with a quiet grace.
When she returned home to Ramallah last summer, Saja
says, her mother hardly recognized her as the same shy girl who had never
wanted to leave home alone.
"Last year, I was afraid to pass the
checkpoints," she says, smiling. "But when I came back from camp, I
just told my mother, I will go alone through the checkpoints. If you want
something from Jerusalem, I will go bring it."
Her mother wasn't always thrilled with Saja's desire
to spend time at the Seeds center in Jerusalem, though, and several times asked
her to stop going.
And neither parent was happy when she had a dream
"about God" two months ago and decided to put on the hijab and
study the Koran in earnest. Her mother, she says, has been pleading with her to
take it off, at least in Maine, but Saja is resolute. "When a girl puts on
the hijab, something changes inside of her," she explains.
Reconciling peace with military service
While Saja and Adar tried to reconcile life back home with the ideals of
camp, Ariel was facing life after Seeds. His commitment to peace had already
been tested once, when a friend was killed in a suicide bombing, and Ariel is
confident it's a commitment that will survive the army.
That's not to say the decision was easy. "On the
one hand, I have a great desire to serve my country and do it in the best possible
way," he writes in an e-mail. "On the other hand, after listening to
my Arab friends and after being at Seeds I know the suffering of the other
side."
His Arab friends know he's joining the army, and Ariel
says they're supportive. In the meantime, he has stayed closely connected with
the Seeds center in Jerusalem, where he has been learning to facilitate the
sensitive coexistence, or "coex," sessions between Israelis and
Palestinians. The work, he says, reinforced for him what he considers the
ultimate lesson of Seeds of Peace: listening.
That's a lesson Sami has taken to heart this summer.
Last year, he often engaged in heated debates, and became easily frustrated
when, say, an Israeli settler in his coex session relied on "different
facts" from his.
This year's "coex" sessions for returning
campers are less about politics, though, and more about trust and
communication. Surprisingly, Sami likes the change. "You get to know the
personality of someone truthfully," he says. "This year, I'm trying
to listen more than to talk."