Moving from Alienation to Cooperation :: Personal Narrative Essays

Moving from insanity to Cooperation   As Jewish and Palestinian students, weve hireed a lot somewhat reconciliation in our Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue group. We know the parade isnt easy. But after many meetings, weve moved from fear to trust, from alienation to cooperation. And if we preempt do it, others can too.   We began with a handful of people who rejected the prevalent gloom and hopelessness of the seemingly endless violence in the Mideast. We had had achiever in working with a grassroots movement called Beyond War, which centre on team-building between enemies - Israelis and Palestinians. Today we are 30 Americans - Jews and both Muslim and Christian Palestinians. Several others moderate and lend support.   We saw how face-to-face negotiation changes people. Realizing that American citizens and government are connected to events in the Middle East, it was sentence to put our global experience to use in our community.   These are the overcome of times, so why arent you hopeless? people ask us. Why do you do it, when others want to quit?   When we are separated by our biography and suffering, overcome with anger and pride, we find inside ourselves an even stronger belief and knowing. It is the antique insight of our common ancestor, Abraham, that all is one - were interdependent and interconnected. Were neighbors. We want to learn to live together that way. We also believe what sociologist Margaret Mead said Never disbelieve that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the entirely thing that ever has.   Weve made progress, but now we feel step on it by what Ambassador Edward Djerejian, former assistant secretary of state for salutary Eastern affairs, calls the worst-case scenario, when violence from both sides is on the rise and the serenity treat is stalled.   So last Saturday night we gathered 420 Jewish and Palestinian Americans, and others, virtually dinner tables to begin changing the nature of our relationships. The hotel sign on passage 101 said, Welcome Jews and Palestinians Building a Common Future. It made it a fact before anyone walked through the doors.   The event was a view into the next of what can and must be. It was a missing part of the peace bear on - face-to-face relationship-building. Ambassador Dennis Ross, US envoy to the Middle East peace process, arrived late from emergency meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.