ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>MidEast Citizen Diplomacy - Articles</TITLE> <META NAME="DESCRIPTION" CONTENT="MidEast Citizen Diplomacy is a U.S. based non-profit organization dedicated to Jewish-Palestinian reconciliation. Our Compassionate Listening Project brings delegations to Israel and Palestine for people-to-people peace-building. The Compassionate Listening project seeks to: offer a powerful conflict resolution tool which will serve participants for life; increase the number of people working for Israeli/Jewish-Palestinian peace and reconciliation; strengthen and support the work of Israelis and Palestinians involved in dialogue and peace-building; foster new Jewish-Palestinian ally relationships; create new strategies for peace-building."> <META NAME="KEYWORDS" CONTENT="Compassionate Listening, conflict resolution, citizen diplomacy, Israel, Palestine, Mid East, Middle East, reconciliation, West Bank, peace, Jewish, Jerusalem, Israelis, Palestinian, Arab, Gaza, dialogue, dialog, peace-building, people-to-people, human rights, Judaism, Islam, shalom, salaam, Mid East Citizen Diplomacy, Track II Diplomacy, mediation, tourism, international peace-making, non-profit, non-profit organization, International Peace, travel, Holy Land, Children of Abraham, video, film, documentary"> <META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="INDEX,FOLLOW"> <META NAME="AUTHOR" CONTENT="HawkFeather Web Design"> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Reply-to" CONTENT=""> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-language" CONTENT="en-US"> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> </HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff" BACKGROUND="graphics/stone_back.jpg"> <!-- begin main table --> <TABLE WIDTH="90%" BORDER="0" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="0"> <TR> <!-- begin left/menu col --> <TD WIDTH="140" VALIGN="TOP" ALIGN="LEFT"> <P><IMG SRC="graphics/logo_sm.gif" WIDTH="120" HEIGHT="82"ýÿ BORDER="0" ALT="MidEast Citizen Diplomacy"></P> <P><IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_right.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="index.html">Home</A></P> <P><IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_right.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="about.html">About</A><BR> <P><IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_right.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="clp.html">Compassionate<BR><IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_blank.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9" BORDER="0"ýÿ>Listening<BR><IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_blank.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9" BORDER="0"ýÿýÿ>Project</A></P> <P><IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_right.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="trips.html">Trips</A></P> <P><IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_down.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="articles.html">Articles</A><BR> &nbsp;&nbsp;<IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_right.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="article8.html">10/99</A><BR> &nbsp;&nbsp;<IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_right.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="article7.html">09/12/99</A><BR> &nbsp;&nbsp;<IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_right.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="article6.html">11/16/98</A><BR> &nbsp;&nbsp;<IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_right.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="article5.html">11/13/98</A><BR> &nbsp;&nbsp;<IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_right.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="article1.html">9/98</A><BR> &nbsp;&nbsp;<IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_right.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="article3.html">7/98</A><BR> &nbsp;&nbsp;<IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_red.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><B>4/98</B><BR> &nbsp;&nbsp;<IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_right.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="article2.html">3/98</A></p> <P><IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_right.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="video.html">Video</A></P> <P><IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_right.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="links.html">Links</A></P> <P><IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_right.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="support.html">Support</A></P> <P><IMG SRC="graphics/arrow_right.gif" WIDTH="18" HEIGHT="9"ýÿ BORDER="0"><A HREF="contact.html">Contact</A></P> </TD> <!-- end left/menu col --> <!-- begin main col --> <TD VALIGN="TOP" > <P ALIGN="CENTER"><IMG SRC="graphics/articles-hdr.gif" WIDTH="106" HEIGHT="31"ýÿ BORDER="0" ALT="Articles"></P> <H2 ALIGN="CENTER">Emissary of Peace</H2> <P ALIGN="CENTER"><I>By Shana Sureck-Mei</I></P> <P>"If your religion doesn't make you more compassionate, what's it for?" ask Andrea Cohen-Kiener of West Hartford.</P> <P>The Orthodox mother of four, in Israel for a year, is riding out of Jerusalem on a public bus to Issawiyah, an Arab village where she will study the Koran with a village elder and continue a dialogue about peace that started month ago in a project called Compassionate Listening.</P> <P>Along with 16 other North American Jews, Andrea spent two weeks touring Israel and the region talking to a wide variety of people whose perspectives on the peace process differed greatly. The spiritual leader of Hamas, a militant Palestinian group seeking an autonomous homeland, spoke one day, and an another, a father whose son died in a Hamas attack. </P> <P>The two-week project was "shattering."</P> <P>"When you see how far apart people are, even in defining the problems, you lose your sense that there is an easy answer," she said. "Whatever preconceived notions I had weren't adequate to embrace all the points of view."</P> <P>Her greatest difficulties were with the religious extremists on both sides. The prejudice spewed by the "Israeli racists" and the "Muslim anti-Semites" were difficult to listen to, but listening was the goal of the project.</P> <P>"My grasp of religion brings me to a different point of view. We're cousins, the Muslims and the Jews, and we have a sacred connection."</P> <P>Her spiritual work revolves around the importance of "tikkun olam" - repairing the world. There is an added urgency motivating her work: 14 months ago, at age 42, she was diagnosed with cancer, and it has channeled her energy into work she feels is meaningful.</P> <P>"Life is a gift from God," she said. "I'm only one person, and my efforts are small, person-to-person, but this is where I feel I can make a difference in a region of the world I care deeply about."</P> <P>On the festival of Purim, she brought a plate of fruit and home-baked goods to a paraplegic living in an impoverished Palestinian tent city for homeless families. In February, she helped organize a relief project for a group of Bedouin Arabs whose tents were plowed down by the government. She brings Jews who fear they will be killed if they go into Arab areas "through their wall of fear" into Issawiyah to meet and talk with Palestinians there. </P> <P>"A vast number of people on both sides want to share the land in a fair way. The problem is we're all so mad and hurt. It's going to take at least 10 years to say 'I'm sorry, I hear you now.'"</P> </TD> <!-- end main body --> </TR> <!-- end main col --> <!-- begin footer --> <TR> <TD><P>&nbsp;</P></TD> <TD> <P>&nbsp;</P> <P ALIGN=CENTER> <A HREF="index.html">Home</A> | <A HREF="about.html">About</A> | <A HREF="clp.html">CLP</A> | <A HREF="trips.html">Trips</A> | <A HREF="articles.html">Articles</A> | <A HREF="video.html">Video</A> | <A HREF="links.html">Links</A> | <A HREF="support.html">Support</A> | <A HREF="contact.html">Contact</A></P> </TD></TR> <!-- end footer --> </TABLE> </BODY> </HTML>