-Caveat Lector- Goodwill hunting A new initiative brings students from North America to an intensive three-week seminar to learn more about the Middle East. The aim is to send them back to their campuses as Israel's `ambassadors' By Anat CygielmanAri Sussman and Shimon Peres, last week in Tel Aviv. The students wanted to know whether Peres trusts Arafat. (Photo: Ariel Schalit) Thirty-nine students, young Jews from the United States and Canada, tried on Wednesday not to miss a word of what Foreign Minister Shimon Peres was saying. They laughed at every witticism he uttered and asked him join them for a group photograph when he finished answering their questions. Tomorrow, they will be leaving Israel at the end of a three-week stay during which they participated in a seminar at Tel Aviv University, the first of its kind, to prepare them for being Israel's "ambassadors" on the campuses of the universities they attend. The experimental project is called Emet - the acronym of Education, Middle East and Truth, and the Hebrew word for "truth." The project is being funded by a group of wealthy American Jewish donors headed by businessman Leonard Abramson of Philadelphia. Abramson was joined by Michael Steinhardt and Charles Bronfman, the initiators of the Birthright project, which during the past year brought thousands of Jewish students from around the world on a free 10-day trip to Israel. The two projects are completely different in nature. The participants in the Birthright program are students who have never visited Israel before and whose ties to Judaism and the Jewish community where they live are minimal. The aim of the trip is to strengthen their Jewish identity. The participants in the Emet program are students who have already visited Israel, young people with strong ties to the Jewish community who are willing to participate in Israel's efforts to present a positive image to the world. In contrast to the Birthright program, the state of Israel does not participate in the funding of Emet. The director-general of the Emet organization, Nir Boms, relates that the initiative was born a few months ago in a conversation between Abramson and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon about Israel's image problem because of the Intifada. What do you mean to do about it, asked Abramson. Sharon said that help would be accepted gratefully. Abramson picked up the gauntlet and set up Emet, which plans to operate on several fronts. Among other things, Abramson discussed the matter with Tel Aviv University President Itamar Rabinovich, formerly Israel's ambassador in Washington. Steinhardt, incidentally, is chairman of the university's board of trustees. Rabinovich organized for the students a program of lectures with the participation of faculty from the department of Middle Eastern studies and the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies. Thirty-nine students were selected from universities throughout the United States and Canada, all of them members of the Hillel international Jewish students' organization. The lectures they heard covered the entire Middle East, from "Strategic Threats to the State of Israel" to "Syria Under Bashar," "Iran Between Revolution and Reform" and "Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf." Is this not too much? "There was a lot to digest," agreed Karen Mervis of Washington. "You have to remember that this is the pilot for the program." She was especially impressed by Professor Asher Susser's lecture on "Muslim Suspicions of the Western World." "Even the term `the Middle East' was created from a western perspective. To understand the conflict you have to understand the history and the context," she said. The context is the most important thing, in the opinion of Jackie Bliss from Berkeley. "Most of the lessons were on Middle Eastern subjects. This was a surprise, a good basis for understanding the region and reaching our own conclusions." According to Gabe Sperber from Florida, "The argument about the conflict has become very emotional, instead of rational." The students feel that the lectures afforded them the possibility of passing on information about the complexity of the conflict and creating discussion and dialogue that rises above "the simplistic picture in the media." "We have the responsibility to be knowledgeable," says Elias Saratovsky of Chicago, "not necessarily to defend Israel, but to explain, to put things in context." In addition to the program of studies, the students went on trips to the north and the south. They did not visit the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, since they did not receive security authorization to do so. Even Jerusalem was not included in the original program, but the students insisted and the organizers gave in. Another request from the students was to hear a lecture by a Palestinian or an Israeli Arab. Thus a meeting was organized with Mohammed Darawsha of the Institute for Peace Research at Givat Haviva. Their awareness of issues of equality and discrimination was evident on Wednesday when they posed several questions to Peres about the status of Israeli Arabs. "Clearly, today the Arabs of Israel are second-class citizens in Israel," said Michal Kedem of the University of Montreal. "How will they be integrated if they don't get the same opportunities?" They also wanted to know whether Peres trusted Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, whether Arafat represented the Palestinian people, what would happen if the Jews stopped being the majority in Israel and also whether he had a bit of time for himself during the course of the week. Ultimately, the students are expected to be active on the campuses of their universities: to respond at discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to influence the campus newspaper, to help other students obtain information, to organize conferences, cultural evenings and lectures on Israel. The Hillel students organization is working on a support system for them. "We are not trying to replace the official government information system," said Professor Rabinovich on Wednesday, "but to work in depth, over the long term. When I was serving as ambassador, the peace process was flourishing and our main problem was explaining things to the Jewish community in the United States. Today there is a crisis. In the image war, there's a place for media stars, but 80 percent of the work is the gray, daily grind: a struggle for the editorial line of a local newspaper in Idaho, which side the lecturer will favor at a symposium in Michigan. The American campus is a political arena that influences its broader environment." More projects to help Israel's image In addition to the students' activities on the campuses, the Emet organization is working on producing a guidebook for the American media explaining key terms in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Areas A, B and C, the Oslo and Wye agreements, the Hamas movement and more. Another idea is to bring prominent non-Jewish American public figures - like Jack Kemp and Steven Forbes - into the effort to change public opinion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The plan is for these people to come to Israel and afterward appear in the American media as individuals who are not party to the conflict and who are perceived as more objective than representatives of Israel. According to Nir Boms, the director-general of Emet, the organization is trying to present a fuller picture, to say that things are a bit more complicated than the way they look on the television screen. "We are not an official or party-political body. The aim is to educate and to provide information," he said. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
