Peace could sprout from student seeds

Sophomore unveils a Middle East peace plan based on a successful program in the Maine woods.

By: Jeff Milgram
   Laith Khouri, a college sophomore originally from Jordan, unveiled his own Middle Eastern peace plan Wednesday night at Princeton University.
   Put Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat in a camp in the middle of the Maine woods. Then, let them live in the same bunkhouse, swim in the same lake and hash out the problems of war and peace, the Manhattanville College student and Christian suggested.
   If experience is any indication, Mr. Khouri’s idea could work. After all, a 10-year-old program named Seeds of Peace has brought more than 2,000 teenagers from warring countries in the Middle East, the Balkans, Cyprus and South Asia together for 3½ weeks in the Maine woods.
   The "seeds," as they are called, have already written a 50-page Middle East peace plan and a separate 50-page charter on ways to uproot hatred and terrorism.
   The program attacks the root causes of conflict, and is, in effect, a detox program for the hatred that fuels violence and terrorism.
   By nurturing lasting relationships, Seeds of Peace puts a human face to one-time enemies. Forty-six "seeds" were on the White House lawn in 1993, when Israelis and Palestinians signed the Oslo Accords.
   Mr. Khouri and two other Arab students were joined in a panel discussion with two Israeli seeds, both Princeton University students.
   "I’m hopeful," said Shurouq Swaitti, a junior at Manhattanville College and a seed since 1996, speaking about the chance for peace. "It’s definitely going to take a long time."
   Malvina Goldfeld, a Princeton freshman, said the seeds keep in touch, going to each other’s homes, and worrying about each other when violence breaks out.
   "Seeds is really the only hope," she said. "People are really desperate. We believe in friendship now. We don’t believe in politics."
   Karen Karniol-Tambour, another Princeton freshman, said the only way for the violence to end is for a new generation of Israelis and Palestinians to hold political power.
   Bashar Iraqi, a Manhattanville freshman who grew up in the West Bank city of Ramallah and now lives in Israel, said the seeds discussed subjects large and small: violence, clothes, boys and girls.
   Religion is the one subject they try to avoid, Mr. Khouri said.
   Mr. Khouri said he made friends with two Israeli teens — the first he’d ever spoken to — in two days. "We accomplished a peace treaty," he said.
   Mr. Khouri believes that not only will there be peace in his lifetime, but he and other seeds will help bring it about.
   "In the future, I’ll be the ambassador of Jordan to the United Nations and Malvina will be the ambassador of Israel to the U.N.," Mr. Khouri said. "And we’re friends."