Youth Opinion : PCs for Peace in the Mideast

As a 14-year-old, I find it hard to feel a sense of involvement in the political world around me. Even though I know that most of the issues debated in the House and Senate today will directly affect me, perhaps even more than they do adults, they are hard to understand and difficult to relate to personally.

But one international issue has captured my attention. My interest in it began on the sunny afternoon of Sept. 13, 1993, when on TV I saw Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat shake hands on the White House lawn. This sight enthralled me: If this “peace of the brave” could happen--which even in my brief lifetime never seemed possible--then anything can happen. The world could become a better place.

To commemorate this famous meeting, I set out to get the signatures of Rabin, Arafat and President Clinton on a photograph of their historic handshake. I decided to do the same for the July, 1994, peace agreement between Rabin and Jordan’s King Hussein.

Accomplishing this goal has meant that for the past year and a half I have called embassies and written letters nonstop. But the efforts have paid off: I made contacts at the embassies and with diplomatic staff who arranged for me to meet privately with Prime Minister Rabin in Los Angeles last November and with King Hussein when he visited the Museum of Tolerance in March. Chairman Arafat signed my photos via mail. I am working to get President Clinton’s signature when he visits Los Angeles in November to participate in a celebration of the liberation of the Nazi death camps in which my school choir will be performing.

The process of completing my mission has changed me. As time passed, I began to feel a deep sense of commitment to the peace process. It matters to me on a personal level.

It worries me that the delicate peace process has nearly unraveled many times. Some on both sides are demanding a total abandonment of the peace process. From what I see, the peace process is being hurt by a lack of trust and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. I am proposing a project to create a safe and secure environment that will foster communication between the peoples of the Middle East, especially among children my age who will ultimately carry out a just and lasting peace and who will be its beneficiaries.

As I envision it, this “CyberPeace” project will use donated computers to connect Israeli and Palestinian (and eventually Jordanian) schools. The schools could be linked on a dedicated Internet line and students would become computer “pen-pals,” interacting with one another in real time without leaving their classrooms. Through this contact, they might learn they are experiencing similar hopes, fears and dreams, which could help them strive toward a common goal of growing up in a world of peace and friendship.

Right now, I am working to establish “CyberPeace Inc.,” a children’s foundation for peace in the Middle East. I have filed for legal status as a corporation in California and Pennsylvania with the help of a family friend and my uncle, who will also guide me through the process of gaining tax-exempt status. I have written to Rabin, former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, spoken to an Arafat adviser, Ahmad Tibi, and on May 23 met with Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi to ask for support.

As Mr. Shultz wrote me in his letter, “Right now, all the emphasis seems to be on separating people from each other. In the long run, just the opposite must take place and that is why your idea is so appealing.”

My quest to get those autographs has taught me many things: First, persistence pays off, though sometimes you have to be a pain in the butt so people don’t forget about you. I’ve also learned that once you make something--even an international event--your personal mission, you learn that by caring you can make a difference.