Hi Souheila,

I read carefully your friend's advice and I am not surprised. As a guy who lived for 55 years in polarizied Jerusalem this is an understandable and regular reaction. We Palestinian and Israelis have for too long been in a deadly embrace. As for myself I have demonstrated against occupation and specifically against the settlements since 1968! So after 40 years of active opposition in Jeruslaem I moved to SF to have a break. For me, the Palestinian issue is very central to any dialog, and for me the eye to eye level is key to any real understanding.

In Jeruslaem I worked a  lot with Palestinian journalists and started the web site www.amin.org. I also started a dialog of the deaf project that was supposed to connect Palestinian and Israeli deaf children through the internet. Hopefully your friend knows that 99% of the people in the Middle East can hear, but only 5% are listening...