Mid East Musing

Every so often when something erupts in the Middle East like it is now I can’t help but racking my brain to try to think of something that we could do – some way to help. As if there’s something that the brightest minds in diplomacy haven’t considered. I know there will always be conflict in the Middle East and I probably don’t have much to contribute. But I can’t help but wonder about options.
I had an idea this morning. When I worked at the newspaper, I covered something called the Ulster Project. It’s a week-long camp in the U.S. attended by Catholic and Protestant teenagers from Northern Ireland. It’s a way of exposing young people to people and viewpoints different from their own and pre-empting any indoctrination they might receive in the future that includes hate against another group. It’s a neat program. Of course, it has its limitations. Parents who send their teens to the Ulster Project are probably the same parents who would protect their kids from involvement in “the troubles’ anyway. But I still like the idea.
Is there a way to do something like that in Arab nations? Imagine Arab and Jewish teenagers at camp together! Wow! There are big problems with this – how are you going to get kids to take part? There are financial and huge cultural barriers. Kids would be taking a big risk aligning themselves with something like that. But if militant Islam can recruit and brainwash young men to carry out suicide attacks, is there a way for peace-loving people to recruit and educate those same kids? Or possibly just reinforce peaceful principles in kids who won’t be recruited by militant groups but who might turn out to be the next generation of leaders for their countries? How do we get to them? And how can they be protected once they do take part in something like that?
Anyway, just thoughts. I just bang my head against the Muslim/Jewish thing now and again and thought I’d share.