Arab and Jewish Americans face a significant risk if the violence in the Middle East spirals out of control. Jewish Americans will encounter significant rise in anti-Semitism and related racist attacks. Is it not then in the interests of all Americans to combat the root causes for terrorism. All this is in our best interests as Americans. Our communities must focus on working together as partners. Then we can show the world that Jews and Arabs cannot only live together in peace but can work together to make a real difference.

If we study history a realization dawns that the seeds of peace are everywhere! Jews and Arabs lived in relative peace for two thousand years before WW1. These two communities have so much in common. Similar cultures and values, a belief in the existence of a supreme being, emphasis on family values the importance of education and the vitality of the commercial sector. There is so much that is identical. . Both groups produce some of America's finest doctors, scientists, researchers, educators and entrepreneurs. The Hebrew and Arabic languages come from the same linguistic family. The faiths of Judaism, Islam and Christianity revere the same God and embrace the same teachings. Our similarities far outnumber our differences. We each have the skills to solve so many problems together,. Why do we not recognize within each community respective skills and abilities that render us all equal in the eyes of God?

The Mideast Peace Project has been created to provide the vehicle and harness the tools available to us to allow our two communities to become one. We must find a way to bind together and experience the humanity that each side obviously possesses. With trust in each other, we must resolve to drown out the voices of extremism emanating from each side. We must resolve to never forsake our commitment to build a sustainable peace. Ultimately our goal is to create a unified space that respects the sanctity of life and ensures justice and security for all those who reside in the Middle East.. That will be the only way to ensure that all of its residents live and prosper together in peace and harmony with dignity for all.

No. these goals are not impossible. Gandhi led India, a nation of 400 million people in the 1940's. By means of non-violent civil disobedience they achieved freedom from the oppression of the British imperialist empire in a just few years. Martin Luther King, Jr. created an awareness amongst his people who were first enslaved and then oppressed for over three hundred years. As Americans and as human beings they had been granted rights and opportunities to participate fully in a democratic social order.

We can learn so much from Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King who participated in the great struggle for their respective communities. They too tried to reach out to a Promised Land How much more time and effort and lives will it take for us to reach our promised land We need to be patient because we know that but the alternative is far too frightening. For the sake of the children and grandchildren the killing and suffering of Israelis and Arabs must come to an end.

In the spirit of our treasured American ideals, the rights of life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and self-determination, our responsibility as Americans is to do all we can to listen carefully to the voices (and dreams) of those many millions of silent moderates. So that ultimately no one side prevails but the two peoples live IN PEACE IN THEIR RESPECTIVE AREAS .