Building Peace Starts with Rebuilding Relationships

Building Peace Starts with Rebuilding Relationships

by Staff Writer
Outlook (Univ. of Maryland)
9/20/04

Middle Eastern confidence in the United States has plummeted in the last three years, and it will take substantial effort, mostly on the part of America, to win it back, according to Shibley Telhami and Brookings Institution colleague Peter Singer.

The "Points of Contact"town hall meeting they participated in last week corresponded with global Interdependence Day observations. Sponsored by the non-partisan student group Americans for Informed Democracy, the meeting was also part of a nationwide initiative called Hope Not Hate, during which more than 30 town hall meetings on U.S.-Islamic relations are being held.

Telhami, who holds the university's Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development and is a senior fellow at Brookings, and Singer, director of the institution's Project on U. S. Policy Toward the Islamic World, tried to give the mostly student audience a brief but thorough understanding of what issues politicians and the military face in trying to heal the rift between nations.

One of the first steps is restoring the "collapse of trust felt by Middle Eastern countries. Many in Iraq find it hard to believe America's promises of an improved post-war nation," said Telhami. Yes, the war meant "the demise of a ruthless regime,"but...

"They don't see the good yet. In fact, the vast majority of them, if you ask, 'do you believe that Iraqis are better off today than before the war?," the majority believe that Iraqis are worse off," said Telhami.

He went on to say that one of the first steps is to acknowledge that each side is looking at the issues from its own "prism of pain."

And that "it is important for us to understand their pain and for them to understand our pain. [However],we're going to have to overcome the pain."

Singer outlined several challenges that will be encountered in trying to reach understanding and making progress, including finding ways to support core, global human rights values and translate them into policy and creating policy that is not one size fits all. He said that it is this generation that will be responsible for carrying out the work needed.

In response to a student's question about what can individuals do to help, both Singer and Telhami offered suggestions. Singer encouraged students to form partnerships with like-minded organizations working for peace, working to understand the issues and each other.

Telhami encouraged informed discussion. "Don't be apathetic. The scariest part for me is not vibrant debate," he said. "It is the absence of debate...but racism and bigotry must be absent from the debate. And the final thing is: You're a citizen, vote."