2014 Middle East Peace Dialog
sponsored by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Ethics
The Middle East Peace Online Group Dialog is now penciled in to begin in 2014. The dialog will be a structured exchange of messages involving on the one hand Interfaith groups, and on the other the Israeli and the Palestinian proponents. The intent is to ensconce the political relationship in a global Interfaith setting. Frankly this is an experimental setup. A similar Jewish/Muslim dialog [2] in 2005 worked out well, but here we will be dealing more directly with a highly charged partisan atmosphere.
One preset topic for the dialog will be "Peace in the Middle East". Resolving this stubborn political conflict would certainly renew hopes and open the way for a burst of positive energy on a world scale. How can we make it happen? A second preset topic will be "What is the true meaning of the Holy Land?" A third preset topic will be "Finding Our Common Humanity". Participants can ignore preset topics and write on a subject of their own choosing.
The dialog will employ an innovative voting-on-messages technology that proceeds in alternating "unity" and "diversity" rounds. In the unity rounds all participants from all groups write "candidate" messages and then vote to select one message to represent the common humanity of all. In the diversity rounds each group separately writes and selects a message to represent the separate group identity. The Interfaith groups will be open to all. There will be at least a Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Other group. The Other group will be open to those who do not want to specify their religion as well as to those who belong to other religions. The two Middle East groups will be open only to those who feel a close affinity to one side or the other.
An online forum will be available for the discussion of candidate messages during the writing and voting phases of the dialog.
For more information contact
Roger Eaton [3], Dialog Coordinator, 415 933 0153 (USA)
Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Ethics
Malibu, California
www.RaoulWallenbergInstitute.org
For more about the technology and the philosophy behind the software we will be using, see http://intermix.org [4].
See also our Encounter Point Links [5], our Los Angeles Interfaith Links [6] and our Middle East Related Links [7].
(Middle East Peace Logo thanks to Sandy Chaves.)