INSIGHT I
Planting The Seeds
Continued from preceding page
terrorism, about questions like who should
represent the Palestinians. The question
about what happened in 1948—why were
there so many refugees—comes up at just
about every workshop."
Lame deftly skips around the question
of whether enrollment tends to be self-
selecting in a way that favors those who
are already somewhat disposed to more
open communication. Although he men-
tions a workshop attended by members of
the Jewish Defense League, he does not
suggest that the workshops draw very well
in strongholds of the Gush Emunim, or
from the ranks of hard-core PLO
supporters.
According to Lame, participants have
come from more than 20 countries and
represent a broad range of backgrounds,
professions and political philosophies.
"We've had people who were very knowl-
"People look at a group like
ours and ask, 'What are they a
front for?' It is difficult for
people to accept that we are
nonpartisan, that we don't take
sides in the political disputes."
edgeable about the Middle East, and peo-
ple who knew virtually nothing about it,"
he says. Most Middle East nationalities
have been represented at Foundation
workshops.
lb date, he says, most recruitment has
been through word of mouth. "Maybe peo-
ple send out notices to their personal mail-
ing lists, or they just tell friends and
relatives. It hasn't been as systematic as
I would like; we just don't have the money
to do advertising or mass-mailings on any
kind of large scale. I'm certainly not
satisfied yet with our approach in letting
the people know what we're doing."
Even if they had the money for extensive
advertising, Lame says, his group would
face initial resistance from potential par-
ticipants. "People look at a group like ours
and ask, 'What are they a front for?' It is
difficult for people to accept that we are
nonpartisan, that we don't take sides in the
political disputes."
Lame is only now beginning to work on
developing ties with the existing Jewish
organizations in America. "Maybe because
I am Jewish, I leaned over backwards try-
ing to develop contacts in the Arab com-
munity. So frankly, I haven't done enough
homework with the Jewish organizations.
I'm working on that now."
The reaction of the organized Jewish
community, he says, has been low key.
"Generally, I see a lot of skepticism, some
interest, some concern about how what
we're doing might compromise Jewish sup-
port for Israel in this country. And people
wonder: Is this a bunch of PLO fellow
travelers? Is this another Jewish leftie'
organization? It really isn't; we have peo-
ple who have very strong feelings about
Greater Israel, things like that. We have a
broad spectrum."
48
FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1987
This broadness, he says, is one of the
group's strengths. "We don't screen par-
ticipants," he says. "You don't have to
believe in Israel's basic right to exist to get
into a workshop, or believe that the PLO
is the sole legitimate representative of the
Palestinian people, or believe in self-
determination for Palestinians. My goal is
to give people more of an understanding of
who the other side really is. We're not
negotiating a peace settlement. That's not
my job."
Lame, an intense, articulate man in his
late thirties who seems to be fighting an
eternal battle to keep from getting carried
away by his subject, goes to tremendous
lengths to demonstrate his own nonpar-
tisan position. He rarely says anything
critical about Israel without throwing in an
equally negative comment about an Arab
country. He does the same with praise. A
lawyer by trade, he has more than the usual
lawyer's ability to keep clear of verbal
entrapment.
He mentions several times his recent
marriage to an Egyptian Jewish woman,
a fact which he says gives him an added
insight into the disparate cultures.
He is careful to point out the conse-
quences of his own background. "I don't
claim to have transcended the conflict," he
says. "I am a Jew. I am constantly learn-
ing to come to terms with my own biases.
But the truth is, I don't have a peace plan.
I don't know what the ideal solution for the
Middle East would be."
In fact, when he describes his own posi-
tion, Lame seems to be setting out his vi-
sion of the perfect workshop participant:
not bound by any political ideology, will-
ing to confront his own prejudices, and
receptive to the feelings of those on the
other side of the fence. In this sense, he
may be describing a very limited subset of
the population he seeks to convert; pas-
sions in the Middle East seem to run
deeper with each new generation.
Lame appears both constrained and
liberated by his background in the world
of popular self-help regimens. He accepts
the kinds of limited political goals that
make him at least somewhat palatable to
mainline Jewish and Arab organizations,
and yet he seems to believe with
unrestrained fervor in the idea that the
small number of people going through the
Foundation's workshops can be the begin-
ning of a series of major political transfor-
mations in the Middle East.
The argument about communications, of
course, is as old as the one about which
came first, the chicken or the egg. Poor
communications, with the resulting prob-
lems of intolerance and an inability to corn-
promise, are both a cause and a symptom
of international conflict. When that con-
flict has strong religious overtones, the
complex web of variables becomes even
more difficult to sort out.
On the other hand, it is difficult to ob-
ject to a group that seeks to enhance com-
munication in the middle of a bitter, dead-
ly conflict. "I don't think I'm naive in
thinking that if we just sit down and talk,
all the problems will resolve themselves,"
Lame says. "It's a beginning." ❑
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CHIROPRACTIC HEALTH HINTS
Health News ..
Habitual Pain Calls
for Prompt Action
BY DR. STANLEY B. LEVINE
Doctor of Chiropractic
We hear a lot about pain control these days, or "learning to live
with pain," but why do people fail to think in terms of eliminating
the pain?
For an answer to that question, we asked Dr. Levine D.C. of
Levine Chiropractic Clinic.
"People are constantly being conditioned to expect quick, 'tem-
porary' relief, explains the good Doctor. "It is not at all unusual
-- for a new Chiropractic patient to say, "I've had
these pains in my arms and shoulders for several
months. Our family physician took X-rays, but
he says there's no arthritis or bursitis. He
thinks it's neuritis. I've had shots and used
every linament I can find. I can't do my work
properly and can only sleep after taking
sedatives.'
Why do so many neuritis victims delay seek-
ing Chiropratic treatment?
"It may be because they can't understand
the relationship between the spinal column
and the pain in their arms and shoulders,"
DR. STANLEY
continues Dr. Levine.
B. LEVINE
"If so, I can restate the fact that nerves
which extend into the shoulders and arms have their origin in the
spinal column. The same anatomical facts apply to other places
where neuritis is prevalent, such as the nerves that extend between
ribs, up over the back of the scalp or even into the legs."
Is this delay in treatment because people do not remember hav-
ing injured the spinal column?
"It cannot be emphasized too much that spinal distortions may
not come from a single injury such as a fall, a lifting strain, or a
collision," warns Dr. Levine. "Often, when a Doctor of Chiroprac-
tic shows a patient an X-ray and points out the spinal deviations
revealed, the patient will wonder how it happened."
Many reasons for such spinal strain can be summed up in the
word "HABIT" For the person who does considerable driving each
day it might be the habit of resting the arm on the car door. For
the factory worker it might be the position in which he works at
his machine day after day.
"In short," Dr. Levine concludes, "We may not even relate the
actual cause of the spinal misalignment or nerve interference to
the resulting pain. But we should think of neuritis in terms of possi-
ble damage to the spinal column. And we should think of the pain
in terms of eliminating its cause, not just masking its symptoms
with pain killing drugs and linaments."
LEVINY Eou CHIROPRACTIC
Ckla RnOg e
31390 Northwestern Hwy.
Farmington Hills 48018
Dr. Steven M. Tepper
855-2666 Dr. Robert W. Levine