This Week

DIANA LIEBERMAN

Staff Writer

eymour Brode has done more
than his share of fund-raising
for tennis centers throughout
Israel, centers that provide
healthy outlets for children from some
of the country's poorest communities.
Now he is offering his expertise to
promote a similar center for the people
of Gaia. So far, the effort has garnered
about $1 million in commitments from
international organizations.
"Built properly, run properly and
maintained properly through the years,
this center will have the potential of
bringing together the next generation of
children, both Arab and Jewish, in a
positive way," Brode said.
As past international chairman of
Israel Tennis Centers (ITC), Brode, a
Bloomfield Hills resident, has been
involved with construction of 13 tennis
complexes boasting 150 courts.
Some of these facilities were placed
in poor neighborhoods, such as a run-
down section of Jaffa, with high crime
rates and truancy.
"People said, 'You're crazy; they'll tear
it down in a minute,"' Brode recalled.
But the very opposite happened.
"We became a catalyst for the
improvement of that neighborhood, the
tearing down of the slums," he said.
"Now there are flowers all over, and, if
somebody drops a piece of paper, the
next thing you know, there's a kid pick-
ing it up."
On Dec. 8, Brode introduced Aiman
Arafat, president of the Gaya Tennis
Association, to some of Detroit's most

S

In The Game

Detroit's Arab and Jewish communities
are spearheading the effort to build a tennis
center for the children of Gaza.

influential
Jewish and Arab
American lead-
ers. Arafat, a
business owner
in Ga7n, was in
town to pitch
the idea of a ten-
nis center that
will get kids off
the streets and
Aiman Arafat
integrated into
society.
Eventually, he hopes to organize tourna-
ments between young Arab and Israeli
tennis players.
Last year, Arafat (who is not related
to Palestine Authority leader Yasser
Arafat), approached the ITC at its
board of directors meeting in Jerusalem.
The results of their meeting proved
fruitful for all involved.
"We have the land — it was donated
by the Palestinian Authority," Arafat
said. "Israel Tennis Centers did all the
plans, and they are working with us so
we know how to do it in the most eco-
),
nomical ways.
Those attending the Dec. 8 break-
fast form the core of a new organiza-
tion, Children's Sports for Peace,
which seeks to fight hatred and

A Hand On Two Pulses

The rigors and pleasures
of reporting from
the front lines of
Israeli-Arab peace.

SAM ENGLAND

Staff Writer

see myself as a mirror. Only.
I'm not giving advice to any-
one," Israeli journalist
Smadar Peri says. "But I'm
giving pieces of my opinions, from
what I see, from what I hear, from
what I observe."
Much of what Peri observes, as
Middle East editor of Yediot Ahronot,

4,4
12/17
1999

20

Israel's largest daily newspaper, is the
peace process. Since first accompany-
ing the Israeli delegation in 1977, she
has witnessed and chronicled several
eras of Israeli relations with its Arab
neighbors.
By her own description, Peri is the
only woman from Israel covering the
peace talks. Further, she has earned a
status few Israeli reporters have
attained: personal rapport and candid
interviews with nearly all the region's
major negotiators, Israeli and Arab.
It was for these reasons that the
Anti-Defamation invited her on a
speaking tour before American audi-
ences. Peri's visit, part of the ADL's
Eugene Warner Middle East Lecture
Series, brought her to the Detroit last
week. During her short stay, she met

stereotypes
through friend-
ly competition.
1,- Among the
members are
Arnold
Michlin of
Farmington
Hills and Tarik
Daoud, of
American Arab
Seymour Brode
and Jewish
Friends; Tim
Attalla, a Dearborn lawyer; Michael
Berke of Farmington Hills, financial
and planning adviser for non-profit
organizations; and Rick Brode of
Franklin, president of Franklin Fitness
and Racquet Club in Southfield.
Berke, for many years vice president
for resource development of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit,
said the project gives Michigan residents
a chance to work for world peace while
making a positive statement about our
own diverse community.
"There are visions down the road
for this tennis center to play the ten-
nis centers in Israel. That would be a
minor miracle," Berke said. "But the
chemistry that's evolving
between the Jewish and Arab

ti

with local journalists and members of
the Jewish community, at a number of
appearances.
Sitting with a Hebrew novel, cof-
fee and cigarettes at a Southfield
hotel, Peri took brief respite
between engagements, looking
through the building's broad win-
dows at outside traffic.
She spent little time before
addressing the substantial issues o f
her professional life. "What we
should speak about," she says
simply, "is about the normal rela-
tions between Israel and the neigh-
boring countries."
Israel's position is not as good as
spokespeople might have us
believe, Peri says. "We have a
very modest peace relationship

communities is somewhat of a mira-
cle already."
Aside from the donation of the
land, no governments have anything
to do with the planned tennis cen-
ter, Arafat said.
Instead, it will be built through
grass-roots efforts.
The center will include six lighted
courts, as well as a library/computer
room, a physical fitness area, basketball
courts, a cafeteria and even a mosque.
Children's Sports for Peace is still
awaiting its designation as a 503-C
organization, which will make it eligible
to accept charitable donations.
Construction is estimated at $1.4 mil-
lion, with annual operating costs of
$250,000. Pledges so far total about $1
million from the European Common
Market and the Kennedy-Lee
Foundation, based in London.
The project has the support of U.S.
Rep. Sander Levin (D-Michigan), who,
like Brode, played tennis at Detroit's
Central High School. "Seymour was
older, but he was a better tennis player,"
Rep. Levin recalled.
Through Project Children, the con-
gressman has helped arrange visits to
the United States by mixed groups of
young people from Northern Ireland's
Protestant and Catholic communities.
He sees the tennis project .as having a
similar purpose.
"While tough negotiations are under
way between government officials, it is
useful to build avenues between indi-
viduals," Rep. Levin said.
"Sports is one of those avenues." ❑