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AUGUST 24 • 2023 | 7

table. I made my pitch, 
inviting them to see the 
institute as an actualization 
of what the negotiators were 
working to achieve. Their 
response? I was told there 
is hard news, always to be 
covered, and soft news, if 
time permits and if it hasn’t 
been touched upon recently. 
My story was neither.
This past spring, I would 
once again be made aware 
of that lesson — I call it 
the “Asymmetry of the 
Sensational.”
In December 2020, 
Congress passed the Nita 
M. Lowey Middle East 
Partnership for Peace 
Act (MEPPA). Created 
through strong bipartisan 
effort, this is one of the most 
significant and innovative 
pieces of congressional 
legislation addressing the 
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. 
MEPPA authorizes up 
to $250 million over five 
years to promote economic 
cooperation and people-to-
people programs; advance 
shared community building; 
and engender dialogue 
and reconciliation between 
Israelis and Palestinians.
Within the legislation, 
Congress appointed a 
Partnership for Peace Fund 
Advisory Board. Sen. Patrick 
Leahy named me to the 
board, based on my decades’ 
involvement with the Arava 
Institute. In February, over 
three days in Jerusalem, Tel 
Aviv and Nablus, the board 
experienced a universe of 
Palestinian-Israeli collabo-
ration, described by a young 
Israeli woman at TechSeeds 
for Peace as “statements of 
defiance, and friendships as 
radical action.”
Another program we 
visited was at the Wolfson 

Medical Center in Holon, 
which runs an Advanced 
Trauma Life Support cur-
riculum for Israeli and 
Palestinian trauma surgeons. 
These activities optimize 
trauma care for local com-
munities, creates shared 
experiences and builds 
deeper respect and lasting 
partnerships. Reflecting on 
such teamwork, Dr. Adam 
Goldstein told an interviewer, 
“In the coming days, years 
and decades, I hope the 
selflessness, the lack of ego, 
the teamwork and diversity 
and mutual respect can be a 
model for our entire region.” 
The goal is to bring these 
societies to a tipping point 
so they can see one another 
in a different light. These 
projects produce effective, 
measurable results that shape 
strong, respectful relation-
ships between Israelis and 
Palestinians. The unending 
violence between Israelis and 
Palestinians signals they are 
stuck — they need an off-
ramp. Greater knowledge of 
these programs is one way to 
that off-ramp.
With such positive results, 
why don’t more Palestinians 
and Israelis know about these 
programs and initiatives? 
Blame the Asymmetry of the 
Sensational.
In his poem “The Diameter 
of the Bomb,” the Israeli poet 
Yehuda Amichai explores 
how an individual act of vio-
lence expands from its “thir-
ty centimeters” to “distant 
shores.” The multiplier effect 
of violence and extremist 
language far outweighs the 
affirmative consequences of 
MEPPA programs, as well 
as the work of more than 
170 Israeli and Palestinian 
institutions in the Alliance 
for Middle East Peace 

(ALLMEP). On our MEPPA 
visit this past spring, it was 
so clear that, with all the pos-
itive results from these pro-
grams, fanatics need to do far 
less to have greater impact.
Why is the Asymmetry of 
the Sensational so effective? 
A part of our brain responds 
to trauma with fear, fight and 
flight responses. Violence 
and extremist voices play into 
and feed off that fear, creat-
ing a deadly spiral. That fear 
is real and leads to negative 
perceptions between people; 
the weekly headlines steer us 
in that direction. It is easy 
to see why there is so much 
distrust between Palestinians 
and Israelis.
The U.S. government over 
the years has invested mil-
lions of dollars, beyond 
MEPPA, in Palestinian-Israeli 
civil society. As large as $250 
million is, it’s not enough. 
The International Fund 
for Ireland spent $40 per 
person in Northern Ireland 
on MEPPA-type projects. 
This relatively large expen-
diture was critical in paving 
the way for the Good Friday 
Agreement, which ended 
three decades of violence 
between Protestants and 
Catholics. At present, only 
$2 per person is spent on 
Palestinian-Israeli enterpris-
es. 
The international commu-
nity needs to come together 
and coordinate vast increas-
es in the support of these 
programs. That investment 
needs to be augmented by 
appointing someone whose 
sole task is to wake up 
every morning and focus 
on advancing peaceful coex-
istence between Israelis and 
Palestinians. Appointing a 
Liaison to Israeli-Palestinian 
Civil Society at the U.S. 

Embassy in Jerusalem would 
signal a greater integration of 
MEPPA, related U.S. funding 
and current policy.
In addition, Israelis and 
Palestinians need to grasp 
that peace is not the final 
destination. It is a means and 
not an end. Peace does not 
erase all disagreements. The 
Good Friday Agreement did 
not end tensions between 
the two communities in 
Northern Ireland, but it did 
take violence, death and 
extremism out of the equa-
tion so that a healthier reality 
could emerge. 
MEPPA and ALLMEP cre-
ate an essential step in that 
direction, with Palestinians 
and Israelis building mutual 
trust through their engage-
ments with one anoth-
er. Tareq Abu Hamed, the 
executive director of the 
Arava Institute, makes that 
point. “Water is not the scarc-
est resource in the Middle 
East; trust is,” he says. “We 
build trust between students 
and between researchers.”
Differences may remain, 
but trust creates the will to 
work together to overcome 
those gaps. Trust is funda-
mental to generating the 
conditions for Israelis and 
Palestinians to have the better 
future they deserve. 
In the Asymmetry of the 
Sensational, one violent act or 
extremist statement quickly 
travels far and wide. We need 
to reverse that asymmetry 
and amplify quieter, trans-
formative, positive actions 
between Palestinians and 
Israelis. 

Michael M. Cohen is the rabbi emeritus 

of the Israel Congregation in Manchester 

Center, Vermont. He teaches at the 

Arava Institute for Environmental Studies 

at Kibbutz Ketura and at Bennington 

College.

