As the nations of the world turn more of their attention to the crisis of the earth’s environment, it becomes clear that no nation can address the needs of its environment unilaterally. The Middle East is no exception. With that understanding, in 1996, the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies was founded. Located on Kibbutz Ketura on the Israeli-Jordanian border, the institute teaches and prepares future Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian and Egyptian leaders to cooperatively solve the region’s environmental challenges. Missing from that equation are Syria and Lebanon. If the region’s shared environment is to be fully addressed, both of these countries must be part of the equation; that equation cannot be completed until Israel is able to sign a peace treaty with both of them. In the dance of peace with Israel’s northern neighbors, Syria must be the first partner.
In early April 1971, the US table tennis team was in Japan attending the 31st World Table Tennis Championship. Unexpectedly, they received an invitation to visit China, and a week later they found themselves in the People’s Republic. Through the excitement and dynamic of putting a human face on the enemy, ping pong diplomacy paved the way two months later for Henry Kissinger’s famous secret visit to China, which lead directly to Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China eight months afterwards.
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