Today I read a Religion and Peacemaking e-newsletter from the United States Institue of Peace [web page here].
Dr. Doug Johnston talked about his participation in an American Abrahamic delegation's trip to Iran with high level diplomatic visits. As I understand it the delegation was religious in nature and therefore avoided political discussions. Johnston concluded that Iranians are perhaps encouraged to aquire atomic capabilities by being surrounded by American military forces in Iraq and Afganistan while President Bush sticks to the 'regime change' and 'axis of evil' rhetoric, and that the student unrest is somewhat overstated. [I could not find a link to his note, which for brevity I did not include. If you want to read it I could email it to you.]
In the same e-newsletter Yehezkel Landau reccomended the Jerusalem Post article A mutually subversive journey by Yossi Klein Halevi. I can only repeat his recommendation. It is the story of the risks and opportunities of a pilgrimage of Israeli Jews and Arabs to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Finally, it was at the Jerusalem Post that I found new spoken stories at This Normal Life by Brian Blum. Blum is an Israeli immagrant telling stories of life in Israel. I wish there were a hundred story tellers like him on each side of the Jordan just telling stories about their lives and listening.
Peace,
Paul