Kuwaiti Abdelasiz Alareedh has risked problems back home by deciding to study Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University so that he can understand the roots of religious development in the Mideast. And Walid Chamoun, grand-nephew of a famous Lebanese Christian warlord, has been warned not to go home after becoming the first Lebanese citizen to attend the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It has met with Yasir Arafat and Arab diplomats and hopes to set up a pilot summer project in Morocco. The feasibility study would determine whether it made more sense to affiliate with existing campuses in Egypt, Israel and Gaza or try to build new ones. Apart from the politics of getting governmental permissions, linking with local campuses would involve bureaucratic hassles.
Funding is a big challenge, as is the problem of security for Israeli students.
The more hopeless the political situation looks, the more this group insists the university is needed - so that the students who get to know each other may do better at peace 20 years down the road. If they can't bring Arabs and Israelis together to study right away, then Hala Taweel says they may consider crossing the lines via satellite communications at first. But whatever works for now, this group of pragmatists will try it. This project is about shaping the future. Trudy Rubin's column appears on Wednesdays and Fridays.