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Monday, March 8, 2004

An interesting and hopeful project seeks to straddle the border between Israel and Jordan:

Israel21c: Replacing a border with a bridge

An ambitious project in which Israel and Jordan will establish a joint advanced science and technology village on their mutual borders will be launched this week.

On Tuesday, on the border between Jordan and Israel in the Wadi Arava Desert between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, the cornerstone will be laid for the Bridging the Rift Center. A private international foundation, Bridging the Rift, headed by Israeli Matti Kochavi - will develop the center. The project is backed by two major U.S. universities, Cornell and Stanford, as well as Israeli and Jordanian business people and former Israeli military officials.

According to the organizers, the goal is work on joint scientific projects and achieving rapprochement between the peoples. The Foundation's mission is to "build an effective bridge between peoples in conflict areas by demonstrating the benefits of peace in measurable sustainable ways and collaborative programs involving economic development, cutting-edge research and advanced educational opportunities."[...]

Now, call me a cynic, but I'm getting visions of scientists penning their names on their stuff in the common-room refrigerator, then some of the backers visit a few weeks later to find a line of orange duct-tape down the middle of the entire complex and the scientists complaining that "Hey, everything's fine, just so long as they understand that this is our side of the line, and that's theirs!" Hopefully Jordanian scientists will do better in keeping true to the spirit of science than Jordanian athletes did in keeping to the spirit of sport.

2 Comments

Not to be overly optimistic, but it sure doesn't look that way.

Hey, I hope you're right, it sounds great, it really does, but it's early, Lynn, it's early. Just wait, before long it'll be "The Jews keep leaving the cap off the toothpaste," and "Hey, I couldn't pick up the call waiting, I was talking long-distance..." ;)

Your second link doesn't work , btw?

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