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Interview Questions for Eliyahu McLean

Please tell me a little about your personal history and how you came to be involved in peace work.

Can you give an example of some of the assumptions you had before hearing the Palestinian narrative?

What does that mean to you--what did you learn from Shlomo Carlebach?

What did you do with Interns for Peace?

Tell me about Interns for Peace--does it still exist?

Why don’t you give me a brief overview of all the projects you’re involved in?

What does the “Pursuer of Peace” distinction mean to you?

For someone who doesn’t know anything at all about this conflict, why do you think what you’re doing is important?

What are the obstacles to, in your words, ”finding a place of meeting” between people?

What makes you feel doubtful?

You just said one of your goals is not to be attached to goals, but have you seen small successes along the way?

Can you talk about these two people a little bit? How you brought them together?

Do you ever get discouraged?

Why was it upsetting to you that Sheikh Yassin was assassinated?

Have you faced criticism about your work?

Have you gotten people from those very extreme sides together?

What are you trying to achieve through your relationships with people who hold extreme ideologies, such as the person who considers Baruch Goldstein a hero?

How far are you willing to push people, in the sense of trying to get them to hear each other’s perspectives?

You talk a lot about bringing people with disparate viewpoints together.

What did you have to do to build trust with your group before the visit with settlers in Gaza?

Do you feel like you were, as you say, “supporting and honoring the settlers of Gush Katif” presence by visiting?

What gave this visit to Gaza integrity?

What came out of the meeting in Gaza?

How far does that go, when you talk about humanizing the other? Is there a limitation on that? Do you feel that you need to see some kind of reciprocal action in exchange?

Does it ever seem like a contradiction to have gained people’s trust and then orchestrate such a contentious meeting?

Are you looking for a change in reality, or in opinion?

You talk about legitimizing people’s perspectives--how can you tell people who have such seemingly irreconcilable views that they are both right?

Could you talk about some of the mistakes you have made… things you would have done differently?

You talk a lot about your own spiritual quest. Is there a difference between your personal path and your peace work?

Please tell me more about the peacemakers program you are setting up.

What can you teach people about this work when so much of it seems to be trial and error?