Two profs, two views of conflict in Mideast

John C. Ensslin and Nancy Mitchell, News Staff Writers

Published April 2, 2002 at midnight

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Shaul Gabbay, a professor at the University of Denver, returned to classes Monday, fresh from a trip to Israel for the Passover holiday.

He, his wife, and 1-year-old daughter met relatives, but it was a glum period for everyone, as each day brought news of yet another suicide bombing.

"This is the worst ever," said Gabbay, an Israeli who lived through war in his native country.

"The wars were always on the frontiers. This was the first time there was war with the participation of civilians."

Tel Aviv, he noted, has sometimes been described as the "Paris of the Middle East," a city where life goes on day and night.

"It's definitely stopping now," he said. "It's very, very gloomy."

Gabbay, director of the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East, had hoped to meet with several Palestinian scholars.

However, one by one they had to cancel appointments because they couldn't reach the border.

Gabbay said the only solution is that "Israelis and Palestinians will have to live together on this very small piece of land."

Meanwhile, a political science professor at the University of Colorado at Denver expressed hope that the Arab peace initiative might lead to a solution.

"I tell my students that we have to live with hope at the end of the tunnel," said Amin Kazak, a Palestinian-born U.S. citizen, who teaches a course on the Arab / Israeli peace process.

"I am very cautiously optimistic," Kazak added. "But I am not by nature pessimistic."

He was heartened by the Arab League proposal last week, which for the first time said its member nations would accept and live in peace with Israel.

However, the conditions for that acceptance included an Israeli withdrawal from all land captured in the 1967 Mideast War and recognition of a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem.

"It is a very promising historical initiative." Kazak said. "But it needs some kind of third party, and definitely I believe that the United States has to have a role in this, a positive role."

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