Dear Friends,

It’s been too long since I’ve sent out an e-newsletter for the Association for Peace and Understanding in the Middle East. There’s so much news to catch up on! First some Success Stories by Middle Eastern readers of The Way to Happiness^® booklet--- but don’t miss the final article about Israeli and Palestinian support for a “virtual” peace agreement. --- Alexandra Hopkins, Vice President, Association for Peace and Understanding in the Middle East

“You are paving the Way to Peace and The Way to Happiness to all the people of this region and making the 4 sacred words (justice, peace, freedom and happiness) within our touch. I hope we will enjoy them soon, very soon.” --- Zeinab Habash, General Secretary, Palestinian Ministry of Education

“I think that if we will all live and agree with each other’s religion, we could live in harmony and we won’t have any dispute --- we will be one people and more united than ever. And that is how one should live, isn’t it?” --- Chen S., Holon (Israeli 6^th grader)

Both our Los Angeles office and our Israeli sister organization celebrated Third Anniversaries this October. We were both born in October 2000 in response to renewed violence as peace talks collapsed. This October there were wonderful achievements to celebrate. During October, our Israeli group distributed  over 110,000 booklets ---

¨       12,000 The Way to Happiness^® booklets in Hebrew to Israeli soldiers. Booklets were inserted in the Ma’ariv newspaper, which is delivered to military bases.

¨       40,000 booklets in Arabic to readers of Al Quds, the largest Palestinian newspaper.

¨       66,000 in Russian to readers of Israeli Russian-language newspapers.

As of early December 2003, we have distributed over 1,800,000 booklets to Palestinians and Israelis.

“I read the book The Way to Happiness written by L. Ron Hubbard. I was very much impressed by it….Happiness is being a loving person, helping others and being tolerant….I would like to correspond with one of your members to talk about this important issue.” Amirath E., Jerusalem (Palestinian)

“I think that the violence everywhere in our country and in the world can vanish because reading the booklet enables people to be more tolerant, learn to accept the other --- the different; and from there to understand that we are all as human beings.” Alexandra A., Holon (Israeli)

Towards the end of the summer, our Israeli sister organization began running low on copies of The Way to Happiness booklets in Hebrew. Volunteers who were giving lectures on The Way to Happiness booklet in Israeli schools had to limit the number of copies that they gave the kids. The funds that our donors had generously given in the past year, and particularly at our large March events, were put to work for printing 240,000 more copies in Hebrew! Now each week, when volunteers are invited by Israeli schools to give lectures, they distribute hundreds of booklets to teachers and students.

After over two years of talks, on December 1^st, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators signed a “virtual” peace plan called the Geneva Accord. This plan is a model agreement which for the first time ever specifies all the details that a real agreement must address. On the Israeli side, the negotiators were former peace negotiators who represent, not the current government, but a large segment of the Israeli people. On the Palestinian side, four current government Ministers were included among the negotiators. The purpose of  developing a model plan is to form a template for an actual peace agreement and to simply show that a fully-spelled out agreement, something never attempted before, is possible.  

Four U.S. Senators, including Senator Feinstein of California, introduced a Senate Resolution supporting the Accord. A similar Resolution will be introduced into the House of Representatives December 8^th. President Bush described the Geneva Accord as a “useful exercise,” and on December 5^th, Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Accord negotiators to exchange ideas. Pollsters for the Baker Institute for Public Policy read a summary of the Accord to a random sample of Palestinians and Israelis, but without details on some sensitive issues. Quoting an accuracy range of plus or minus 4%, the Baker Institute found that 53% of Israelis and 56% of Palestinians support the Accord.

Distribution of The Way to Happiness booklet is building a foundation of tolerance and mutual understanding among the people of the Middle East. And as recent events indicate, the people of the Middle East are doing something about peace!

Visit Our Website www.apume.org and watch our video!

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©2003 Association for Peace & Understanding in the Middle East. All rights reserved. THE WAY TO HAPPINESS is a trademark owned by L. Ron Hubbard Library in the USA and in other countries (trademark registrations issued and other registrations pending) and is used with permission