Subscribe to Print Edition | Sun., October 26, 2008 Tishrei 27, 5769 | | Israel Time: 14:32 (EST+7)
Haaretz israel news English
web haaretz.com
  Back to Homepage
Haaretz Toolbar
Diplomacy
Defense Jewish World Opinion National
Print Edition
Car Rental
Books Haaretz Magazine Business Real Estate Peres Center Travel Week's End Anglo File
President Shimon Peres. (GPO)
Last update - 21:47 25/11/2007
Thousands of Israelis, Palestinians to make peace - virtually
By The Associated Press
Tags: Palestinians 

While their leaders meet in the United States to negotiate, thousands of Palestinians and Israelis will be given the chance to determine the fate of the Mideast - virtually.

The Peres Center for Peace on Sunday said it is distributing 100,000 copies of a computer game called PeaceMaker to Israelis and Palestinians.

The game disk will be handed out on Tuesday, the same day that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas are scheduled to meet in Annapolis, Maryland.
Advertisement
The summit, hosted by U.S. President George W. Bush and attended by Arab countries and dozens of other nations, is meant to restart peace negotiations, which broke down in violence seven years ago.

PeaceMaker players must choose whether to be a Palestinian or Israeli leader. They must cope with Palestinian suicide bombers, Israeli attacks in the West Bank and Gaza, hawkish Israeli groups, Palestinian militants and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Palestinian refugee camps.

As Israeli leader, it is possible to bomb Palestinian targets every time a suicide bombing occurs, and the Palestinian leader can ignore Israeli pressure to arrest militants before they attack Jewish towns. But those kinds of leaders don't last - at least in the game.

"The way is pragmatism, entering the role of the other. You must take into account the other side," said Ron Pundak, director of the Peres Center for Peace, which is distributing the game in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The center was founded in 1996 by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres, now Israel's president. It sponsors projects aimed at promoting peace in the Middle East.

A copy of the peace game will be sent to Olmert and Abbas once they return from Annapolis, Pundak said. He hoped Palestinians and Israelis, including their leaders, would try switching roles, at least for the game.

"It will help [each side] understand limitations of each one's president and leader, and as well the limitation of the other side," he said.

The games will be distributed with leading Arabic and Hebrew newspapers, although in the first round of distribution, more Israelis than Palestinians will receive the game.

The game was designed by ImpactGames, a Pittsburgh company jointly founded by two Carnegie Mellon University graduates: Asi Burak, a former Israeli army intelligence official, and Eric Brown, an American software developer.

Related articles:
The computer game that will bring us peace
War games
Am I pro-Palestine or pro-Israel?
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
Ugly becomes uglier
Report: Pennsylvania Republicans email likens voting for Obama to rise of Hitler.
Mr. Wobbly Man
Dennis Ross explains why he's working for Obama and how he'd talk to Iran.
  1.   Peacemaker? 21:33  |  Dovy 25/11/07
  2.   Pundak family getting a windfall again 21:36  |  Absolute Sweden 25/11/07
  3.   Food not computer games 21:55  |  Wonder 25/11/07
  4.   Useless games designed to fool more Jews 22:03  |  Genuine Tosefta 25/11/07
  5.   virtual peace 22:04  |  ari 25/11/07
  6.   Easy to criticize, better to enable empathy, like PeaceMaker. 23:11  |  Fortuna Benmayor 25/11/07
  7.   Game 23:52  |  Gary 25/11/07
  8.   Virtual Reality of Fantasyland 01:04  |  Brod 26/11/07
  9.   Very Clever Game 02:40  |  NG 26/11/07
  10.   Not like chess 03:04  |  Asi 26/11/07
  11.   The game is rigged, makes biased assumptions 04:12  |  McQueen 26/11/07
  12.   # 5, Ari in NJ 05:13  |  Daoud 26/11/07
  13.   Asi # 10 05:20  |  Ibrahim 26/11/07
  14.   McQween in NYC 05:22  |  David 26/11/07
  15.   # 8, Brod 05:27  |  Walter 26/11/07
  16.   sounds like... 06:19  |  democrat 26/11/07
  17.   Can we build settlements and bomb refugee camps? 07:12  |  keith 26/11/07
  18.   How to Win the Game (Not a Spoiler!) 11:12  |  Tzfonit 26/11/07
  19.   Keith, # 17 11:22  |  Harold 26/11/07
  20.   Harold, I think you are mistaken 13:31  |  Tzfonit 26/11/07
  21.   Walter #15 14:03  |  Brod 26/11/07
  22.   # 20, Tzfonit 22:04  |  An Arab American 26/11/07
  23.   #21, BROD 22:08  |  Walter 26/11/07
  24.   Brod # 21 22:09  |  Nancy 26/11/07
  25.   To Tzfonit 22:52  |  Propeace 26/11/07
  26.   gamers want shoot em ups not peace em ups 01:20  |  zionist forever 27/11/07
  27.   where is the game 04:49  |  paulo2005 27/11/07
  28.   Walter #21, Nancy #24 06:44  |  Brod 27/11/07
  29.   game location 19:07  |  Lisa 27/11/07
  30.   Thousands of "Palestinians" cause terror .. for real 20:41  |  smarter then Peres 09/01/08
  31.   #17 No buy you can start 5 wars and make suicide bombers 20:45  |  smarter then kieth 09/01/08
  32.   Mention God? 14:25  |  John Isenhower 26/10/08
 Read & React
Livni tells Haaretz: I will go to general elections
Responses: 65
Settlers vandalize Muslim graves after IDF razes outpost
Responses: 91
Hisham Nafa': Israel has turned its Jewish victims against its Arabs
Responses: 21
Pennsylvania GOP disavows email likening Obama vote to rise of Hitler
Responses: 74
Gideon Levy: Settlers have earned many Israelis' hatred of them
Responses: 41


More Headlines
14:11 Revealed: IDF foiled kidnap bid, arrested infiltrator from Gaza
14:28 Livni delays meet with Peres over decision to hold elections
13:20 MI Chief: Syria has become Hezbollah's de facto arsenal
13:39 Settlers vandalize Muslim graves after IDF razes outpost
13:43 Report: Ex-U.S. general in Mideast says Israel can't hit Iran nukes
09:26 ANALYSIS / Does failure to form a gov't make Tzipi Livni a loser?
11:51 Pennsylvania GOP disavows email likening Obama vote to rise of Hitler
12:31 Park inspector foils stabbing attack in Jerusalem's Old City
13:18 Aide says Iran's Ahmadinejad falls ill under strain of post
03:32 Party split foils German gov't condemnation of anti-Semitism
09:41 NY Times: U.S. providing light arms to Lebanese military
03:55 Rightist MK's new slogan: No national service, no national insurance
02:44 ANALYSIS / When are elections and what can be expected in the Knesset until then?
04:00 Cat Stevens cancelation: Clashing dates or security row?
Previous Editions
Special Offers
Advertisement
Fattal Hotel Chain
Perfectly located hotels on best resorts of Israel.
Living in Israel Studying in English
Click & Meet our students from all around the world
Dial 013 for your long-distance calls
and get all your money back
US CITIZENS
Vote for real change. Request your ballot today!
Eldan Rent a Car
Israel's leading car rental company offers you a 20% discount on all online reservations
Jewish Singles Personal Ads
Find the love of your life on JDate.com
Israel's Premier Real Estate Website
www. israel-property.com
Hebrew Summer courses
From $39.95
Junkyard
Junk a car - get free towing nationwide and a tax-deductible receipt
Home | TV | Print Edition | Diplomacy | Opinion | Arts & Leisure | Sports | Jewish World | Underground | Site rules |
Real Estate in Israel | Travel to Israel with Haaretz | Hotels Israel | Restaurants Israel | Tourist attractions Israel | Shops Israel
birthright Israel | Search engine marketing
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, offers real-time breaking news, opinions and analysis from Israel and the Middle East. Haaretz.com provides extensive and in-depth coverage of Israel, the Jewish World and the Middle East, including defense, diplomacy, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the peace process, Israeli politics, Jerusalem affairs, international relations, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli business world and Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora.
© Copyright  Haaretz. All rights reserved