BY LEE MICHAEL KATZ | OTISFIELD, MAINE Teams of teenagers in blue and green T-shirts have been battling each other for days in everything from basketball to canoeing. Color wars are an American Camp tradition, but you’ll never hear that term used here. At the Seeds of Peace International Camp, the staff makes a point of calling the fierce intercamp battles between teams “color games.” That’s because the kids here are unlike others in the many camps that dot the Maine … FULL STORY

Summer camp in Maine isn’t so unusual. Unless of course the campers are Middle East ‘rivals’—Israelis and Palestinians—and politics is all part of the program. BY ABBY ZIMET | OTISFIELD Flags flutter, multi-hued. Clusters of dark-haired kids stand, heads high, voices rising, each singing their ardent anthem before their flag: Israel’s blue and white, Palestine’s red, black and green. The flag of Israel, notes a grave John Wallach, rests between Jordan and Palestine. “You are neighbors,” he stresses. “Geographically, strategically … FULL STORY

BY CHARLES E. HOWELL | OTISFIELD Governor Angus King faced an audience last Thursday during his visit to the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Otisfield that was powerful and unique in Maine, if not the world. King stepped before the 175 teenage Arabs and Israelis on their fifth day of a three week stay at the camp, during which they will try to find common ground for peace with the hope that they can have influence when they are … FULL STORY

BY JILL DUBE | OTISFIELD Under ordinary circumstances, Edi and Ahmed probably wouldn’t be friends. They probably wouldn’t even know each other. But now, because of Seeds of Peace, they share a camp cabin and talk about what most teenage boys talk about, such as cars and sports and computers and girls. Edi Shbitz is an Israeli. Ahmed Saadeh is a Palestinian. Back home, every day, the boys see conflict between the two nationalities. Here at the Seeds of Peace … FULL STORY

BY NATALIE BRENNER | International friendships are being formed at an Otisfield camp. Seeds of Peace, now in its sixth season, brings teenagers together from several countries of the Middle East. During summer sessions, the campers participate in sports and computer and arts activities. They also attend co-existence workshops led by Americans, Arabs and Israelis. Early this month, the Seeds of peace message was shared with reception guests at Leonard and Merie Nelson’s home in Falmouth Foreside. John Wallach, the … FULL STORY

BY HARRIET B. SCHULTZ | FALMOUTH “I can’t think of anyone who makes us prouder to be Mainers. He’s a man of decency, integrity and patience,” said Merle Nelson last week from the porch of her waterfront Falmouth Foreside home as she introduced former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell to a group of 200 people. They came to hear Mitchell talk about a six-year-old camp in Otisfield that is appropriately called Seeds of Peace. Nelson invited them to her home … FULL STORY

Otisfield again hosts kids from war-torn nations; they’ve come from halfway around the world for a little Maine sunshine—and some peace. BY GAIL ROSSI | OTISFIELD A sea of green T-shirts and hopeful young faces from the war-torn countries of the Middle East have come together again for a sixth season of planting seeds of peace for a new generation. During Thursday’s flag-raising ceremony at the Seeds of Peace International Camp, 110 teenagers from Israel, Palestine, Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt and … FULL STORY

BY LORE JAMUL | Is there anything in this world that the governments of Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Palestinian sector can agree on? Indeed there is. It is the value of an organization of Mideast teenagers named Seeds of Peace, an internationally recognized conflict-resolution program. Yasser Arafat called it “the hope and aim which we are working to realize, namely just peace in the land of peace.” Benjamin Netanyahu said, “I wholeheartedly support your efforts,” and President Clinton agreed by … FULL STORY

Seeds of Peace camp gets ready to spread its message BY GAIL ROSSI | OTISFIELD Seeds of Peace International Camp this summer will play host to an unprecedented gathering of Greek Christian and Turkish Muslim children from the divided island of Cyprus. The Cyprus program will run concurrent with an Arab-Israeli program from June 30 to July 16, said Seeds of Peace founder John Wallach. A second Arab-Israeli program will follow from July 19 to August 12, finishing up the … FULL STORY

The Seeds of Peace Program has brought almost 800 Arab and Israeli teenagers together in the Maine woods over the past five summers to help break the generational cycles of violence and hatred that sustain the conflict in the Middle East. In daily conflict resolution sessions, they learn to disagree yet remain friends. “After a summer of sharing everything from shaving cream and showers to sports and sing-alongs, ‘reentry’ into hostile societies often is as sobering for them as it must … FULL STORY