PORTLAND, MAINE | A former State Department official who spent most of his career pursuing peace between Arabs and Israelis is working toward that same goal in his new job as president of Seeds of Peace.
Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert who served most recently as a senior adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell, is visiting Maine this week to spread the word about the mission of the peace camp in Otisfield.
Miller, 53, was approached last summer to oversee the program after the death of John Wallach, a journalist and author who developed the summer camp that brings together teenagers from warring lands in hopes that they can develop friendships and overcome long-standing hatreds.
Miller planned to meet with Gov. John Baldacci on Thursday and address the Portland Rotary Club on Friday. He will also meet with business leaders to give presentations on the program.
“I think my main goal is to keep the regional programming viable and resilient in what is going to prove and already has proven to be a difficult year,” he said.
Miller said the current conflict between Palestinians and Israelis made him worry that future generations would be lost to hopelessness and despair.
The decision to leave the State Department was difficult, he said.
“I reluctantly concluded that the timeline to peace has been extended long into the future,” he said. “And because of that, I grew more and more concerned that we had lost future generations of Palestinians and Israelis to the kind of hopelessness and despair” that the conflict has brought.
Working with the youth of war-torn regions is its own kind of diplomacy, Miller said, and Seeds of Peace is an organization he has greatly admired since its inception.
“There’s great purpose and dignity in this work,” he said.
As president, Miller said, his biggest challenge will be to continue to provide access to Seed’s programs, which includes securing visas for its participants.
“It’s harder and harder in terms of access and creating a foundation of respect between these young people … and with the pending possibility of an American-Iraqi conflict, there’s a lot of uncertainty,” he said.
While the prospect of war with Iraq seems likely, Miller said that he is “reasonably confident” that the war’s impact on the program will be manageable by the time the first camp session starts in late June.