Danny Hakim, Founder of ALLMEP member organization Budo for Peace writes in Times of Israel Blogs

“The media portrays this part of the world as a place of perpetual conflict. However, for the martial artists in attendance that evening, there was no conflict, simply the first night of another year of empowering physical, mental and spiritual training. I saw the Light shining from the eyes of the American rabbi and from the huge smile of the Jordanian Karate master. I felt it in the heat of the sweaty fists of the Israeli Arab teacher from the Galilee and in the beads of perspiration absorbed by the kippot of the Jewish participants. I saw it in the brilliant smiles of the 30 other karate masters that had gathered in Tel Aviv from all over Israel to witness the first joint training conducted by a black belt Orthodox rabbi and a Muslim Jordanian master.”

Read the full post in Times of Israel