Update: Odile’s story is picked up on Global Debate Web Site.

Steven Staszewski and Nasser Siadat sit side-by-side in warm comraderie. At first appearance, it would not occur in anyone’s mind that two nights ago they were loudly yelling at each other and breaking BFTF rules. That’s right Mrs. Siadat and Mrs. Staszewski – your sons have been trouble.
12 a.m. means that the Founders have to be in their rooms for bed. However, when the R.A. on duty approached the boys’ wing to check that everyone was in their rooms, the R.A. came across a group of excited Fellows listening and videotaping as Steven and Nasser hotly debated about the 2006 33 Day War between Lebanon and Israel. Did I mention that the debate was not an assignment?

I approached Steven and Nasser today in order to verify that I understood the story correctly. Instead of interviewing two teenagers who understood Middle Eastern politics in a shallow way, both had an impressive understanding of the facts to justify their viewpoints. “It’s Hezbollah’s fault that there were as many civilian casualties… Hezbollah was garrisoning buildings that civilians lived in,” says Steven. Steven is a proud political Zionist who plans on studying in a boarding school in Israel for three years starting this August. The inspiration for his political views has been his upset over Israel bashing from other countries and the media.

Nasser, on the other hand, would not call himself a Zionist. “I am not even sure that Israel originally had a right to exist,” he admits. Nasser is unsure what he would like to do in the future. That fact has not held him back from reading and speaking out about Middle Eastern issues though. In his own words, “Israel should not have aimed and shot at buildings with civilians in them! Israel reacted disproportionately to the threat.”

The sharp divide in opinion between these two remarkable young men has not left them bitter with each other. “Nasser is going to visit me when I am in Israel next year,” Steven excitedly says. “Plus he invited me to go out to Indiana!” The key to their strong friendship despite their different opinions was best articulated by Nasser’s profound statement, “There is so much more we share that is alike than different.”
In the past Fellows have tried to break the curfew in order to visit friends’ rooms or to take a shower past bedtime. Steven and Nasser were the first to successfully persuade a staff member to bend the curfew rules.