Can A Video Game Facilitate Peace in the Middle East?
Today, world leaders convene in Annapolis, Maryland to discuss the peacemaking process in the Middle East–namely, the establishment of a Palestinian state and other issues facing the conflicted region. Meanwhile, the Tel Aviv-based Peres Center for Peace is hoping that everyday Israelis and Palestinians can approach the contentious dialogue in a new way–via video game. GamePolitics.com reports that the Peres Center has given away 100,000 free copies of PeaceMaker–an award-winning simulation of the conflict in the Middle East–to people living in Israel and the Palestinian territories, just in time for the Annapolis summit. According to the PeaceMaker site, the game “challenges you to succeed as a leader where others have failed, [and] experience the joy of bringing peace to the Middle East or the agony of plunging the region into disaster.” Players may choose to play as either the Israeli Prime Minister or the Palestinian President, consulting advisors and following real-life events to work towards a two-state resolution. But can even the best simulation do justice to such a harrowing situation? The Peres Center is hoping the game will give Israelis and Palestinians the opportunity to “understand limitations of each one’s president and leader, and as well the limitation of the other side.” Only time will tell if PeaceMaker turns out to be the kind of resolution breakthrough its designers intend it to be .