In Israel and the West Bank earlier this year, I ended up longing for voices of wisdom

and age, lives with a geography of experience that could address but also transcend the

present contested moment.

This week and next, we offer two wise elders who do just that.

We begin with the Palestinian philosopher, Serena Sabah, president of Al-Quds University,

the Arab University of Jerusalem.

He belongs to one of Jerusalem's oldest recorded families, dating as far back as the 7th

century.

And for centuries, his family had been Muslim custodians of the keys to the holiest Christian

side in Jerusalem.

He had an enduring yet ambivalent relationship with Yasser Arafat's PLO, but across the years

he's also maintained deep friendships and sometimes controversial dialogue with influential

Israelis.

To a new moment of Middle Eastern tumult, Serena Sabah brings perspective, a vision of caution

and hope planted in a long view of Arab and Palestinian history, culture and time.

What we're looking at is not a sales agreement.

What we're looking at is something much more fundamental.

We're looking at how human beings evolve and we're not looking at how human beings evolve

only in this part of the world, when everybody, including Americans, are part of this very

slow process of human maturation.

From APM, American Public Media, I'm Christa Tippett, today on being in Israel and the West

Bank, the evolution of change.

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