Imagine Israelis – Jew and Arab alike – sharing water management solutions in a cordial setting alongside Algerians, Egyptians, and Palestinians, some in t-shirts, others in headscarves.
Picture Saudis and Syrians socializing with Israelis after a day of collaborating on ways to support people with disabilities, sharing meals and even singing karaoke.
This isn’t an imagined future but real connections already created thanks to ROPES, the Regional Organization for Peace, Economics, and Security.
Ben Birnbaum founded ROPES in 2017 to foster Israeli-Palestinian-Arab partnerships across the Middle East and North Africa. Setting it apart in a crowded field of aspirational peace builders, ROPES is driven by three premises.
“First, peace can’t just be between governments; it has to be between people,” Birnbaum said. “Second, the younger generations are going to shape the future, and we have to focus on them. They’re inheriting this situation that is not of their creation.”
By the end of 2025, ROPES’s alumni network will surpass 200 emerging leaders in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. They’re movers and shakers – current and former members of parliament, academics, scientists, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, diplomats, journalists, and movie directors.
It’s the third proposition that sets ROPES apart: its innovative regional approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The vast majority of people-to-people organizations work exclusively with Israelis and Palestinians, whereas ROPES alumni come from 15 other countries across the Middle East and North Africa (10 of which do not yet have diplomatic relations with Israel).
“There’s no other way,” said Birnbaum. “It’s clear that any progress on the Israeli-Palestinian front is going to involve Arab countries. The bilateral approach has been tried for 30 years and it didn’t work.”
Notably, President Trump’s recent Gaza plan relies heavily on the involvement of regional Arab and Muslim states, from peacekeeping forces to financial contributions for reconstruction.
A Deeper Side to ‘Minnesota Nice’
In order to launch ROPES, Birnbaum’s first diplomatic feat was building support on both sides…of the Mississippi River.
Now based in Tel Aviv, Birnbaum grew up in Massachusetts and earned degrees from Cornell and Princeton. But when he needed help turning his aspirations into reality, he turned to the Twin Cities community in which his mother grew up.
By 2017, some unofficial cooperation between the governments of Israel and various Arab countries was shifting into the open. Birnbaum believed the time was right to lay some post-conflict groundwork.
“Ben has always been full of energy and ideas and a unique way of seeing the world,” said Dr. Robert Karasov, a local pediatrician, mohel, lay cantor, and member of Darchei Noam Congregation. Karasov, who has served on ROPES’ Board of Directors from the beginning, has known Birnbaum “since he was born” and was good friends with Birnbaum’s late mother. “I was very impressed with his journalistic career, his vision for a regional approach to peace (years before the Abraham Accords), and his drive.”
Karasov helped organize a 2019 salon at the Minnetonka home of Birnbaum’s aunt and uncle, Bonnie and Steve Lazar, so Birnbaum could share his vision, one that resonated with Karasov.
“The old approaches to peace did not work,” he said. “A regional approach makes so much sense since the Arab countries have so much to gain by a good relationship with Israel. Ben’s incredible relationships with Arab leaders, cultivated over many years, gave him a unique opportunity to do something special.”
Others in the Twin Cities agreed, leading to the critical support Birnbaum needed for a pilot program.
“Still today, I believe we have more individual donors from Minnesota than any other place in the world,” said Birnbaum. “Minnesotans are just very nice people and really do gravitate toward peace building. So something like ROPES and other peace organizations really speaks to something in the Minnesotan soul.”
Souls need hope, and Rabbi Adam Spilker of Mount Zion Temple believes that’s exactly what ROPES provides.
“ROPES is the definition of hope,” Spilker said. “They are undeterred by the awful challenges of the day. They speak to the hearts of talented young adults from Arab countries, Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank and invite their innovation and connection to each other. They are creating the infrastructure of peace.”
Birnbaum is skilled in welcoming people with distinct perspectives to the table productively – to further his mission in the Middle East and to attract the necessary supporters.
Looking at the Jewish community, “The support we have crosses denominations and shows real political diversity, and that sets ROPES apart,” Birnbaum said. “We don’t want to be pigeon-holed and it’s very important for the cause of peace to appeal to a wide audience.”
Birnbaum returns to the Twin Cities for events, and Minnesotans are well represented on ROPES webinars, which draw participants worldwide. Birnbaum welcomes more involvement and for those interested to sign up for their newsletter on the website and follow them on social media.
It’s All About Who You Know
Rabbi Spilker describes Birnbaum as “indefatigable and relationship-driven. He brings together the right people who can inspire others to act.”
The ROPES Advisory Board includes notable figures such as author Yossi Klein Halevi, former Israeli military-intelligence chief Amos Yadlin, veteran U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross, former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, the current UAE ambassador to the United States, the former Bahraini ambassadors to the U.S. and U.K., and the senior adviser to the King of Morocco.
Ropescast, the ROPES podcast, features a variety of guest perspectives – a Palestinian peace activist who takes Palestinians to Auschwitz and Jewish students to Palestinian refugee camps; an Israeli who served as CEO of the Israeli-Palestinian Chamber of Commerce; former Ambassadors from Egypt and Israel.
Involving Palestinian participants in ROPES programming, including from Gaza, has ensured legitimacy and facilitated participation by other Arabs. Weary and skeptical Israelis are encouraged by participation from moderate Arab states, and so goes the important feedback loop.
Openly associating with people from “the other side” takes bravery and trust in ROPES, particularly by those joining from countries where Israel is not formally recognized and misinformation and hostility are rife.
In addition to leadership summits bringing Israelis and Arabs together in person, ROPES offers dual-narrative delegations to Israel and the West Bank; a journalism program for female media professionals; and immersive education seminars in which students from across the region access a rare opportunity to study side by side and engage with each other’s narratives.
At ROPES’ pilot program in 2019, it was the first time some Arab participants had ever met – let alone got to know – an Israeli.
The event preceded the Abraham Accords – the US-brokered agreements in which Bahrain, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates formally recognized Israel, normalized diplomatic relations, and formalized economic and security cooperation.
During the 2024 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan (held during wartime and written up in the Times of Israel), Palestinian participants expressed that there was much to learn from Israelis.
“The hope is that these relations formed by the programs are not a one-off,” said Birnbaum. “That they become lifelong friendships and have a cascading effect.”
Even when peace feels out of reach to some, Birnbaum persists.
“Whenever I go to one of our programs, it restores my hope,” he said. “I’m a big believer that history doesn’t go in a straight line. Any successful struggle has many twists and turns. I believe that this conflict between Israel and Palestinians must be resolved – and it will be, probably before people expect it to. We don’t have to be victims of history. We have the power to help shape it.”
