Even standing on tiptoe, Yasser Arafat couldn't measure up to a lanky 6-foot-4-inch West Valley teenager.
A picture of Rory Sorensen standing "head and shoulders" over the notorious Palestine Liberation Organization leader is one of the prized souvenirs the Hunter High School senior brought back from a summer stay in Tunisia.Sorensen went to Tunisia on a Malcolm H. Kerr Scholarship as one of two Utah high school juniors selected for the 1994 program. The scholarship is spon-sored by the Scholars Program in Arab and Islamic Studies, which promotes a better understanding of conditions in the Middle East.
Sorensen didn't expect to spend time in the company of one of the world's most high-profile leaders - one who has been heaped with both praise and calumny, depending on the viewpoint of the person making the assessment.
"Our agenda didn't indicate it, but it was a possibility. We just had to stand by."
At 6:30 one evening, the scholars were notified they would be taken by bus to Arafat's headquarters.
When they piled onto the bus, the driver took off, but it was soon apparent he didn't know where he was supposed to go, Sorensen said. "Most of the people in Tunisia speak French and Arabic, but the driver didn't understand French and none of us spoke Arabic."
As the situation became more confused, the driver turned around and returned to the hotel, "and we figured we had missed our chance," he said.
But Arafat wanted them to come, late or not.
"He was in an ordinary house behind a wall - like most of their houses are," said Sorensen. But armed guards and armored vehicles in the area were indications that this was no ordinary citizen.
"We had to wait for him to get off the phone," said the youth. "Then we went into a big room with a long table." For the next two hours, the nine Kerr scholars and a Tunisian escort discussed the troubled history of the Arab people and the current peace process, which is again making headlines this week.
"He talked about the (Gaza) Strip and about working with (Israeli leader Yitzak) Rabin. He said the peace talks were hard for both sides, but that it had to be done," Sorensen said.
When Israelis decamped from the West Bank in keeping with agreements, they stripped buildings of windows and doors, electrical fittings and other items of even marginal value, Arafat told the Americans, adding, "We have no money to rebuild."
He told the Yankee contingent that he has repeatedly asked President Clinton for monetary help and has been turned down in most instances. Only $7 million has been provided the PLO from U.S. tax dollars. "We have to find some assistance. The United States helps Israel and if that continues, the peace effort will collapse," Sorensen quoted the PLO leader as saying. Even so, Arafat exuded "lots of confidence," he said.
During the interview, Arafat took two telephone calls in two different languages, the Utah student said. "He speaks good English. I could understand him better than I could the interpreter."
In his conversation with the teenagers, Arafat was humorous and friendly. He joked about having to stand on tiptoe to come somewhere near matching his height to Sorensen's. "I thought he was nice. I felt he talked openly with us," said the Utah scholar.
Arafat, whose belligerent actions during the signing this week of an accord between Israel and Jordan has added a sour note, told the youths he does not particularly condone terrorism, but that he did not have control over fanatics who act on their own. His own background as a terrorist he apparently discounts in the name of pressing what he sees as a valid Arab viewpoint.
Sorensen said he believes Arafat is entitled to a Nobel Peace Prize, as the prestigious award is being presented to his Israeli counterpart. One member of the prize selection committee quit to protest the award to Arafat.
While the visit with the Arab leader was clearly a high point in his monthlong stay in Tunisia, there was much else for the memory books, Sorensen said, including visits to the site of ancient Carthage, where Roman influence lasted from a hundred years before Christ to 400 years after.
At other sites were the remains of underground dwellings - smart architecture for this desert climate - including pools and aqueducts to channel priceless water. One ancient coliseum is still in use.
Sorensen said he found a lot to admire in the Islamic culture. During a stay with 17-year-old Mahmoud, he found the family to be very hospitable. "The mother wanted to fix me five or six meals a day because she felt I was too skinny." Respect for children and for the elderly is central to the culture, "and they leave food on their windowsills for the poor."
Arab women are becoming more emancipated and many wear a veil in public only by choice, he said. "In general, older women do and younger women don't."
Since returning this summer, Sorensen has been carrying out his responsibility as thanks for the expense-paid trip to the Middle East, sharing his perceptions of the Arab world with fellow students and the community at large.