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My heritage has been my grounding, and it has brought me peace.

We had representatives of most every ethnic group in the public school, and I always felt that this gave me a sense of balance about those ethnic problems that was useful to me in later life, and particularly in political life.

I lived through many battles - the 1973, I was young; in 1982 with the Israeli invasions, and 2006 between Hezbollah and Israel. Before I emigrated to the States in '83, I had my own very black and white views of the Israelis and the Jews in general. But you start to understand that no matter what you think, there are two perspectives.

I have been a foreigner all my life, first as a daughter of diplomats, then as a political refugee and now as an immigrant in the U.S. I have had to leave everything behind and start anew several times, and I have lost most of my extended family.

I was born in 1962, and it seems that throughout my entire life the world has demanded peace but maintained conflict.

Most of my life I was occupied with American television and American food. My ethnicity was my choice. It still is.

All my life, I have maintained that the people of the world can learn to live together in peace if they are not brought up in prejudice.

I am the face of a refugee. I was once a refugee. I was with my family in exile.

I had my life threatened by Bosnian Serbs on numerous occasions.

All of my life I have stayed away from violence and the instruments of violence, and have seen a legal, democratic struggle as the only means to achieve change.