MORE ON THE SAMARITANS from the Dallas Baptist Standard. Excerpt:

In early November, Samaritan Benyamim Tsedaka, chancellor to the Samaritans' high priest Shalom Ben Amran, made his annual diplomatic visit to the United States, meeting with government officials, lobbyists and charitable organizations and sharing updates about the Samaritans.

His goal was to garner support for a Samaritan-run international peace center he would like to build on the sacred Mount Gerizim, near Nablus, where many of the remaining 672 Samaritans live.

The Samaritans, who live mainly in Israel and Palestine, have special, close relationships with their neighboring communities. Tsedaka said these friendships are unique in the fiercely divided Middle East.

The Samaritans' friendly relationships with two of the warring nations in the world and their modern-day policy of non-violence after millennia of conflict make them ideal candidates to build a peace center in the Middle East, he said.