After three weeks of air strikes, tank assaults and death, the cease fire between Israel and Hamas appears to be holding.

It's a relief for everyone in that region, including those studying peace at Notre Dame's Tantur Institute in Jerusalem.

Maureen McFadden recently sat down for a conversation with Father Theodore Hesburgh.

He tells her since the university built Tantur in 1971, nearly 5,000 students from all but one continent have come to study peace in a place where there has been very little.

"It is my dream that if they could walk through those gates and say, I'm going to be a man or woman of peace, I'm going to work for peace whatever the cost," said Father Hesburgh.

The gates Father Theodore Hesburgh is talking about are gates to the Tantur Ecumenical Institute nestled between Bethlehem and Jersulem, gates he himself has walked though a number of times.

Tantur is roughly 45 miles northeast of the fighting in Gaza City.

"The whole place has been a dream since the Pope mentioned it to me," said Father Hesburgh.

A dream of Pope Paul the Sixth, who in the early 1960's asked his friend, then Notre Dame President, Father Theodore Hesburgh, to help open an institute where people from all religions could come together and work for peace in the world.

"And I said, 'well that's a big order, but I'll do what I can.'"

A big order, but one the Pope believed his friend could fulfill.

Because of Hesburgh's passion and commitment to human rights issues, he was appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower as one of the first members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. A picture showing Father Hesburgh with Martin Luther King Junior in Chicago is now on permanent display in the Smithsonian Institution.

Father Ted continued to oversee his flock of students at Notre Dame and took that trip to the Holy Land the Pope Paul had earlier asked him too.

He found the perfect spot ---36 acres set among olive trees and tall pines that had been in the hands of the Knights of Malta since the crusades.

"They'd had it for ten centuries. It was right at the gate of Jerusalem," said Father Ted. "You could see the mountains of Mohab and the roads going down to the Dead Sea, you could see Bethlehem like it's next door."

But the Pope reminded Hesburgh that the Catholic order of Malta had had the land for over a thousand years.

"He said, 'it won't be easy' and I said, 'Holy Father may I remind you that you are the Pope.'"

Hesburgh suggested the Pope to make them an offer they couldn't refuse.

"He said, 'I'll give it a try' and I said, 'don't just give it a try, tell them you want the land.'"

And then he counseled the Pope on bartering for a price.

"As it turned out, they asked him for about $600,000 and he gave them $300,000."

With the land bought, Father Hesburgh lined up Notre Dame's Architecture Department to design the building which still had to be paid for.

"I went to see Mr. O'Shaughnessy, one of our trustees, who'd been very generous to Notre Dame."

Generously donating the liberal arts building on campus.

"He said, 'go ahead and do it. I'll give you the million dollars.'"

But then came the six day war and the Israelis took over the land that had been governed by Palestine.

"I had to go back to Mr. O'Shaughnessy again."

Call it the luck of the Irish or divine intervention --O'Shaughnessy again came through.

"He looked out at the moon and he smiled at me and said, 'heck Ted, it's just money, I'll give you the two million.'"

In 1971 Pope Paul's vision became reality. Tantur, Arabic for 'hilltop,' opened its doors and has since welcomed thousands of scholars of various religious backgrounds.

Father Ted says it is still a place for peace amid terrible carnage. He has offered it to Condoleezza Rice for peace talks and says the same offer will apply to the new administration.

"We have to hope and pray that someone, that men of good will, will bring peace out of this terrible disorder and destruction and loss of life," said Father Ted.

And like the sweeping civil rights changes brought about by a man with a dream, Father Ted dreams that this tiny spot may one day bring the latest peace in the holiest of lands.

There are currently twenty young Israelis and Palestinians at Tantur for a seminar on leadership. Perhaps a hopeful sign in what many see as a hopeless situation.

And Tantur's director is expecting a full house of students this spring.