DISCUSSION Week Four (world history)

As we come closer to the present, the problems we need to think about become increasingly difficult, none more so than the ongoing Palestinian/Israeli conflict.  It has been ongoing since before I was born, and I was born a long time ago.

The challenge for this discussion is not to pick a winner, nor to decide who is more virtuous than the other.  Rather, I would like to read your thoughts on a way out of the conflict. 

In my humble opinion, peace is never impossible.  Fifty years ago, the People's Republic of Vietnam was the enemy of the United States, and we of them.  A generation later, they were making Air Jordans and welcoming American tourists.    Peace is possible when opponents find a common interest.  Even more remarkably, the government of North Korea has begun to make peace overtures to the United states.

So, in your opinion, what common interests might possibly unite Palestinians and Israelis?  What could possibly happen to change the next fifty or sixty years from acrimony and violence to business and tourism?