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From the earliest time I can remember being at all aware of world politics I was aware that few principles were ever truly certain and even fewer outcomes entirely predictable. From back then I remember a world defined by cold war, and the simultaneous hot handed sweaty palmed fear I would feel every time I heard the continuous rumbling thunder of jets I could neither see nor identify in the distance. Politics that as a grade school child I could neither see nor identify were defining my world view. What I could see and identify was that running the world was a tricky business pursued by men with private agendas, red telephones, and nervous itchy fingers hovering over shiny red candy like untouchable buttons. Oh, and that there would never, ever, be peace in the Middle East.

Fast forward to 2007. Along the way you'll see blurred franticly moving figures with their fingers on the button, off the button and on it again. There's a Polish guy buying a pair of Levis then fragments of a wall somewhere being torn down. A Chinese guy is standing in front of a tank. The cold war? Gone in the blink of an eye. In fact it seems the whole world is getting a little warmer, or is it just me? But I digress. In sum, the uncertainty of my first realized certainty is gone. Sure there are still shiny red candy like buttons out there, but at least now they've got childproof covers over them. Maybe it's time to reconsider that "never, ever" part about this peace in the Middle East thing, starting with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular.

To answer the question of where or not the city of Jerusalem should be "split" between the Israelis and the Palestinians it is necessary to begin by assessing the goal of such a division. To some the goal to be pursued is clearly outlined by religion. When this is the case the answer they will give you will necessarily be a resounding "No!" If any explanation is given at all it would probably be something along the lines of "God doesn't compromise." You may have begun to suspect that I don't happen to belong to that camp. I belong to the camp that has come to believe that just like the cold war, the "never, ever" that has prefixed the prospect of peace in the Middle East is no longer a necessary certainty. To the contrary I would suggest that a resolution the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an imminent possibility. A possibility that hinges upon such a compromise.

Though close enough for government work I should first point out the word

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