Hopefully cooperation regarding regional environmental matters will lead to a larger scale peace.

I don’t think that this is unrealistic. In fact, it may well be argued that environmental cooperation could become the most realistic pathway to peace.

There are certain factors which converge in the Middle East which point to environmental protection as a solution to most of the problems there and elsewhere: The fact that the people there share the same resources, like water. That fresh, clean water is becoming scarce. That the area enjoys a lot of sunlight, which could be converted to clean energy. The technological advances being made with respect to the environment in some leading universities in the region. The opportunity to create good paying jobs, in the green sector of the environment, which could help neutralize ideological extremism. The possibility of creating some serious profits based on green. The availability of Arab and Western financing to promote green industries, as a way of diversifying away from oil, and at a time when there is heavy world demand for renewable energy sources. And the need to find a mechanism to mediate a peace in the region.

Put it all together, and it does not take a brain surgeon to figure out that a concerted effort to protect the environment could coincide well with business, with profits, with good paying jobs, with neutrlizing extremism, and eventually, with peace.

The West Bank, in which 4 industrial zones are currently planned, could be used as a model for creating good paying jobs which protect the environment. In this way you will be solving most of the world’s problems in one shot, and you could very well attract a lot of attention, and a lot of investment dollars.