President Barack Obama has indicated that the Middle East situation will be one of his priorities of his new term in office. An essential component toward a peace agreement is to overcome the barriers of distrust among Israelis and Palestinians because of ignorance of each other.
The first step is to increase cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian professionals in the health area and expand those contacts to other areas of common interest.
While health initiatives alone cannot secure peace, particularly where political, cultural psychological and religious tensions abound, they often serve as a useful point of contact between conflicting parties. Binational health programs have served to expand cooperation between divided peoples, demonstrating the power of citizens' communication in hostile political environments.
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