Turn the Other Middle Eastern Cheek? Any takers?

If you want to understand the great geopolitical tragedies of the past, just take a step back (so to speak) and look as objectively as you can manage at the current situation in the Middle East (and at American public opinion regarding it) and you get a pretty fair understanding of the way such tragedies happened. What are the possible solutions? One side could annihilate the other. They could simply return to a status quo of mutual hatred. Or a solution could be worked out that saves face and lives on all sides, creating the basis for not only lasting peace but eventual friendship. That last word probably caused a few raised eyebrows and thoughts of how completely out of touch with reality is the writer of the word. Well, perhaps. After all, during my college days (as a "student leader") I tried to talk the head of the Jewish Student Union into debating the head of the Palestinian youth organization on campus.