The big news this past week was the coming together in Washington DC of the Israelis and the Palestinians for peace talks. On Thursday, the major news networks carried the opening statements of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from the East Room of the White House while their aides looked on.

Middle East peace talks have been ongoing for decades. Here's an Arab perspective on and timeline of the history of the talks. My first memories of the talks go back to the early 1970s, during the Nixon Administration when Henry Kissinger was secretary of state. These talks have always been fraught with problems. The current talks are also doomed to failure (yes, I'm one of the naysayers) because the Palestinians cannot negotiate in good faith while they are themselves embroiled in a civil war between secularists (the Palestinian Authority) and militant Islamists (Hamas in the south and Hezbollah in the north). There are essentially two different governments—one in the Gaza (run by Hamas) and another in the West Bank (the Palestinian Authority). This two-headed political monster is incapable of governing the Palestinian people as a unified whole. The situation is exacerbated by deeply-ingrained, cultural anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in the Arab world. Many children in this culture are taught as early as preschool that the State of Israel doesn't exist. They are also indoctrinated with the notion that Jews are descended in an evolutionary chain from pigs and that it's a great honor to die as a martyr (shahid) while killing Jewish men, women, and children. Yes, there is a Palestinian elite of wealthy and well-educated people, including intellectuals like Mahmoud Darwish, the late Edward Said (of Columbia University), and others; but they comprise a relatively small group. To put it bluntly, too much of the Palestinian populace is simply uncivilized. They have a rabid and irrational hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. These extremists do not respond to reason or logic—yet another reason why they don't function well as negotiating partners.

Seriously now, folks, how much bona fide negotiating can happen when you're sitting across the table from someone whose constituency includes individuals and organizations who want you dead? I mean, let's get real about this.

There is hope, however. The love of God can pierce those walls of ignorance and prejudice on both sides. When Albert Nessim, one of our Israeli staff members was in the hospital in Haifa a few years ago, a Palestinian man was in the bed next to him. The two families—one Jewish and the other Palestinian—got to know each other and a relationship developed as the Nessims shared the love of God with Albert's Palestinian roommate. He and his family were deeply moved when Albert unexpectedly died in January of 2007—while still in the hospital. Since that time, Ruth, his widow, has cultivated that relationship. Before she had her heart attack a few months ago, she had started meeting regularly with an Arab pastor and was staying in touch with her Palestinian friend in the West Bank. She even had him and his Muslim friends reading Arabic New Testaments and other Gospel materials! She has had to curtail some of those activities since then, of course. But still, this relationship represents the power of Yeshua the Messiah to reconcile former enemies and change hearts and minds on both sides of the divide.

This is the best kind of “peace process”—one that really works.