Think of Israel and what comes to mind? Whatever images the word 'Israel' may conjure up, the picture of Jews and Arabs breaking bread and worshipping together will probably not be among the first.
How can people who are poles apart politically in a land torn by bitter strife find any common ground for friendship and reconciliation? What can bring together the members of two communities, who from childhood learn to distrust each other?
It is almost ten years since Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands on the White House lawn. Since that historic moment violence in the Middle East has escalated, the death toll in Israel and the Palestinian Authority has increased, Jewish bodies have been blown apart with sickening regularity and attitudes on both sides of the conflict have hardened.
