Many a government will claim that it utilises commerce and overseas aid to close the gap with less than friendly nationalities. A classic example is USAID, whose annual budget extends in to the billions and reaches dozens of less-wealthy countries.

There have been numerous commercial efforts to mobilise trade in order to bring the Israelis and Palestinians together. President Peres has been particularly active over the years in trying to set up joint industrial and agricultural facilities near the border with Gaza, although persistent Hamas rocket fire has ensured that the results have been minimalistic.

So, it was encouraging to read in the Palestinian media that earlier this week representatives of Israeli and Palestinian high tech came together in Tel Aviv. Significantly, this drew the support of the tech multinationals like Microsoft as well as Cisco, whose boss is known to be close to Peres.

It is not just that Palestinians are considered an educated community and relatively cheap compared to their Israeli counterparts.

During the last few years more than 500 Palestinian engineers and analysts have been employed in Palestinian companies working with Israeli IT companies. There are 4,000 working in the Palestinian private IT sector and another 3,000 in telecoms. Beyond that, 1,500 to 2,200 more graduate into the field every year from the 13 universities in the Palestinian territories.

With some irony and sadness, the downside to all this came from the office of the Palestinian chairman, which described the meeting as “unacceptable“. This is the direct opposite of the comments from one of my business colleagues, who recently attended a forum in New York where both Jews and Muslims were prominent. To paraphrase: they had never before learnt so much about each other and thus come away with a greater feeling of mutual understanding, even if some of the Arab delegates were forced to speak in a different tone form the public podium.

Israel has earned its reputation as the start-up nation of the Middle East. Two days ago, the CEO of Intel in Israel, where they have three plants, noted that his company had already invested over US$10 billion in the Holy Land. The Dutch are now following a London-based example and setting up a technology centre deliberately based on Israeli concepts. In the Israeli high-tech each of the past three financial quarters, companies have raised nearly US$500 million dollars from local and foreign based investors, a staggering amount for a country of barely 8 million people and where 50% is a desert.

It would be a shame for Israel’s neighbours to miss out on such benefits due to misguided and historical hatred amongst its leaders. It really is time to learn how to talk the language of understanding.