I sincerely believe, that there is a way out of the mess the current situation of the Middle East is in now. Let us look at some of the positive developments.

First of all Tunisia and Egypt is moving in a very good direction. Especially Tunisia has overcome the Arab spring in a very positive matter. Egypt is in serious problems because of al-Qaeda related uprisings and the Moslem brotherhood.

But Al sisi has actually managed to deliver on his promises and he is, numerically, the most popular leader in the Mid East these days, not a small feat.

So there are good signs, but of cause, also a lot of problems.

Currently there are three problems. First of all there is the negotiations with Iran. This problem is in fact not really a problem, both Iran, and its protector Russia is ready to compromise and find a good solution that will lead Iran out of the current isolation, and into the heart of international recognition with all the benefits of that.

The next problem is however quite dire. It is a conflict that originally started as a part of the Arab spring, but turned into a long-term siege and sectarian violence; Syria.

Basically the conflict is my own fault, because I switched my focus away from the Arab spring at a time not very fortunate for Syria. I should have seen it coming before the conflict went into uncompromising mode.

I have tried, numerous times, to come up with ideas, but the momentum Barack and I created in the Arab spring has ceased a long time ago.

Anyway. There is still a chance to land a solution to the problem. Basically it is dependent on the new pope. He can, if he will, invest some of his political capital in a solution, bring about a new start in the peace process. Right now he has a lot of political capital due to his good start. This can be brought into play in the Middle East and act as a peace starter. It is however quite risky, and should only be done after very serious consideration. Will it be worth the risk? What if the peace talks fail? Who will actually gain from a good peace solution? The Middle East is a maze, and you have to be extremely deft to maneuver in and between the many conflicts.

On the other hand, a peace deal made in the Middle East is also a very good thing for humanity, and basically a thing anyone with a heart would invest himself in. The atrocities and the inhuman conditions the people of Syria are living under are horrendous.

A solution is however a matter of convergence of interests. Everybody should feel they gain something and are able to sell the deal to their respective constituency as a victory.

The new approach of his honour the prime minister of Iran mr. Rouhani. Has one good promise that might just solve the puzzle.

He offers the protection of the Christians living in Syria. This offer, if implemented, would be a great victory for his excellency the pope. But even better, it would be a good argument for peace deal for my good friend Barack Obama. If the Christian minorities win a good status of protection, I know that the republicans would accept the deal with a very positive heart.

If we zoom back to the positive development in the Mid East, we can see, that Egypt is built on exactly this model. Here the Copts have obtained protection of the state, to the joy of both the republicans and the Vatican state. Ok there have been some discussion on whether the hard-handed measures of Al sisi is too much, but Copts, and most of the other Egyptians seem to like the idea.

Anyway, minority protection, is a win win solution for the Egyptians, and could be it in Syria.

Then there is the discussion of democracy, and how the current situation in Syria could lead to more democracy. This demand is also very important, at least to me, but also to the Americans. So if the solution gave a more democratic state, the Americans would be satisfied, not least the military, who are very focused on this demand.

Then there is the discussion around Israel. To my mind, the discussions are not moving anywhere, simply because we are repeating the same faults as we did with the Oslo accords. Making peace with the Palestinians is not really an option for Israel, because we have tried that, and the Palestinians are simply too unstable to make any deals with. Tomorrow a new leader or a new fraction of this and that Islamist grouping will appear, and they do not care about deals made by some other party.

They are unreliable.

Therefor we need to make peace deals with someone who are reliable.

I know this seem like an out of the box solution. But if we made a deal with Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and did not involve the Palestinians that much, then we could actually make a deal that would make sense.

We need to make sure, that the Palestinians get a good place to stay, and some kind of state of their own. But it should be somewhere and somehow that made them unable to wage war against Israel over and over again.

G-d bless the peace we might find.