Hello and welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Michelle

Hussein. After a year of turmoil in the Middle East we are discussing what is the

path to peace. This may seem an odd way to begin this debate, but bear with me.

Peace is such an immense faraway word in the current context of the Middle East

that it feels almost impossible to imagine, to even

speak in those terms. At the same time, millions of people, Palestinians, Israelis, those

living elsewhere in the region, those watching the raging conflict and the ongoing

hostage crisis from elsewhere in the world, often say they long for hope, something to hold

on to, something to aim for, some kind of resolution to an already decades long dispute.

For that reason, a path to peace for the purposes of this debate is not a perfect world or a perfect peace, but the space

that lies beyond a ceasefire.

That's what we'll be exploring in the next 40 minutes.

How do Israelis and Palestinians get, not just a lull or a quiet period, but to a

point of faith that they can be a framework that offers justice and security.

Now normally a today debate happens before a live audience,

but this time, given that our panel is on three different continents,

we are in a studio in BBC Broadcasting House in London.

And joining us from Tel Aviv is Ehud Olmert,

Israel's Prime Minister from 2006 to 2009.

While in office, he offered a peace deal to the Palestinians, parts of it highly contentious

to Israelis who didn't believe in a two-state solution.

It was not accepted by the Palestinians and after he resigned, Benjamin Net Benjamin Netanyahu became Prime Minister.

...