An audience this week voted overwhelmingly against the possibility of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the next five years.
The debate in Westminster on "Paths to Peace: Proposals to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" was sponsored by the Weidenfeld Institute for Strategic Dialogue and The Spectator magazine.
Speakers included former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy; Israel's former ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman; Palestinian MPs Hanan Ashrawi and Mustafa Barghouti; Tel Aviv's deputy mayor, Yael Dayan; and the former Foreign Secretary, Sir Malcolm Rifkind.
Despite five of the speakers agreeing that there was hope of a peace agreement within five years (with the exception of Mr Halevy, who said that there was no chance of a permanent solution in the near future and that therefore the sides should strive for an interim agreement), the audience was not convinced.
