The Asolo Accords

There was no obvious explanation for the prime minister of Israel and a high level Hamas official to be sitting together like old friends in a small medieval hill town north of Venice, Italy. The head epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control suspected that their brains were infected by a virus. The abnormal brain scans of four unconnected people suggested that a new disease was causing unexpected fits of empathy. The CIA feared that it might be germ warfare. How did it happen: serendipity, coincidence, biological mutation . . . or divine intervention?

A group of unlikely witnesses gathered on that fateful day in Asolo, Italy. Among them was a New York psychiatrist obsessed with the study of Israeli-Palestinian relationships whose life was in danger, and his wife who was finding her sins exposed with intolerable clarity. Present also was an Atlanta rabbi leading a fledgling international news network that broadcast only “the good news” about Israeli-Palestinian relationships. And there was A Luce, the messenger who had pulled the strings to make the meeting happen. They were all there at the magical moment of the signing of the Asolo Accords.

There was no obvious explanation for how this unique situation came about. God only knows.