Right now there is no more worthy cause in international relations than a resolution to the intractable Israeli/Palestinian struggle. Any person who can provide a solution deserves the Peace Prize.

Rafi Baeri may very well become the hero of the Middle East.

For six years he has pursued the far-fetched notion of altering the landscape of Arab/Jewish enmity. He wants to change the fight over land into a fight over sports.

"I’m working to bring the Olympic Games to Gaza/Tel Aviv," he told me. "The idea is the brainchild of Peer Wisner, Deputy Mayor of Tel Aviv."

Baeri is vice president of marketing and sales at the Dan Hotel chain in Israel. I met him during his July visit to the Dan offices in New York.

London will have the Olympics in 2012, Rio de Janeiro will host it in 2016, but 2020 is up for grabs. Baeri wants Israel and Gaza to run in tandem for the 2020 honors.

But will the militant Hamas, which started a civil war to drive the moderate Palestinian Authority out of Gaza, and vowed never to recognize the Jewish state, cooperate in a Gaza/Tel Aviv Olympics?

"It can be done," Baeri insisted.

He claimed history backs him up. As proof he cited Athens and Sparta, eternal enemies, always at war. Yet every four years they held a truce and competed in the Olympics instead of the battlefield.

"In our own day during the 2010 World Cup," he said, "the world came to a standstill. Everyone, foe and friend, focused on sports."

Rafi Baeri and Janos Damon reveal their vision of Tourism4Peace at the American Tourism Society conference in 2006 at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Pictured from left are Raed Saade, president of the Arab (Palestinian) Hotel Association; Rafi Baeri, chairman of the marketing committee of the Israel Hotel Managers Association and vice president of marketing and sales of Dan Hotels Israel; Janos Damon, then chairman of T4P and general manager of the Israel Hotels Managers Association; and Abdul Hakeem El Hindi, general manager of the Jordan Hotel Association.

Baeri said many of his Arab and Palestinian friends think it’s a wonderful idea.

"We want to create a better travel environment between Israel, Palestine, Egypt and Jordan. The mainstream Palestinians are enthusiastic about the idea. They don’t want their children to keep on fighting."

Where politicians, statesmen and diplomats have failed to find a resolution to an enduring conflict, Baeri believes he can win the hearts and minds of both sides with sports and travel.

"Maybe this will become a turning point for Gaza. If Hamas is really working for the people, as they claim, they will have to embrace an Olympics with Tel Aviv."

Rather than promote his dream in the political arena, Baeri has been working with colleagues in neighboring countries in the travel area. While the politicians have failed to reconcile the people of the Middle East, he feels strongly that travel, tourism and sports can only help.

He said he wants the people, the intellectuals and the sports community to digest the idea first. The politicians will come around in time.

He began the initiative in 2004 by forming a committee with Janos Damon, who was secretary general of the Israel Hotel Managers Association. After Damon died this year at age 80, Michael Nazzal, chairman of Jordan Hotel Association, became president of the committee, named Tourism4Peace.

Of course it takes cash to realize a dream of such Olympic proportions. Baeri sounded quite positive: "I have no doubt there will be enough funds available."

Janos Damon, from left, chairman of Tourism4Peace; Elhamy ElZayat, chairman of Emeco Corp, Cairo; Fahmi Nashashiby, owner of Golden Walls Hotel in Jerusalem; Richard Elias, vice chairman of Holyland Tour Operators Association, Bethlehem, and Raed Saade, chairman of the Arab (Palestinian) Hotel Association in Jerusalem, at the third Tourism4Peace board meeting in October 2006 in Den Hague, Holland.

Baeri is optimistic, but is he realistic? Can two enemies come together in the name of sports and travel?

You don’t have to go all the way back to ancient Greece to look for clues. Same thing has already happened in our time, this year in fact.

After Israeli commandos thwarted a Turkish-led flotilla’s attempt to breach the Gaza blockade last spring, an angry Turkey—heretofore Israel’s closest ally in the Islamic sphere—announced it was breaking diplomatic and military relations.

What about economic reprisals? No way. It was business as usual.

As The New York Times reported, "pragmatism is trumping politics."

How? The Turks who wanted to cut off all relations with Israel "did not know that their cellphones, personal computers and plasma televisions were made using parts and technology from Tel Aviv."

The Times report added that "most of the software Turks use in everything from cellphones to medical equipment is made in Israel. So unless Turks want to stop using their computers, boycotting Israel would mean punishing themselves."

So if the people of Gaza want to stop punishing themselves, they will welcome a Gaza/Tel Aviv Olympics in 2020 for the economic benefit of both peoples. Politics can’t bring them together, but business pragmatism will trump politics.