The writer is an Israeli pollster and journalist

In recent months, two decades-old conflicts — between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Azerbaijan and Armenia — have taken tentative but significant steps towards peace. The breakthroughs have restored hope that conflicts can end through diplomacy, not only by butchery. By contrast, and despite vastly greater global attention, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is further from peace than ever. Resolving it will require fresh ideas from outside.

There is a different example of time-tested diplomacy that has saved lives. Thirty years ago, the leaders of Bosnia, Yugoslavia and Croatia signed the accords negotiated under US auspices in Dayton, Ohio, and ended the war in Bosnia — one of the bloodiest ethnonationalist wars of the last century. For three decades, Bosnia has avoided a resurgence of ethnic violence, proving that despite cynicism, agreements can halt bloodshed. But the applicable lessons from the Dayton accords for Israelis and Palestinians go much further.