Dennis Ross

David Brody / UPI Photo / Landov

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Former U.S. Middle East peace envoy

It is 2068, and Israel remains a Jewish state. Rather than an anachronism, it is a cutting edge state. It has led the international community in going green: it had all electric cars by 2020; it pioneered new approaches to solar power; and it "grew" the water supply of the Middle East by developing new techniques for reusing water and lowering the costs of desalination.

Medically, its researchers produced breakthroughs in curing diabetes and in using stem cells to treat multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease. Agriculturally, its scientists developed new drought resistant grains that helped alleviate hunger in Africa. Culturally, its films, with their treatment of inter-personal and inter-communal conflict, connected with audiences around the globe.

Those films also reflected the reality of the peace that had come gradually to Israel and its neighbors, only after radical Islamists had been discredited. It was a peace characterized more by co-existence than reconciliation, but it contributed to greater equality between Israel's Jewish majority and its Arab minority. It also generated new efforts to reduce tensions between the religious and secular in Israel, with the cyber revolution making it possible for the orthodox — men and women — to work and study, helping alleviate poverty in the religious communities.

Israel in 2068 is thriving: economically well, socially improving, peace secure, its citizens still vigorously debating most issues — including whether to adopt a constitution.