In its obituary, The Irish Times highlights Edward de Bono, the esteemed philosopher and pioneer of “lateral thinking,” who famously suggested using Marmite, the proverbially divisive spread, as a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. His belief was that consuming yeast extract could potentially foster peace:

The thinker and writer Edward de Bono, who has died aged 88, once suggested that the Arab-Israeli conflict might be solved with Marmite. During a 1999 lecture to officials at the British foreign office, the originator of the term lateral thinking argued that the yeast extract, although proverbially socially divisive, could do what politicians and diplomats had failed for years to achieve. The problem, as he saw it, was that people in the Middle East eat unleavened bread and so lack zinc, which makes them irritable and belligerent. Feeding them Marmite, therefore, would help create peace.

Quite an eccentric theory, to say the least!