A logical first step would be to try this scheme on one article as a test. I would suggest taking perhaps the most controversial topic in the Middle East, the Palestinian refugees.
There are now two articles on this topic: [[Palestinian refugee]] and [[Palestinian exodus]]. They overlap and should be merged into one; let's call it [[Palestinian refugees]].
Adam Carr demonstrated on articles like [[Anti-zionism]] that it seems to make a huge difference if ONE individual takes charge of the article with no particular authority except the confidence of other contributors. Adam is by no means impartial (who is?) but he has a gift for synthesizing various POVs into an effective, well-written organic whole.
Taking Adam's very effective work mode as a starting point, let's have one person take (temporary) responsibility for the article. What about Zero? Any objections? Or another candidate? We protect the page and move all work to [[Palestinian refugees/Draft]] and discussion to [[Talk:Palestinian refugees/Draft]]. We give it a month and see what happens
At this point, we have nothing to lose.
V.