A joint team of Israelis and Palestinian have come up with a Web-based operating system that uses "cloud computing" to let users access their desktop and data from any computer worldwide.

Ghost, short for Global Hosted Operating System, was started in 2006 by Zvi Schreiber, whose goal was to create the Virtual Computer that works with third-party Web applications like Google Docs, Zoho, and Flickr.

Based in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Schreiber was interested in creating a company that shows the world that Israelis and Palestinians can work together. This was difficult because the Israelis will not allow his Palestinian employee to travel, so the OS has been built through phone and video conferencing.

The alpha version of Ghost's Virtual Computer was launched in May 2008 and can be previewed on its Web site. Users can get an extra 10GB when they use the promotion code "launch." Ghost's Palestinian-Israeli team will be joined by former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair at today's launch.