Trying To Bridge the Gap

And then there are the "good Jews," as they are known to their Arab counterparts, a hundred or so Israelis who meet regularly with an equally small number of Palestinians for round-table discussions that have all the naive earnestness of 1960s-style encounter-group sessions. Their meetings are arranged secretly with code words; they debate over coffee and cake in one another's homes; they talk about mistrust and victimization. The Jews recall the Holocaust, the Palestinians the humiliation of Israel's occupation. In common, they all deplore the intransigence of Israel's political leadership.

"We are one of the confidence-building measures the Shamir government claims...

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