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A Small Group in the Vanguard?

"Bassam Aramin vividly describes the shock of his first meeting with the fresh faced, pony-tailed Noam Hayut. Three years ago, at the height of the intifada, Noam had been the commander at the biggest checkpoint in the West Bank between Jerusalem and Ramallah - for Palestinians like Bassam the most hated symbol of their lack of freedom of movement."

In the midst of what appears to be an ever-deteriorating situation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, comes an article today in The Independent [the first paragraph of which is above] relating the story of a group of Palestinians and Israelis who meet and who are seeking, however tentatively, to forge links between the two sides.

It may be a faint hope [probably is!] but at least some people, on both sides, see the merit in looking for peaceful solutions rather than violence and mayhem, all round, and all on levels.

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