Well said, Master McGrath, and of course the example of Northern Ireland is present in our minds too.

The peace there was largely inspired by John Hume's "single transferable speech", repeated relentlessly over thirty years of non-violence )in spite of severe provocation and considerable risk to his life from enemies on both sides). He cited the European example of Franco-German reconciliation after a century of war as a model for Northern Ireland.

The Northern Ireland deal involved recognising that each side perceived itself as having been wronged by the other(s), but also realising that they were engaged in a war which no-one could win. It also involved agreeing to use political means in a way which would allow each to make acceptable gains, gains which would be sufficient to allow the guns to become redundant. Trimble nearly wrecked the process by banging on about decommissioning first rather than getting on with the politics, but to be honest the IRA didn't make it easy for anyone. What Sharon has done is to take advantage of Bush's murderously simplistic "war on terror" to interrupt the politics and get back to war, which he has a long history of seeming to prefer.

With the sense of historic grievance which the Palestinians harbour, he's never going to beat them militarily, because if he insists, they will just revert to terrorism. Bin Ladin (anyone remember him? Wasn't catching him supposed to be the justification for the Afghan adventure?) seems to be no more than an opportunist when he invokes the cause of the Palestinians while pursuing what seems to be mainly a Saudi-related anti-American agenda, but he's an example of how it's possible to mobilise a widespread sense of outrage at how the Palestinians are being treated.

The only way forward is to abandon the military approach and create enough space for politics which can give not everything each party wants, but at least hope. As it is, the present emphasis on military "solutions" is leading to the brainwashing of Palestinian kids from their earliest childhood and sowing the dragon's teeth of another forty years of terrorism.