"I don't see why you think favouring one above the other to be mounting any sort of unworthy 'platform', which I now take to be your point?"
I'm not sure our views differ too much on the rights and wrongs of what is happening in the Middle East - problem is that it's difficult to find out what they are when it is assumed that we take sides - I have been accused of doing so throughout these arguments - I really don't.
I don't want another religion-based Government, any more than I believe you don't, but I am appalled at the brutality of the situation, not only in the present bloodbath, but also in the every-day lives of the Gazans, particularly over the last near-decade.
Whoever broke the cease-fire, I have little doubt that I will open the newspaper later and read that an Israeli soldier has been kidnapped - with afterthought - I might be able to find how the estimates 60-odd dead and 200 injured Palestinians met their particular fates.
As far as I have been concerned, all the politicians in this mess can all go to their own chosen Hells in their own particular hands-carts, but the fact that an estimated 1,500 Palestinians have now died and none of these politicians seem to care too much about it, makes me angry.
I very much doubt if Hamas will be party to any permanent cease-fire that doesn't include the lifting of the blockade and the allowing of the lives of the Palestinians to return to some degree of normalcy.
I also doubt that the Israelis will sign anything that doesn't allow them to hold on to what they have and to continue to build new settlements - they made that clear during the last round of peace talks.
As far as I can see, the situation has to be put in the hands of the U.N. and any rights of veto that can impair a balanced solution need to be removed, otherwise the Palestinians are going to end up like the Native Americans, scattered all over the Middle East on reservations.
There are already calls for "the levelling of Gaza" if the soldier isn't returned, and from the beginning the Israeli extremists have been howling that the troops must "push on and finish the job now it's been started".
"Burl Ives"
Didn't get to watch the film after all - Library project; I recorded it and will do so later.
Wonder if you asked him about his giving evidence against Pete Seeger and the rest during the H.U.A.C. trials, when you interviewed him?
Jim Carroll