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Israel's Critics Aren't Interested in Dialogue
(Jewish Chronicle-UK) Daniel Finkelstein - Aware that Israel's supporters and its critics have been talking past each other, I decided to write an article for The London Times in which I set out some of the things critics had been saying that I might be willing to accept. I had written that I was trying to establish a dialogue in which all of us showed we were listening to each other. But I didn't get the dialogue I had been asking for. Not in a single email. Not in a single tweet. Not one person matched my concessions with concessions of their own. The only replies I got were to tell me I was right to concede and demand more. I wrote another column repeating the arguments and was even more explicit this time about seeking a response. But still, I got nothing. My experience has reinforced the feeling that quite a lot of the protest rhetoric is dishonest. The protest is not against Israel's actions, it is simply against Israel. There is nothing that Israel can do that will satisfy the demands the protesters are making. They do not actually want a dialogue. Without this, what is there to talk about? All one can do is resist militarily and politically until a change in attitude takes place. The writer is associate editor of The London Times.