Dr. Tamari

1. The development over the past 100 years of rival narratives/competing strains of nationalism between the Jews/Israelis and the Arabs/Palestinians/Muslims (I am not equating all of those terms with the use of the slashes, simply grouping them for the context of this question) makes it difficult to see a future of peace for the two nations. How can we take this understanding that the two parties have narratives fundamental to their identities that are so problematic/at odds and still see a path to peace (a rather generic and cliched question, I know, but it's the one I see as most worth asking)?

2. The last sentence of your piece on Ishaq Shami says that "he could not dissociate from [the Hebronites & the Jewish people] as victims, nor could he overcome the shattered hope that there was room for reconciliation as the two communities were driven toward irresolvable nationalist polarity" is heart-wrenching and perhaps a hint at what your response to my first question will be. Are the two nationalisms, that of the Jews/Israelis and that of the Palestinians, irreconcilable? Why or why not? The strongest strain of each one basically depends on the phasing out of the other, but there are more accepting forms of each, as well.