Enmity towards Islam hampers road to peace in Israel

With daily newspaper images last week of grim-looking Israeli soldiers forcing angry protesters to leave their Gaza Strip settlements, it might have appeared that the roadmap to an Israeli-Palestinian peace is on track.

The reality, suggests the co-founder of a recently formed international think-tank, is far from certain, and if there's to be a true peace between Israel and Palestine - and also the west and Islam - then there needs to be a critical re-examination of the way in which the west views the Muslim world.

'There are three major misunderstandings in the west about the Muslim world,' says Alastair Crooke of group Conflicts Forum. 'The first is the language we often hear, that these people [Muslims] hate our values and are a threat to our societies ... The second is the use of the term 'terrorism' and putting into the same compartment groups that are extremely unalike ... The third is that this is all about the west.' He adds: 'The use of language has dimmed and obscured our ability to comprehend the realities of a political solution, and those groups that are a solution and those that are a problem.'

A former officer with British intelligence agency MI6, Mr Crooke helped launch Conflicts Forum last year in response to growing alarm among public policy formulators that the west's approach to Middle Eastern issues was unconstructive.

Previously posted to global trouble spots such as Afghanistan and Colombia, Mr Crooke's last position was as security adviser to European Union foreign affairs representative Javier Solana. 'It's about politics, a political struggle ... the only way you can deal with it is to talk to it, listen to it. Bombing Fallujah is not the way to solve the problem,' says Mr Crooke.