Reporter in the middle

WITH A PROBLEM AS intractable as the Arab-Israeli conflict it is often difficult to believe there will ever be any light at the end of the tunnel.

For those of us far removed from the present intifada, pictures of masked Palestinian youths throwing stones at soldiers seem a world away. By profiling individuals from both communities Anton La Guardia brings matters into sharper focus. The person who has just been shot, or who fired the shot, becomes somebody's husband, someone's son.

Having been the Daily Telegraph's Middle East correspondent for eight years, La Guardia had a chance to meet a lot of people at all levels of society. However, these are not just thumbnail sketches of ordinary and sometimes extraordinary individuals. He also accepts that the reader needs to be informed about the history of the troubles and landmarks on the way that have brought us to this tragic state of affairs.

As he points out, it was not always like this. For centuries Jews and Arabs got along in Palestine. During the Christian Crusades, Jews tended to support the Muslims and under the Ottoman Empire, there was relative peace.

The change appears to have come with the founding of the Zionist movement in the second half of the 19th century, in response to repeated anti-Semitic persecution throughout Europe, but especially in Russia.

The aim of Zionists was to see a Jewish homeland established in Palestine and their first settlement there was founded in 1882 at Rishon Le Zion. The Zionist tradition has persisted with the controversial West Bank settlers.