To the editor:

I realize that everyone’s attention is on the catastrophe in our Gulf Coast, however there are other important issues to be addressed such as this one:

I appreciate the Journal-World publishing the views of Melissa Horan and Deborah Garner in the Faith Forum section of your Sept. 3, issue. Some of my thoughts about this tragic conflict are as follows:

The social scientific study of intergroup and international conflict has dealt with the realities of these intractable conflicts such as in Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, etc. Reference is often made to the mirror image characteristic of such conflicts. For example, both parties feel themselves to be the victims. Both parties tend to dehumanize their opponents. The tragedy is that people get locked into these intractable conflicts for which there appears to be no solution. The situations are sometimes further complicated by differences in their power relationships.

Ms. Horan has suggested the Web sites for the Jerusalem Post and Ha’aretz, Israeli newspapers, as sources of insight into the conflict. Actually, they have somewhat different perspectives on the situation. If some of your readers are interested in looking into some other Web sites covering the Middle East, I suggest the following:

¢ www.ifamericansknew.org

¢ www.wrmea.com/archives/Jan_Feb_2001/0101015.html

¢ www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org

For the record, I am affiliated with the Friends Meeting (Quaker) and the Unitarian/Universalist Fellowship and I have some good friends who are Episcopalians, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and, God forbid, secular humanists.

Howard Baumgartel,

Lawrence