Every week the Guardian brings together two people with opposing views for Dining Across the Divide to see if eating together can help them explore common ground. Meanwhile, every week in the opinion pages, individual columnists, such as Jonathan Freedland and Nesrine Malik, write about Israel and Gaza from separate perspectives.
While all sides agree that nothing will ever be the same again, I’d be surprised if your columnists have persuaded anyone to change their viewpoint. Which is exactly what needs to happen to resolve the conflict. It would be interesting for your columnists to explore their disagreements. They might be pleasantly surprised to see how in my patch of north London, the close relationships built here between Jews and Muslims over years have been strained but not broken by the conflict. They might want to look at London in general and note how, for all the increases in race-hate attacks on both sides, discourse between them has largely continued thanks to the even‑handed leadership of Sadiq Khan, a tireless campaigner against Islamophobia and antisemitism in equal measure.
Surely the Guardian could bring these two together? I think they’d be surprised, dining or not, to find how much they have in common.
Dave Cohen
London
• I was interested in your Dining Across the Divide column (7 March) and the idea in it that the term “toxic masculinity” should be outlawed. Other articles I read the same day included those about a woman being killed by a man every three days on average in the UK and another article saying that abuse is the main driver of mental health issues for women. There is something toxic in our society. It’s not men in general, but perhaps there should be a term to describe what it is. I wonder what that could be?
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