This has been my main takeaway over the past few days. There doesn't seem to be anyone on either side in a position of real power who is prepared to sit down and talk things through with the other side.
Those who hold the power are too entrenched in their views for me. I've been following bits on Channel 4 News and they're trying to be balanced in talking to people from both sides who are associated with their respective leaders. However, none of them seem interested in entertaining the questions being put to them, instead going off on one. For instance, the night before last they had the Israeli ambassador to the UK on and the question was put to her about all the innocent lives that will doubtless be lost in Gaza as a result of Israel's response. She just totally lost the plot and kept telling Krishnan to stop defending Gaza and Hamas when he was doing no such thing, and was instead defending innocent people. I get that she was pissed off and upset about what had happened but someone in an ambassadorial role ought to be a bit more diplomatic. It was like she didn't give a fuck about innocent Palestinian lives being lost and Krishnan was struggling to get a word in edgeways. There was pretty much a carbon copy response last night when Matt Frei interviewed someone from Hamas. He asked about the Israeli hostages and would they be treated properly, to which the Hamas bloke said they would. When Frei pushed him further on this by highlighting the Hamas statement that one hostage would be killed for every unannounced air strike, he lost the plot and ended up going off on a tangent and like the Israeli ambassador the night before, resorting to whataboutery. It's impossible to get any semblance of an apology from any of these people for innocent lives lost on the opposite side.