Drastic times call for drastic measures sounds so logical, one scarcely bothers to think about this assertion. And so the call arises in both sides for drastic measures from superior powers (West and Iran), which triggers concern that the drastic measures proposed will create more drastic times yet, which .... and so the drastic cycle of drastic times continues in marginally different manifestations of the violence of the previous drastic times.

Perhaps drastic times call for something other than drastic measures. Indeed that seems much more rational to me. For example, suppose the New York Times or the Carter Centre or al-Jazeera or the Gulf States or Tony Blair or Ban-ki-Moon or Gorbachev or Bill Clinton, or better still, ALL these wallahs were to invite participation in an anonymous survey of the degree of understanding existing amongst Israeli and Palestinian leaders of the principles of authentic dialogue, with the offer of a home-study course in the subject available to anyone who return his or her anonymous survey. Would that be a drastic measure?

Well, some might call it an original idea, but scarcely a practical one since which of the politicians would accept such an invitation? Well, if just one did, then those who did not would certainly experience some comments about their refusal. Indeed, if none did, they would certainly all experience some comments about their refusal.

Of considerable interest in this context is, I think, the reality that virtaully everyone publically says "dialogue is a good thing". But, although this avowal is nearly universal, the number of people who actually know what authentic dialogue is remains quite small, and the number of people who have much proficiency with its practice is even smaller.

TTers may review a summary of the essential principles of authentic dialogue as practised by Authentix Coaches at: