91Èȱ¬

Over the past week, we have devoted quite a bit of coverage on the World Tonight to the escalation in the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians which has seen Palestinian missile and rocket attacks on southern Israel and Israeli air and ground attacks on Gaza which have left more than 120 Palestinians and three Israelis dead.

We have heard from Israelis and Palestinians who have blamed each other for the violence and lack of progress in peace talks. With the and with the violence continuing, we decided yesterday we needed to hear something different on this story.

In our editorial meetings, we often discuss our Middle East coverage and how we can shed new light on what can sound a very repetitive story given that politicians and officials on both sides are so entrenched in their positions and are often unwilling to budge from those positions in public - even if what happens behind closed doors can be different.

So yesterday, we decided to look for alternative views on both sides.

A recent poll in the Israeli newspaper, , suggested a majority of Israelis wanted their government to talk to Hamas to try to reach a ceasefire, something the Israeli government has ruled out unless the missile and rocket attacks stop first. Reporters on the ground in Gaza have also been saying that privately quite a few residents of Gaza are angry with Hamas, blaming them for provoking the escalation in Israeli attacks which have led to so many deaths.

We found two bloggers - one a Palestinian in Gaza and the other an Israeli in the south of the country - who met and now have a to keep in touch. The idea was to get that alternative view from the usual official one. They reflected on the mood and how difficult it is to advocate peace when the violence continues. It was on Wednesday's programme after 22.30 (and presenter Robin Lustig has blogged about it). Take a listen here and see you think we succeeded in airing an interesting alternative.