What accounts for the absence of extremism surrounding the current peace talks between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan state? In similar cases of ethnic conflict, the strategies employed by the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have exacerbated extremism on both sides and led to ever increasing degrees of violence. In the Palestinian case, for example, suicide bombings mobilized and radicalized the Palestinian community, decimated the Israeli Left and hardened Israeli right-wing attitudes regarding prospects for peace. This research seeks to examine the Sri Lankan case, provide a detailed background to the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict that is relatively unfamiliar to some Western audiences and draw comparisons between the Sri Lanka and Palestinian cases.(n1) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]