Interesting comment on the Today prog this morning

socialismartnature.tumblr.com/

http://socialismartnature.tumblr.com/

Israel is the more powerful.

Any dead child is a tragedy. But since 2000, and not including current conflict, 124 Israeli children have died compared to 1444 Palestinian children as a result of conflict. Media does not always reflect this.

Over 80% of Palestinians living in Gaza are surviving on humanitarian aid because of the Israeli blockade. Some refugee camps there have the highest occupancy rate in the world. In that situation, after so many years, I think I might fire a rocket in spite of my long-held pacifist principles.

Thanks for including this, Lilygran

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel,_2012

It is quite unwatchable - and I feel totally helpless in the face of this slaughter.

I hadn't seen the picture flicketyB so googled it and should have known better. I agree absolutely with what you say in your final sentence too.

Did not the picture of the named BBC correspondant holding his baby son, killed by an Israeli rocket bring home the futile horror of it all?

Why can we, and by extension the jews and arabs, not see people as individuals who feel and suffer rather than groups hwo are to be anonimised and demonised. A Jewish and Palestinian family who have both lost a small child in a rocket attack have more to draw them together than drive them apart.

I think Jonathan Sachs was absurdly naif. He must have done enough broadcasting by now to assume that you are always on air/on camera until you leave the studio.

Sympathy to everyone with family and friends in Israel and/or Palestine. Whatever the political and military rights and wrongs, civilians as always, have to bear the brunt.

I'm relieved that my brother has just texted to say they are back safely from Ashkelon having attended a family wedding. It all kicked off the day after they got there. We've been very worried about them. SisIL must have hated leaving her family in such a dangerous situation.

The timing of the murder of the Hammas leader by Israel is not accidental. There were peace talks going on that were making progress & there is a growing support for Palestine getting recognition. The Israeli government does not want to compromise.
If Israel can get the conflict active again it will detract from Palestine's bid to the UN and the talks stop.

Since I am not an expert on the Middle East, and get my information from the media I would not like to pass comment. In the meantime I have dug out an old book of my father by the author David Fromkin.
The title is : A Peace To End All Peace. Subtitled :Creating The Modern Middle East 1914-1922.
This is what it says on the thingy page:

" After the war to end war" they seem to have been pretty successful in Paris
at making a " Peace to end Peace."

Archibald Wavell ( later Field Marshal Earl Wavell, an officer who served under Allenby in the Palestine campaign, commenting on the treaties bringing the First World War to en end.

The book was re published in 2009.

Good post Fondasharing. I agree.

Nightmare.

Why can't both sides stop and talk.

Every day our thoughts are with friends and my brother's in-laws who live in Ashkelon. They are right in the firing line

I hope Palestine's bid to become a non-member observor state goes through at the UN.

Yes. I agree Israel has become the aggressor. Bullies.

I have taken the liberty of enlarging the forum on what Jonathan Sacks said into the concerns we must all have about the situation in the Middle East.

My daughter's in-laws are Quakers and they lived in Ramallah for 5 years at the Quaker School there and witnessed the lives of many Palestinian people. They also worked with Israeli people who wish to end the conflict and are ashamed of how the Palestinians are being treated with regard to border controls, sanctions and total disregard for their own identity. They witnessed many tragedies and heard some terrible stories.

If the Israeli government would return the lands they took illegally and opened up communications, yes, even with Hamas, then the conflict would, at least, be arrested for the present and common sense could be restored.

Israel has become the aggressor........I understand the history of the Holocaust and the resolve of the Jewish people never to be so isolated and vulnerable ever again.....but sometimes I feel as though they are treating the Palestinian people in the way they were treated by the Germans, i.e. estranging them from mainstream, forcing them to live in "ghettos" and making them into the enemy, instead of neighbours, who whilst they do not share the same religion, are people who have lived in the Holy Land just as long as the Jews.

Let us hope that common sense is restored and that President Obama does not give his support and arms to Israel so that they can pursue their agenda.

Many people in Iran do not want a war, so let us hope they can have a voice one day and help their dictatorial leaders see sense as well.

Oh I see ....thanks.

I really don't think that's going to happen. Please God.

I think President Obama has had enough of war.

I heard the remark and understood it to mean that the current problems with Iran were the reason Israel had decided to attack the Gaza strip.

Presumably Israel is hoping that if it ratchets up the temperature enough now the American Presidential elections are over, Obama can be jockeyed into attacking Iran, which is what Israel wants.

I don't know....who is to blame?

According to one BBC top executive "This is another cock up for BBC News – they are a law unto themselves on this one," said the source.

That's over egging it isn't it?

Mind you, who's to know who is to blame. So sad it has all started up again. Those poor people. On both sides.

Apparently he nearly caused an international incident by blaming it all on Iran.