The main problem with Israel/Palestine is the extreme polarisation of the question. On the one hand you have the Israelis saying "yes, but Hamas wants to destroy Israel and keeps firing rockets at our civilians". On the other side you have the Palestinians that say "Yes, but Israel want to drive us out and have been keeping us enmured in this ghetto while our children starve to death".
One side has to take the higher ground on this. And in my opinion that side has to be Israel, largely because it has the lion's share of the international support and funding.
We saw something similar here in the UK with the Irish Troubles, albeit that the British government never went so far as to launch air-raids on the Falls Road. But it took some very brave moves from the British government finally to agree to negotiate with the IRA. It was an unpopular move to begin with nd some thought it was political suicide, that we were "giving in to terrorists" (sound familiar?), but eventually it worked. That is not to say that the effect was immediate, mind you. The Omagh bombing could have been a very serious set-back indeed to the whole peace process if we hadn't had nerves of steel and stuck to the plan. 15 years later and there is a lasting peace in Northern Ireland, something that would have been inconceivable 20 or 25 years ago.
Also, I want to know where our Special Middle East Envoy Blair is? Is his job supposed to be stopping these things from happening?
