[Deckard]

Certainly the last few times (which doesn't equal a historical 'always', I'll give you that) that I've felt a tinge of optimism, it seems to have been Israel in the news days later getting heavy handed, and the 'brink' is lost.

Much as I'd love to dig out sources, I'm going purely on the memory of reading those stories and thinking to myself, "Christ, Israel, what a lousy time to go and do something like that". Naturally you're free to speculate on whether my memory is selective and being influenced by a fixed pro-Palestinian (or anti-Israel) bias, and I imagine that no amount of me denying that will convince you otherwise if you've already made up your mind.

What I will say to you Jason, is that if you think I believe the current mess is "all Israel's fault" - or even the majority of it is Israel's fault - then you're very much mistaken, and being rather stupid yourself.