Personal

My fingers have been twitching on the keyboard over the last week or so desperately wanting to comment on the situation in Gaza, but you have to be so careful as any criticism - explicit or implicit - of Israel will automatically be treated by many as antisemitism.  But my fingers will stay still no longer.  So, whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation it is clear to me that what is going on there is not war - it's slaughter.  And although I have no doubt that Israel doesn't give a fig for what I think, I find that completely unacceptable. If, as Israel claim, Hamas are deliberately concealing their troops and matériel in or near schools and hospitals and such, then the answer is to put your soldiers on the ground to sort it out.  A soldier can differentiate between a child and a terrorist, or between a hospital patient and a terrorist - a bomb or a shell cannot.  Of course doing it that way increases the likelihood of casualties among your soldiers, but that's a decision you have to make. But if you do decide to go down the bombs and shells route then you will have to deal will the righteous opprobrium that goes with it.