Here we go once again. Each side blames the other. You can open a spreadsheet, setting out the flash points in the order in which they occur and find that each side claims the other is responsible for the flare up. This time it was the assassination of the Hamas military leader, but that attack was in response to continuing rocket attacks from Gaza; but these in turn are the Palestinian response to the Israeli blockade of the coastal strip and so on.
Once again children are getting killed and people who have next to nothing are being reduced to survival on even less. The truly appalling aspects of this never ending conflict are that the solutions are obvious to almost everyone in the world, except those caught up in the mayhem.
There is seemingly nothing useful to say that has not already been said a thousand times, maybe thousands of times. Israel is a state with a right to exist and must be recognised by all. Equally Israel has the responsibility to ensure that the Palestinians too have a state of their own and can set about rebuilding their country to join the family of nations.
There will never be peace, nor will Israel recover the respect it has lost, until it puts a stop to the absurd settlement building programme, condemned as illegal by every authority in the civilised world. Until this unique programme of sequestration of other people’s land stops, there is no prospect whatever of stopping ever more resourceful para-military groupings bombarding it with suicide bombers, rockets and whatever else comes to hand.
The people of Israel will have to ask themselves whether they wish to live and die in a state of perpetual, never ending conflict, or whether there is a better way forward in seeking accommodation with their neighbours, whose demands by international standards cannot be said to be excessive or unreasonable.