Hopeless in Gaza; Israel’s tragically futile war

Travelling back from holiday yesterday we had Jeremy Vine’s show on the car radio and the Radio 2 man was talking about the fighting in Gaza and as is often the case with such matters how the subject is framed is at least as interesting as anything that is subsequently said during the discussion.

In this instance, the debate was pitched on the premise that there was something unfair about the fighting. Even something grotesque. Israel, after all, is so very strong and Gaza’s Palestinians so terribly weak. What’s more even if you accept – and not everyone does! – that Israel has been sorely provoked there’s still the question of the proportionality of its response. I mean, aren’t they just flying off the handle just a teensy wee bit? Aren’t Hamas’s rockets little more than glorified fireworks anyway? And, lordy, who thinks it’s fair for a heavyweight to fight a featherweight?

You get the idea.