I am very saddened by the murder of so many civilians, but people emote rather than think about the Middle East

I am revolted by the deaths of civilians at the hands of Hamas.

But my contrarian instincts kick in when I see that people who have the temerity to say they would like an end to all bloodshed in the Holy Land, from the Pope to Jeremy Corbyn and the UN, get angrily attacked.

We have lived though media trying to stir up war a lot recently and are wise to it. I fear people will use this to stir up war with Iran.

I was shocked when Hamas built tunnels and attacked innocent people in 2014 but this time I am much more aware, partly thanks to switching from the BBC to Al Jazeera for my morning news headlines, of the Arabs who have been killed by Israelis.

The Arabs should have made peace when Barak offered them very generous terms. 

But this dispute has a long history, was caused by England in 1917, and European countries should not take sides between Israel and the Arabs. 

We have no dog in this fight. 

This long struggle is not about values. 

Anyway I am rather sick of wars for values. 

It's about ethnic groups fighting over land.

Please remember 91 people were killed by bomb organised by Menachem Begin's Zionist group Irgun in the King David Hotel, of whom 28 were British and 41 Arabs. 

Between 1945 and 1948 800 British servicemen were killed by Zionists. The Irgun became the Likud and Begin Israeli Prime Minister.

Future Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said this in 1943, when he was one of the leaders of the Stern Gang. 'The occupier' means the British.

“Neither Jewish ethics nor Jewish tradition can disqualify terrorism as a means of combat. We are very far from having any moral qualms as far as our national war goes. We have before us the command of the Torah, whose morality surpasses that of any other body of laws in the world: ‘Ye shall blot them out to the last man."

"But first and foremost, terrorism is for us a part of the political battle being conducted under the present circumstances, and it has a great part to play: speaking in a clear voice to the whole world, as well as to our wretched brethren outside this land, it proclaims our war against the occupier."

David Ben Gurion (the future first Israeli Prime Minister) said in 1938:

“Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves … politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves… The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country. … Behind the terrorism [by the Arabs] is a movement, which though primitive is not devoid of idealism and self sacrifice.”