On one hand we have the Zionist bigots of the Israeli government. On the other hand we have the murderous fundamentalist Islamists of Hamas and Hezbollah.

When considering respect for human life, there is nothing to choose between them.

The irony is that they all profess belief in the same Abrahamic God.

The omnipotent, jealous, vindictive God of the Old Testament and Torah sets no example in humanitarianism. This is the same god of the Quran, as worshipped by Muslims, Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians. This is not the softer God of the New Testament, represented in Jesus.

The gruesome rightwing leadership of the Israeli government has made no secret of its wish to clear Gaza and the West Bank of all Palestinians. In this genocidal war they have employed bombardment, starvation siege and the gangster West Bank settler killing squads, aided and abetted by Israeli police and soldiers.

The euphemistically named Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has systematically reduced the Palestinians to the sub-human conditions not seen since such a state was inflicted on the Jews in the concentration camps and ghettoes of Nazi-occupied Europe in the 1940’s.

Mossad, the Israeli secret service, had a master-stroke in booby-trapping hundreds of communication devices used by Hamas and Hezbollah activists, but the killing was indiscriminate and the cruelty was disproportionate, resulting in brain damage, blinding and loss of hands.

Now poor bloody Lebanon is again an Israeli battleground. Its economy and social structures are already in tatters, yet it is suffering daily poundings from the air and on 26th September looks about to be invaded by the IDF.

Every move and retaliatory move in the Middle East breeds more distrust and hatred and lessens the chance of a peaceful resolution.

Although increasingly unpopular within Israel, the Netanyahu government remains faultless and close to the hearts of the massive Jewish lobbies in Britain and America, with the Biden and Starmer governments afraid to thwart them.

There are insipid calls for a Gaza ceasefire and de-escalation at the Lebanon border and Starmer has even cancelled some token armaments export licences, But Israel continues to be supported at the UN and we continue to keep their

F-35 fighter-bomber fleet in the air over Gaza and Lebanon.