The Palestinians

Mahmoud Abbas has announced that he will not stand again to lead the Palestinian Authority as he is utterly fed up with the lack of any concessions from Israel and its unwillingness to halt its settlement policy, condemned even by president Obama.The future of the Palestinian Authority is uncertain. Hamas, having won the last elections but whose government was driven into Gaza after a mini civil war, remains holed up and unwilling, in that shattered coastal strip.

The latest thinking is that the Palestinians will wait no longer and next year will set up a State and declare themselves independent. Good for them. They must have proper institutions of government and administration to help their struggling population. Even if the rest of the world does not recognise the new State (many countries will) it will no longer be credibly able to pretend it is not there. It will also give the Palestinians hope and pride.

Israel was  a post WWII achievement by the traumatised and oppressed Jewish people, which gave hope to all the world. Its politicians were giants upon the world stage and its generals were heroes.  What a complete and utter tragedy it is, that is has used such a worthy foundation to turn itself into a vindictive and provocative zealot, pursuing policies which cannot possibly succeed, which are in many parts unjust, which grotesquely prolong the sufferings of their neighbours and which condemn their own population to live forever in fear.

It is not in the mountains of Pakistan, nor in the wild majesty of Afghanistan that the threat to our security lies. Those places may be the nursery of terrorism, but conception occurs in that cauldron of suffering and injustice on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean.