thank heavens for the BBC

Every week BBC Radio 4 broadcasts a phone-in programme called 'Any Answers', which allows listeners to respond to the panel-show 'Any Questions', which features politicians and other prominent people airing their views on topical subjects. 'Any Answers' was dominated by Israel and its depravity in Gaza. For the 20 minutes of the programme I heard, one listener or e-mailer after another condemned unreservedly Israeli's brutal suppression of the Palestinian people. They talked of the occupation of Palestinian lands, the settlements and the daily humiliation of Palestinians in their own lands that they have occupied for millenia. They spoke of the awful power of the US Jewish lobby, which dominates lobbying in the States and is responsible for making Israel the superpower it undoubtedly is. They wondered how Obama could possibly be free from this lobby. They spoke of the perfect right of Iran to act as a balance to Israel in the Middle East. They pointed out that Iran has not made a point of invading its neighbours or bombing other countries. Israel and the US have a long history of invading and bombing whoever they feel like. As superpowers they can value their security beyond the lives and rights of others, so they do. They can bomb a country simply for their own security needs.

I could go on, for this programme, which is committed to broadcasting a balanced range of views, threw up many fascinating perspectives, not one of which condoned Israeli brutality.

I have tried repeatedly to understand Israel and my latest theory, for what it is worth, is that it is comparable with the abuser of children (for which read the 300 or 400 children it has killed in Gaza). Abusers are frequently people who have themselves been abused. The Jews were more abused than most other races in history, but now they have themselves become the abuser. Their behaviour has awful parallels with the Nazis, a point amplifed by a senior Vatican spokeman who compared Gaza with a concentration camp: the people there are denied jobs, movement, basic supplies, their houses are raised to the ground, UN compounds supplying water, etc. are deliberately targeted. In what way was this spokesman wrong to say what he did?

Israel is a country we should all condemn. It is barbaric, cruel, imperialistic, intolerant, self-righteous, messianic. We should also condemn America for creating this monster.