This subject makes me despair and so I steer clear of threads on it, but, although my natural sympathy is with the Palestinian people, that does not stretch to Hamas who can have no justification for what happened on Saturday. On the other hand, I can't get this feeling out of my mind that elements of the Israeli Government, particularly this Israeli Government, will be relishing what follows the weekend atrocity.

As I say, I despair and the worst thing is that history tells you that anyone who says they have an "oven ready" solution to the whole problem is either a fool or doesn't really understand what's is going on in the middle east.