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Is It Possible To Write or Talk About The Middle-East, With Nuance and Clarity?
Palestine, Israel and the wider region, on my mind.
Friday took us all by surprise.
The images of the Hamas soldiers paragliding into Gaza is one which will forever seared into out minds.
And that element of surprise did play a huge part in ensuring that hundreds of Israelis were killed.
And no sooner had the killings taken place than the western world condemned Hamas in unison for this unprovoked act of violence and terrorism.
My initial reaction was one of profound outrage at Hamas, knowing fully well that the reprisals which would follow from Netanyahu's government would be disproportionate, arbitrary and completely unlike anything we had seen before, with innocent civilians caught up in the violence.
And what followed through from the Israeli government, as expected, was brutal and one which broke international laws, several times over.
There’s more than enough footage of dismembered Palestinian children to traumatize you for the rest of your natural life and chances are you won’t get this from your favourite news outlet.