Simon Lyons

This meticulously documented and profoundly shocking @LRB longread by @tomstevenson63 is essential reading, especially for those last apologists for Israel who still believe the IDF is fighting Hamas in a responsible manner rather than taking a bloody and barbaric revenge on the entire civilian population of Gaza Rubble from Bone lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n03/…

Do read the piece, Meni. It lays out its case clearly and with impressive detail and sourcing. I think it's difficult to refute. I would not have advocated flattening West Belfast in response to the IRA pub bombings or their attempts to blow up the cabinet. And I certainly don't think the indiscriminate slaughter of 27,000 civilians in Gaza now will in any way help bring about peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians either. I would advocate a version of what worked for the British in Northern Ireland: sending the Special Forces after the implacable terrorists, while working on a political track to make them irrelevant. Netanyahu humiliated the Palestinian Authority that did lay down its arms, and kept Hamas afloat financially as he recognised they would make a Palestinian State almost impossible: For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it’s blown up in our faces. The premier's policy of treating the terror group as a partner, at the expense of Abbas and Palestinian statehood, has resulted in wounds that will take Israel years to heal from timesofisrael.com/for-years-… This policy must now be reversed. The only long term answer to the region's problems is justice and a political solution that gives freedom and security for both peoples- ie.Two States, sitting side by side.  It will  be impossibly difficult to achieve, now more than ever, but I believe its the best and possibly only solution