The situation in Norther Ireland is different in a number of ways - but that wasn't always the case. There was displacement, there were bombing campaigns, there were uprising and massacres. There were even famines involving potatoes at various points.

If I were displaced from my home then I would like to return to it - but I wouldn't like to put my family in danger. I don't think most Gaza residents support Hamas and I think there's widespread anger at the situation that has been generated. Whether or not i would take up arms to make it happen, I don't know. I'm a fairly peaceful Penguin and as a secular pragmatist I don't really feel affinity to one place - rather to people. As I'm a liberal, I would likely have tried to build a home in Europe and would probably have become a refugee somewhere along the line. Other people may have different ideas about what they'd do, but that's my take on it.

When I said bait and switch what I meant was that Hamas would start a war, then seek for Hezbollah and Iran to become involved. Switch themselves out by hunkering down... that may have been why Ismail Haniyeh was in Iran and why Mossad hit Mohammad Reza Zahedi too. I think Israel absolutely do benefit from a war with Iran at this stage... and I think Netanyahu will push for it - and I think he'll be duplicitous about it.

Don't mistake my push back as an endorsement of Netanyahu, i think the man is a right-wing lunatic, but I think we've got to be careful about how we frame these matters in the west. We've got to keep in mind the wider political machinations happening outside what we can see.

I'll check the link out now.