Palestinian gunmen infiltrate Israel after rocket barrage

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I do not condone what Hamas has done. Not at all!

However, what do the Israelis and the rest of the world expect with the way Israel treats the Palestinians? Unfortunately, countries in the West support Israel and treat Palestinians as terrorists. The problem might be solved if the West applied enough pressure to Israel to allow a truly sovereign Palestinian state.

I don't know why the Western World kowtows to Israel.

Regarding the article by Mark Humphrys. Israel has been unpopular in Ireland for many years now. There was a point just after Israel was set up when many Irish people sympathized with it, especially when the Irgun were fighting Britain prior to that. Indeed, Robert Briscoe who was Lord Mayor of Dublin at one point and one of the chief couriers for the IRA aided smuggling efforts to get weapons for the Israelis. Briscoe was the son of Lithuanian Jews who had emigrated to Ireland due to pogroms. There's actually quite a bit of Irish involvement with the nascent Israel. One of the founders of their armoured division was an Irishman serving with British forces who stole tanks he then gave to the Israelis. This was Sergeant Mike Flanagan, he had been present at the liberation of Belsen which partly motivated his decision. He was also involved with a Jewish girl whom he later married after converting. He ended up as a Colonel in the Israeli Defence Forces.

However, the Irish over time lost their sympathy for the Israelis and by the time the late 60s rolled around many people sided with the Palestinians. The unionists for a variety of reasons sided with Israeli and in Northern Ireland if you see Palestinian flags it's a good clue you are in a majority Catholic or Nationalist area and if you see Israeli ones you know you are in an unionist area. In fact the dislike of Israel on my side of the divide has become so intense I at times feel uncomfortable with the anti-Semitic outbursts some figures have come out with.

Every Irish forum I've been on today is around 90 per cent behind the Palestinians. On one of them, an Irish Jewish protested this and this led to people telling her to get out of the state with her Zionist rubbish. That was rather ugly. I personally am not wholly for any side in the conflict but Israel scored many own goals with its relationship with Ireland such as the passport scandal and it has become very disliked by many Irish people as a result. Added to that in the north is the fact the IRA and other groups like the INLA maintained links with the PLO and they exchanged information and participated in cross-training at points.

I believe guvnor that one can believe Israel is an illegitimate state and not be anti-Semitic. I, as somebody of partial Jewish (Lithuanian / Russian) descent deplore anti-Semitism. In my opinion Israel is a fake country but opposing it is not anti-Semitic in the slightest. Indeed there are anti-Semites who oppose it and anti-Semites who support it.

Are any third or fourth generation 'German refugees' living in squalor on the Gaza Strip? 

It is shocking the way the Israelis treat the Palestinians.

I can see no resolution to this conflict, ever.

Israelis and many Jews will never accept a Palestinian State with full sovereignty. There are Jews who believe they have a God-given right to the land on the West Bank that they occupy.

Many Arabs and Muslims will not recognise the existence of Israel. There are some, e.g. Iran, who will not be satisfied unless the state of Israel is destroyed.

Two intractable sides, neither of which is willing to compromise or listen to reason or to achieve a peaceful and amicable solution. I will go to my grave without this issue being resolved. I also believe my grandchildren (if God blesses me with any) will also go to their graves without this matter resolved.