It's time the British government grew some balls

It's well-known that any UN resolutions proposed against Israel are vetoed by the US. Interestingly, each time the British government abstains on these matters. And despite making a pledge not to sell arms to countries where there is a risk of regional instability or conflict, the government licenses £23m worth of weaponry to be shipped to Israel last year.

Israel is a powerful voice in world politics - helped by the number of influential US patrons no doubt - and it flouts rules set for other nations thanks to that backing. Let's get one thing straight: rocket attacks by Lebanese and Palestinian extremists on Israel are wrong, full stop. No excuses, no justification. But Israel's response to these attacks is way beyond wrong: it targets the entire country, killing innocent civilians (anyone who wants to claim that no Palestinian is innocent should probably set up shop in Belfast and tell the inhabitants of Northern Ireland that they're to blame for the actions of Loyalist and Republican paramilitaries. In fact, while you're at it, you should have lobbied the government to indiscriminately bomb Northern Ireland as a response to IRA attacks on the mainland in the 70s, 80s and 90s.)

The human race lives in a world that thrives on hypocrisy. Nowhere is this more evident than in Israel right now. And it's about time Western governments stop indulging in this hypocrisy, because while I sure as hell can never support violence against anyone for any sake I can damn well understand why people react the way they do. If you keep prodding a stick into a wasps' nest, sooner or later they're going to come out hunting for you. Cause and effect, and no amount of bleating on the one hand while prodding your stick on the other is going to change that.