I don't want to be too simplistic about this but if we had a neighbouring country intent on destroying us we would look very badly at a government who did not go in hard. The tragedy is in the suffering of the people on both sides but I believe I have got it right in that if there was a compromise Israel would have reached it a long time ago. Israel is the only "westernised" nation in the Middle East and I fear it may be the only barrier between the forces that hate the west and the rest of us.