Well let's get back to Israel/Palestine, which is the conflict under discussion.
I was only saying that we need to be explicit and not vague in spelling out the crimes under discussion. I am honestly not sure of the levels of civillian death in NI. At the same time, I am naturally predisposed to the favouring the Catholic side, whitewashing the Republican "contribution" to the Troubles, hating the loyalists and blaming the Brits, because that's where my family's loyalties lie and that's what I grew up with.
I didn't want to do that, however. I was trying to be fair.
Anyway...
It shouldn't be controversial that the awful situation the Palestinians are in is mainly a result of the foundation and subsequent activities of Israel.
1967 - did the Israelis just walk in and steal the Palestinian's land then? That's just a knee-jerk assumption, Mr Tea.
No one looks good, if you take the long view, and that's the best you can say about it.
So it simply isn't fair to compare the actvities of the IDF with those of Palestinian militants* because Palestinians wouldn't be attacking Israel(is) if it hadn't been founded on land taken from them, and hadn't continued to abuse their rights ever since.
So we're back to where we started from: Palestinians terrorists (i.e. non-uniformed warriors dressed as civilians answerable to no authority)
intentionally machine gunning babies in their prams is not comparable to Israeli AF attacking military targets.
Israel's draconian security measures are necessary as a defence against people whose animosity towards the Israel is a result of that country's own actions.
Really? It's the "draconian security measures" brought in to combat Palestinian terrorism that are responsible for that terrorism? You're just trying not to understand the conflict in any depth. Did multilateralism and the Oslo Accords bring peace? Nope. Is unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip bringing peace? Nope. Why not? Because a significant section of the Palestinians (and the rest of the Mid East) don't want peace with Israel. They don't recognise it.
They want to destroy it.
Forget Ahmedinijad's ravings and the al Jazeera pundits who'd blame Israel for the fact that a man in Yemen stubbed his toe yesterday, and reaslise that are people in the Middle East who have a perfectly justified reason for their antagonism towards the country.
There is a political case on both sides, clearly. But the Palestinians kill without purpose or aim - it's totally immoral. Regarding the rest of the ME, it's impossible to disentangle all that from the ravings of the lunatics.
Both sides deserve a state. But the rest of the Mid East states have no right to excoriate Israel for crimes that they have all committed many more times. Anti-Israeli radicals who are fighting to set up tyrannies across the Mid East (incluuding Palestine) have no right either.
Be annoyed, campain, try to find a political solution that satisfies both sides, but don't be stupid, don't be murderous, don't support a pointless struggle with no acheivable end and unthinkable means.
*which I am consciously choosing to use, as oppsed to 'terrorists' as you'd have it or 'freedom fighters' as others would
A terrorist dresses like you or me and kills people like you or me. He or she answers to no legitimate state or institution that can be held into account. That's all. Call them what you want.