A lot of good points raised here !

I am British and loved studying "Israel" when I was at school. What I am about to say shows my ignorance of the situation, but it also shows a pretty typical view.

In the 1970s / 80s we were taught about how we had give opportunity to so many people. We were proud of what we had done in Israel. Our teacher added as a foot note that it was trendy for the left-wing to support the Palestinians. We just thought it was the "looney left" at it again !

I saw things on the tv and , I am ashamed to say, I thought; "Oh dear,will they never stop fighting over their religions ?" I thought the point was religion.

In recent years I have spoken to people whose families had lived in that disputed land for centuries. I have seen photos of their family houses where other people came and took over the top floor of their homes and left them with the bottom floor. I started to think that maybe it wasn't what it had seemed before.

I still haven't got to grips with what poltical framework the native people have actually had to work within. What political body could they go to to report injusticies ? What political body represented them ? Who listened ?

I don't know the answer, but it seems to me that they had little chance of expressing anything through what we regard as normal channels. Even Cherie Blair said that she could understand their frustration because they had no other manner of expressing themselves. ( She later apologised for saying that !)

So I can see Karen's point here.