The Israel analogy is not at all close. That's a dispute between two sets of people, both with a reason to want to live in the same part of the world, and withdisagreements about the political arrangements they want to see to guarantee their right to live there.

In the course of the dispute there've been atrocities enough and terror of various sorts, but there's no fundamental reason why a peaceful settlement can't be achieved. Analogous in many ways to what has happened in many parts of the world, including Ireland. In the end the terrorists, or the heirs of the terrorists, have to establish a peace process that draws a line under the years of useless killing.

The business with Al Qaeda is something different, and more intractable. It's more analogous with the religious wars that have littered some periods of our history. And yet they came to an end, though more through exhaustion than any kind of negotiation. And that will happen in time with this one. The important thing is to minimise the damage caused in the meantime, all kinds of damage, spiritual and moral as well as physical.