The Israeli regime engenders animosity in its non-Jewish neighbours by its aggressive attitude to any of those neighbours who have yet to sell out to the west. In addition, it discriminates against its own non-Jewish citizens. By usurping the best land for its own illegal settlements and building an apartheid wall that splits family farms in two and which encroaches on Palestinian land, it further exacerbates that animosity. There is a deliberate promotion by the regime and by its supporters in the west of a victim mentality. By trying to extend the definition of antisemitism to cover any criticism at all of Israel, it becomes antisemitic itself, an irony that has been pointed out many times on this forum. To sum up, the actions of the regime increase insecurity and encourage their enemies. That is the very opposite of what it means to act in the interests of your own people, which should be the first job of any government. In that regard, the Israeli regime is, in effect, helping to put Jewish people in harm's way by dint of just about the biggest exercise in upping the ante in the world today. The Jewish and non-Jewish people of Israel are no different to you and me. Like you and me, they need prosperity, security and peace. They have, unfortunately, endured governments who persistently act against those aspirations, and their western poodle, the United States, is fully complicit. Wow, who'd have thought that the US could get their foreign policy so wrong....

I support the continuing existence of the state of Israel and would like to see an Israel that can be a comfortable and prosperous partner in the Middle East. Each and every one of my remarks has been levelled against the regime only. I know that won't matter to two or three of the people here. Ho hum.