Mike Miller, if you are happy to cite the UN as authority for Israel's existence, no doubt you think Israel should respect the various UN resolutions concerning the region?

Jack, you can't imagine any IRA people being "stupid enough" to be suicide bombers, but I expect you can think of a few who died on hunger strike, which in my book required similar comitment.

All over the world you will find people to willing to die if the cause is close enough to their hearts. Jan Palic may be the best remembered of those who have burnt themselves to death, but he is one of many hundreds in recent times. Such commitment doesn't mean the cause is always right, but it's a good measure of how deeply feelings can run, and how intractable some problems are.

Gareth, I thought trolling was supposed to be posting with a view to inviting attack (or "flaming" as we must to call it in cyberspace). Who had fed the troll when you first posted, and is your mind so closed that you can find nothing worthwhile in what has been an absorbingly interesting natter (or was till I joined in)?