If you're not for us ....

You're against us. That is a line you hear occasionally.

Particularly fond of this line of thinking are American conservative regimes, and, needless to say, Israel.

Skip the Americans for now (I want to have an intelligent discussion), look at the Israeli take on this.

I have no objections to Israel existing, but their attitude to the Palestinians (you either do it our way, or we will bomb the Hades out of you, and while we are at at it we will blockade Gaza), and the very limited willingness to negotiate, I will not accept.

By the logic given above, that puts me in the camp of the Sunni Islamofascists of Hamas, or the Shia Islamofascists of Hezbollah. I can disprove any such support by eating a bacon sandwich (to which I am occasionally partial) and drinking a glass of Warsteiner or Hassenröder Premium Pils - as I am prone to do occasionally.

I remain neutral on the issue. Like many Europeans. The solution needs negotiation, though personally I think that Israel should either go back to the 1967 borders (they seized the land on the West Bank by force and colonised it in the name of some 3000 year old myth - sorry, in my world you don't get away with that), or accept a one (democratic) state solution.

Everyone living in the area - Gaza, Israel (as is) and the West Bank - would be in one country, with everyone living there voting in democratic elections.

The latter offers intriguing possibilities - Likud and Hamas would be the two biggest parties, and they would have to learn to talk to each other. Reasonably.

A fascinating thought - but if you check out Northern Ireland where the Loyalist DUP and the Nationalist party, Sinn Fein, are the biggest parties, it is maybe not so ridiculous.

The one thing that has to end is all the hostilities, whether from the Islamofascist militias or the Israeli force of occupation.

If there is one thing that I am for (well actually two) - the words "peace" and "reason" come to mind. If there is something that I am against, it is the continued use of violence to enforce a solution.

As things stand I am neither for the state of Israel as stands, nor Hamas, nor Hezbollah.

I am for reason, peace, and a just solution to the problem for all sides. And the prospect of peace (and hopefully prosperity) for all in the region.