Mick Hartley

As I argued a week ago, the Hamas massacre of 7/10 and the repercussions have surely now put paid to any hope of a Palestinian state in the foreseeable future. As the historical record shows, they never wanted a state unless that meant the destruction of Israel – "from the river to the sea" – and the ultimate reason for that was Islam, and the holy site of Al-Aqsa, and the hatred of Jews built in to Islam from the beginning and burnished through the Muslim Brotherhood with Nazi thinking. And now, in Gaza, we have rule by Hamas, teaching Jew hatred and jihad with a ferocity we've seen before with ISIS.

So Feargal Sharkey and Alf Dubs' suggestion in the Times yesterday that Northern Ireland deal offers Gaza path to peace is, alas, just hopelessly naive.

The lead letter to the Times this morning sums it up:

Sir, Feargal Sharkey and Alf Dubs are right to say that the Troubles and the Palestinian situation are very different. But I disagree with them that a negotiated agreement in Gaza is possible — at least at present. The key difference between the two conflicts is that, in Northern Ireland — as with every successful negotiation — each side wanted something from the other but did not oppose the other simply “being”. That being the case, they could find common ground and, slowly and painfully, come to an agreement. However, Hamas is implacably opposed to Israel’s very existence. It has made this absolutely and publicly clear, and has reiterated it recently. Victory for Hamas would be the elimination of the state of Israel and the death of every Jew.