A balanced account of the terrible happenings in Gaza

To listen to some people's account of the dreadful events in Gaza - accounts which come dangerously close to, and in some cases reach, the international definition of anti-Semitism by subjecting the state of Israel to  a stricter moral standard than anyone else or unreasonably comparing Jewish people to Nazis - you would think that everything which has happened is Israel's fault (except for what is Donald Trump's.)

To listen to other accounts you might imagine that the government of Israel has handled everything perfectly and all the bloodshed is Hamas's fault.

The truth, lies, as you might expect, somewhere between these two extremes.

I certainly don't think that either the Trump administration or the government of Israel has handled the situation well but there is no doubt that among the peaceful demonstrators were armed members of Hamas - which is classed as a terrorist organisation for good reasons by the governments of the USA, Britain and the EU - who were determined to cause trouble and willing to die and cause the deaths of others doing it.

Hamas themselves say that fifty of the 62 people who died were their members.

The best attempt I have seen to put together an impartial account of what happened which tries to be fair to both sides is an article in The Tablet called

"Thirteen inconvenient truths about what has been happening in Gaza"

which you can read here.

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