Serious Point Warning

It seems that Human life is so little valued these days that it is possible for people to argue over the number of civilians killed in a war (and I think you know which one I mean). How can no one be sure whether the number is 98,000, the number given in the Lancet study, or 4000 which is what Jack Straw said was correct. Do we have some type of destructor gun which makes the body vanish like the Daleks' exterminator?

It is also nice to know that the intelligence services are on the top of their game as normal. Who would have guessed this? Obviously they have been spending all their time working this out rather than counting the bodies. Sorry! Maybe I should avoid the slightly satirical tone because it should not really be treated as a joke. Do I think too much?

Can't think. I want to write something comparing the case of the Israeli officer who shot dead a 13-year-old girl to that of the Israeli soldiers who posed naked in the snow so please do not think I am being biased in any way. Which case led to dismissals from the army? I think you may be able to guess. And then making the Palestinian violinist play at a checkpoint simply made me think of the Holocaust. Same for many other people I think. Maybe a grass-roots not-in-my-name campaign amongst the Israeli people is a good thing but, as I always say when writing about these things, there is no solution that results in a complete end to the problem. We can only hope that it gets no worse.