This image indicative of Israel's usurping of Palestinian land since 1948.

http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Israeli-theft-of-Palestine-maps.jpg

"...No equivalent action occurs from the West Bank, where people have lived comparatively normal lives."

Not much left of "The West bank" these days...so it seems

Dear Don;

You wrote;

“The historian in me points out that more than 11,000 rockets have been fired into Israel since 2001, that the naval blockade is there to try to prevent the stock being added to, that the main victims of the rocket attacks have been children, and that the threat of a rocket attack has caused great stress and terror to children.”

With the greatest respect my friend that was the human Don speaking not the historian.

If it had been the historian you would have pointed out how many round of high explosive weaponry Israel pumped into Gaza over the same period. For instance; “Between 2005 and 2007, Palestinian groups in Gaza fired about 2,700 locally made Qassam rockets into Israel, killing four Israeli civilians and injuring 75 others. During the same period, Israel fired more than 14,600 155 mm artillery shells into the Gaza Strip, killing 59 Palestinians and injuring 270.”

But you didn't.

The analyst/historian in you may well have gone to the effort of finding out the blast range of a 155mm artillery shell and noted that a human sized target 50 meters away from the impact had a 50:50 chance of being killed or sustaining a disabling injury. The radius for a Qassam is less than 10.

But you didn't.

The historian/analyst in you might have checked the facts before claiming “ that the main victims of the rocket attacks have been children” and found that just three of the 42 fatalities caused by rockets and mortars fired into Israel since 2004 were children.

But you didn't.

But at least the human in you is wondering about morality. Then are you able to answer what morality lies in bombing schools, hospitals, UN refuges, vast swathes of civilian homes and businesses, of police stations, of Hamas leaders homes?

Or do you believe as this man does?

“Retired Israeli Major General Giora Eiland wrote ... there is no such thing as an innocent civilian in Gaza. … arguing that the citizens of Gaza were as responsible for the recent violence as Hamas.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2014/08/04/israeli-general-no-civilians-in-gaza.html

This is really funny.

Unable to reply effectively to the logic and reasoned analysis of their opponents, Don Aitkin, Srteelredux and Dane are conducting a Mutual Admiration Society.

When you get through scratching each others backs, boys, just remember that SPQR, Shocky and me are still waiting in the Arena for you three to show your heads.

"When you get through scratching each others backs, boys, just remember that SPQR, Shocky and me are still waiting in the Arena for you three to show your heads."

Lol!...I'm sure SteeleRedux and dane are trembling in their boots at the prospect of bumping into "SPQR, Shocky and me"..

Where's that then?

Out the back of the shed behind the bike racks at playtime?

SPQR, Shocky and Poirot
Out the back of the shed behind the bike racks at playtime? You sound like ignorant children.

Steele,

I showed you my reasoning, and you showed me yours. We each take greater notice of some things than others. We disagree about morality — at least, I think we do. I am not sitting as a judge, but I think you may be.