re: falkland islands - 4 ridge
Snooker, I do agree with you that a different rule seems to apply to the less than ethical actions of the US and the UK when they act against less powerful opponents, and yes,clearly relative to the way these two countries have been able to handle their shady affairs, Israel has not been allowed so to do.
I do recall the that the Falklands "Victory" was utilised by Thatcher against a background of jingoistic nationalism to secure yet another election victory in Britain. A very cynical exrcise indeed against the death of quite a few people on the General Belgrano which Britain sunk (I seem to recall).
What Ridge's message is attempting to get across is that after all the confrontation in Ireland, A political solution was the only one with any chance of getting up at the end of the day. You claim tha Israel has attempted the political approach to no avail but is the current approach working? It seems not. No matter how much Israel increases "the level of pain" to use your phrase it only seem to aggravate the situation.
Israel and the Palestinians both need to take a cold hard look at what a political solution will really mean. I suspect that neither side really has come to terms with that and neither side will like what they see but, to my mind, what we know of human nature tells me that the current escalation of violence on both sides will never see a resolution of the problem.
