You cannot bomb complex problems in the Middle East out of existence - Andy Brown

That was a pretty astute observation for a man some want us to believe has become completely gaga. Just because the American people were legitimately hurting after terror attacks on their country didn’t make it a good idea to invade Iraq.

Sometimes an ill thought out violent response is exactly what the terrorists want, expect and plan for. The Prime Minister of Israel is proving dangerously willing to make exactly that mistake.

It isn’t easy to achieve precision bomb strikes against terrorists from a distance. If the Israeli government knows exactly where the terrorists are, what they are doing and the location of their tunnels then it is very hard to explain to its people how Hamas was able to launch such a viciously well organised attack on them and keep it a surprise.

Even on the ground in a bombed city it is exceptionally difficult to tell who is firing on who, where danger is coming from and when troops are entering an area where a family that chose to stay with a sick relative who couldn’t move has been sheltering with no intention of doing any harm to anyone. Innocent people will get shot in the attempts to eradicate Hamas. Explaining that they were not the intended target will not prevent terrorists from recruiting a new generation from the friends, relatives and lovers of the dead.

People across the world were rightly shocked and outraged when innocent Israeli citizens were shot for attending a music festival or hunted down and killed in front of their families, weeks after courageously demonstrating against their own government.

The pictures of the devastated streets in Gaza are already causing very similar international outrage. Orders to entire populations to vacate their homes have an ominous sound to them. Leaving millions without access to basic essentials like water, food and fuel to cook it looks to many like ugly and brutal revenge against an entire population. Starving people in a blockade is not a way to end the cycle of violence.

The people of Israel have the right to live in peace and freedom secure in their property. The people of Palestine have exactly that same right.

In a complex conflict with a long history it is naïve and dangerous to believe that there can be a once and for all victory for a particular side. Those who are calling for a cease fire and a two state solution are the realists.

It is no great secret that there are significant numbers of people in the Middle East and beyond who want to wipe out the state of Israel. That is both a realistically unachievable aim and a morally outrageous one. Where are the Jewish people who were born in Israel supposed to go? Anyone marching for peace needs to be very careful who they are siding with.

There are also some very nasty extremists within Israel who think they can win this war by wiping out the Palestinians and that they will be somehow safer from attack if they take more land. They won’t be. Escalation increases risk.

The only route to safety and security for both sides in this conflict is an understanding that the other side has exactly the same rights as you would wish to enjoy yourself.

There are plenty of people inside Israel and in Palestine who understand this. A lot of people in Israel have very legitimate doubts about whether they have been led towards a bright and secure future by a Prime Minister who accepted convicted racists into his government, tried to muzzle the judiciary, has faced a string of corruption charges and utterly failed to protect the nation from the Hamas terror attack. A lot of people in Palestine must be asking themselves whether Hamas had their best interests in mind when it launched the terror attack. Their homes and their lives have been put in severe danger by an organisation that claims to be protecting them.

In such circumstances voices that come together to demand proper long term solutions are right and those who try to line up with one side are quite wrong. It was not wise for the British Prime Minister to tell Benjamin Netanyahu that the British nation wants his side to win.

What Britain needs from its leaders is a realistic recognition that in the end it is necessary to talk and to negotiate. What it is getting is over close alignment with some very questionable actions.

You cannot bomb complex problems out of existence. Revenge is not sweet. It is a breeding ground for the next disaster.

Andy Brown is the Green Party councillor for Aire Valley in North Yorkshire.