This piece by Jonathan Freedland offers the classic liberal-minded analysis of the Israel/Hamas conflict:

Both sides point at the other with equal vehemence, a Newtonian chain of claimed action and reaction that can stretch back to infinity.

So perhaps a more useful exercise – especially for those who long for an eventual peace with both sides living side by side – is not to ask whether the current action is legitimate, but whether it is wise.

Good. I always like arguments which attempt to explore Wisdom.

The longtime Palestinian analyst and negotiator Hussein Agha says it would have been "straightforward: if they had lifted the blockade, the rockets would have stopped".

Some diplomatic sources dispute this, arguing that Hamas actually saw an advantage in the sanctions regime: "opening up would have loosened Hamas’ grip," says one. Hence the cases of Hamas firing on border crossings as they were opened.

But most Palestinians insist that a relaxation of the blockade would have granted Hamas its key objective – a chance to prove it can govern effectively – and it would not have jeopardised that with rocket fire. It would have had too much to lose.

Here is the problem. Does Hamas believe in what we call ‘governing’, effectively or otherwise?

Not obviously.

Take Hamas leader Nizzar Rayyan, killed last week:

I asked him if he believed, as some Hamas theologians do (and certainly as many Hezbollah leaders do) that Jews are the "sons of pigs and apes." He gave me an interesting answer that reflects a myopic reading of the Koran. "Allah changed disobedient Jews into apes and pigs, it is true, but he specifically said these apes and pigs did not have the ability to reproduce.

So it is not literally true that Jews today are descended from pigs and apes, but it is true that some of the ancestors of Jews were transformed into pigs and apes, and it is true that Allah continually makes the Jews pay for their crimes in many different ways. They are a cursed people."

Freedland rightly points out that when Israel attacks Hamas, Hamas ratings in the Arab world tend to rise.

If Hamas leaders are in fact not really motivated by ‘normal’ cost-benefit analysis but by virulent religious hateful fanaticism aimed at annihilating Israel and Jews, maybe Israel thinks that it has little to lose from further such ‘radicalisation’?

While all this mayhem drags on, two tough senior people from Israeli and Iranian intelligence are meeting somewhere in a discreet restaurant in eg Vienna. For the real Negotiation:

Iran:  You Israelis are too … stubborn. You are outnumbered. You know you will lose, sooner or later. End the pain now. We’ll help you go back to Europe. Or even stay in the Middle East, but as a respected minority in an Arab country.

Israel:   No way. We have had it with those Europeans and their Final Solutions. Why can’t you guys grow up? All this whinging about Islamic victimness down the ages has left you backward and underperforming. Why not work together with us to make the whole region something decent?

Iran:  We Muslims just can’t accept your alien Jewish state in our midst, tiny as it is. It gets on our nerves and drives us crazy. Sorry, just the way we are. Plus, of course, thanks to European vacillation we are well on our way to getting a Bomb which will drive you away if you don’t … submit.

Israel:  Yes, we know all about that. Do you really think we’ll let you launch one?

Iran:  Do you really think we won’t succeed in launching one, sooner or later? Sure you can can blow up us too, but there are more of us than there are of you – in the decades to come we’ll be back in business, and you’ll be wandering round the world again for ever.

Israel:  Well, if we face another Final Solution, you will end up with something that feels pretty like one for you too as it drops on your head. Call our bluff and see what happens at the addresses of you and all your family members for a start. We have nowhere to go, so if we go down you’ll come with us too. You don’t have the monopoly on angry irrationality, you know.

Iran:   You are really so fearless. I almost believe you. Yet have you not considered that when we Muslims die we get all those virgins up in heaven? Your threats count for so little when that exquisite fragrant prospect awaits me.

Israel:  Hmm. Good point. But my friends also have a video of you with four no-longer-quite-so-virgin infidels in your hotel room last night. Girls and boys! Quite a party. That should amuse your people when they see it on YouTube.

Iran:  (Nervously)  Whaaaat? You’re far beyond crazy. Look, let’s talk.

Israel:   I always like a happy ending.