Talking of doggedness, Seumas Milne is always with us. There's a cute passage from him today:
Like any other people, the Palestinians have the right to resist occupation - or to self-defence - whether they choose to exercise it or not. In spite of Israel's disengagement in 2005, Gaza remains occupied territory, both legally and in reality. It is the world's largest open-air prison, with land, sea and air access controlled by Israel, which carries out military operations at will. Palestinians may differ about the tactics of resistance, but the dominant view (if not that of Abbas) has long been that without some armed pressure, their negotiating hand will inevitably be weaker. And while it might be objected that the rockets are indiscriminate, that is not an easy argument for Israel to make, given its appalling record of civilian casualties in both the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.A right of resistance to occupation there is. And yet the 'indiscriminate' rockets he mentions are being aimed deliberately at civilian populations, and this means that those who aim them and those who decide on the policy of doing so are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Which is where the cute bit comes. That, says Seamus, 'is not an easy argument for Israel to make'. Did I miss something or is Seumas Milne an Israeli? I didn't think so. He could therefore say that the right of resistance to occupation doesn't include a right to chuck missiles at Sderot and Ashkelon. But it seems not to be the trend of his thought.