I watched events unfold in Paris last week with a combination of dismay, disgust and horror. I’m sure we all did. There was a surreal quality to the footage of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and the ensuing manhunts, hostage scenarios and ultimate carnage. An attack on free speech, twenty people dead, religious tensions exacerbated - and all in a country I love, with a culture I respect and admire, and in a city I visited only a few weeks ago. On a level I have found the whole

I feel sickened by the continuing spiral of violence and death in the Middle East. As I watch the news today, more people are dying, men, women, children, and for what? It seems senseless, and with each further loss, this most complex and fraught of conflicts feels doomed to an even deeper chasm between the two sides, and the accompanying hardening of attitudes and beliefs, and cycle of hatred and killing. Of course, the Israeli people have the right to defend their nation.