Oh no, they’re at it again in the Middle East.

Just how many years has this bitter conflict between the majority Muslim Arabs of Gaza and their Jewish neighbours in Israel been going on? And yet most of us in the West know next-to-nothing about the complicated background to the current saturation bombing of the Gaza Strip by |Israel.

Here’s all I know: Israel is a tiny state of six million Jews, surrounded on all sides by the Arab nations of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Literally many millions of Arabs, mostly Muslims, who could either join forces and crush Israel once and for all or offer to take in the 1.4 million inhabitants of Gaza and thus leave Israel in ‘splendid isolation’. But they’ve obviously chosen not to get involved, perhaps fearing a counter-invasion by the US? Even though these days any further warmongering by the Americans seems unlikely. They couldn’t |really afford it, for one thing.

I’m not exactly sure how Israel supports itself financially. Or indeed how the Gaza population makes ends meet. In the TV pictures, the region looks like one giant dustbowl sweltering under a perpetually burning sun. The men of Gaza seem a passionate lot, and grieving for the dead is clearly not the buttoned-up affair it is here in the West. Then again, the women of Gaza appear to be keeping a low profile. I can’t recall many news programmes where the women were asked what they thought of the political situation.

I don’t mind telling you I’m completely baffled by the Middle East conflict. Not that I’m dismissive of the dead and injured on all sides: I’m certainly not. But honestly, will somebody please tell me why history keeps on repeating itself? Why Hamas launches rockets at Israel, then Israel drops bombs on Gaza, innocent children are blown to pieces and everybody beats their breasts in wild paroxysms of grief. And then they do it all again the following day. And how did 1.4 million people end up living in poverty in a narrow strip of land measuring barely 30km long by 4km wide anyway?

Now, we all know how the Jewish people suffered during World War Two. Six million innocent lives cruelly snuffed out by a psychotic regime spinning out of control. And so most of us support the idea of a safe and legally sanctioned Jewish homeland, which was agreed by the UN in 1948. The Old Testament describes how Moses led the descendants of Jacob (the Jews) out of Egypt and into Canaan (now called Israel). Fair enough, you might say. But obviously the Palestinian Arabs weren’t mad-keen on the idea and they still aren’t. And they’re entitled to their opinion, like anybody else.

How long can the people of Gaza go on functioning when all around them they see nothing but death and destruction? And do the men of Gaza or indeed the men of Israel really care more about flags and religion than their own sons and daughters?

We learned our lessons hard here in Northern Ireland. That singing patriotic songs down the pub was all very well. More than 3,000 people lost their lives and thousands more ended up heartbroken or addicted to tranquillisers. Until the economy collapsed and everyone was on the dole and the smart ones went to England and never came back. Until the rest of the world lost interest and stopped coming here with their news cameras. And the concept of Northern Ireland was reduced to a handful of English comics doing very bad impersonations of Big Ian.

So now I’m 40 years old and the time I’ve got left before the arthritis etc kicks in is very precious to me. And unless somebody explains the Middle East conflict to me, very quickly and very soon, I’m going to give up trying to understand it. I don’t want the Jewish people to suffer any more and I don’t want the Arab/|Muslim people to suffer any more. I respect the right of both peoples to exist. I understand that Islam compels its followers to defend their faith against all ‘infidels’. And I understand the siege mentality of the Israelis. But surely it’s time for both sides to start talking to one another and to the rest of the world? Surely it’s time for both sides to start explaining themselves? Because truly, the rest of us aren’t sure what the people in this troubled region actually want to achieve in the long term. There must be a way for everyone to have their patch of land in the Middle East and still be friends with their neighbours, and grow enough food to feed their families?

We stopped killing each other here in Northern Ireland, and amazingly the sky didn’t fall down. Nobody was compelled to abandon their religion and nobody was arrested, fired or deported. It’s not even cool to make fun of Big Ian any more.

And you don’t hear a united Ireland mooted much these days either, since we all suspect our southern friends might not be able to afford us. So we accept a certain level of doubt with regard to our future sovereignty and we keep going.

It’s not such a bad thing when we just treat each other as human beings instead of Jews, Christians or Muslims. Will peace ever come to the Middle East?

Or will the fate of Israel and Gaza finally be told by the Last Man Standing?