Jewish communities, in the main, support Israel because they feel somewhat simplistically that it is their duty to so - whether they live in NY, London or Paris. As a generality, thinking Jews and academics are more circumspect and critical and recognize that Israel's bombing and killing of Palestinian women and children is counter-productive to say the least and at the worst will hasten the demise of the Zionist state, as it is now constituted and governed.

The concept of a tiny country on the shores of the Mediterranean, of just 6 million in barely 20,000 M2 having such a grossly disproportionate influence not only over America but also over the EU, is so ludicrous that it would make a good comic film script, were it not so tragic.

Every day, the world's media is full of the actions and utterances of Israeli politicians, and, of course, their remote 24/7 audio transmitting station in AIPAC. All this when the world has hugely serious economic and political problems that do not depend on a few million illegal settlers in Israel or on whether Livni or Barak or some other Likudnik gets into office again.

The international community needs to rethink its priorities urgently. The Israeli conflict certainly needs resolving before more hundreds of innocents civilians are killed and a nuclear war breaks out in the Middle East - but our lives must not be structured and defined by political Zionism.