Bishop Nick Baines blogs today about resignations,and I found myself massively agreeing with his view on the more serious resignation around the world ‘that Israel can do what it likes and get away with it – that in the end no one will hold Israel to account. They can build their illegal settlements, flout UN Resolutions at will, refuse to cooperate with the wider world (eg. nuclear proliferation negotiations) and commit atrocities against vulnerable people – and apart from a few sharp words, they can then carry on business as usual.’

Bishop Nick is of course referring to Israeli forces intercepting an unarmed flotilla attempting to take medical supplies and food to people in Gaza. As ever Israel speaks of ‘self defence‘ and yet we read of deaths of unarmed civilians yet again from armed Israeli military personnel.

Many have protested and Israel will ignore those protests and simply carry on committing atrocities.

When will governments stand up and act against this country that flouts international laws and has total disregard or respect for human life and the views of those who disagree.

William Hague (the Foreign Secretary) speaks well today and says ‘there is a clear need for Israel to act with restraint and in line with international obligations.’ He goes on to say: ‘This news underlines the need to lift the restrictions on access to Gaza in line with UNSCR (UN Security Council Resolution) 1860.The closure (of access to Gaza) is unacceptable and counter-productive. There can be no better response from the international community to this tragedy than to achieve urgently a durable resolution to the Gaza crisis.