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I don't see the connection. You're not saying that Corbyn or Livingstone's position on Hammas is anything like the left's approach to the IRA in the late 60's are you?>
The connection is the instinctive support from some on the hard left of the side in any conflict they perceive to be the oppressed. There is a pattern, but that does not make Hamas and the IRA are the same. Peace negotiations in Palestine have been aided by those who worked on the NI peace talks, and there are clearly similarities in terms of the ingrained, generation to generation hatred that fuels both conflicts.
William.-
I always have a problem with phraseology of the kind you end with. It suggests that conflict exists because it's kind of traditional in particular places and, by implication, that it doesn't have an ongoing cause. Maybe that's not what you mean to imply but it seems to belong to the same kind of thinking that talks about problems being mired in history. People used to talk that way all the time about Northern Ireland and about how complicated the problem was. I'm not sure I agree. I think it's often a way of not bothering to work stuff out or to work out ones own government's role in a problem.
Fintan
What did we/you do there?
I don't see the connection. You're not saying that Corbyn or Livingstone's position on Hammas is anything like the left's approach to the IRA in the late 60's are you? The IRA was revived by the Parachute Regiment, not by sympathy from the left.
I think terms like 'set of terrorists' are designed to stop people recognising nuance and variations of position within groups. It's a war-like stance and it just doesn't work.