Ed feels the same way I do about the Israel-Palestine slaughter.

Reporting on the conflict also tends to the ridiculous extremes: the virtuous Israelis defending themselves against subhuman terrorist child-killers, or the poor, defenseless, blameless Palestinians minding their own business until Israel decides to start killing people en masse. On balance, in recent years my sympathies are probably more on the Palestinian side but I want to be emphatic that I see no Good Guys and Bad Guys in the conflict.

Agreed. The reality is that if the Palestinians were dominant, they would be slaughtering just as many Israelis as the Israelis are now murdering on the Palestinian side. Very likely more.

Neither side is right or unsullied. We love underdogs, and the Israelis are pure evil for murdering innocents, but it is hard for me to have much sympathy in general for religious nuts and right-wing fascists killing each other.

The individuals who want to just live their lives, who are caught in the middle, that is another story.