Do you feel secure? Why do you feel secure or not, as the case may be? The need for security is a very basic need, basic in the sense that if we feel insecure, threatened, on a knife edge, then we become distracted, full of fear, and that has a major impact on our life and quality of life. We can no longer be the person that we might otherwise be in better times.

What makes us feel secure, if we enjoy that quality of life? For some people they feel it comes from the presence of police and soldiers in their neighbourhood but this is really a good illustration of the lack of security, that someone needs or feels they need the protection of such forces, armed or otherwise. No, real security comes from a culture which, while violent acts may happen, values humanity, values peace, and respects the individual and their distinctive qualities. The lack of police and armies might be a better indicator of such a society, that society functions peacefully without the immediate presence of armed guardians (what that armed presence represents also varies from country to country and culture to culture but in some cases is the major force of repression itself).

Some people equate power and security but this is a big mistake. The United States of America wins by a landslide the competition to be the most powerful country in the world - militarily and also economically and culturally to some extent. But has the USA felt secure since 11th September last? No, the reverse has been true.

Israel is the most powerful country in the Middle East, militarily and economically, but does it feel secure? No, it feels so insecure that it invades the territory of its neighbours, the Palestinians, killing and destroying much around it, and making more bitter enemies.

Of course the USA was attacked on 11th September and Israel more recently, in both cases by 'suicide bombers'. But both sets of attackers are driven by injustices which they feel - in the case of the Palestinians, very real ones which they experience on a daily basis as they are discriminated against and marginalised. It is clear that the continuation of suicide bombings in Israel is not something which can be stopped by a 'security' approach. The military-style 'root out the terrorists' approach is a recipe for disaster and further conflict as the recipients of the 'rooting out' experience the injustice of that. When the military in Northern Ireland tried to 'root out terrorists' all it did was create new martyrs and escalate the conflict; for any one martyr there was the creation of new hatred and the seed of new martyrs. Why should we imagine it would or could be any different in the Middle East?

Enemies only become friends through dialogue and a process which takes time, commitment, trust, fearlessness and courage, as well as more than a modicum of good luck or good fortune. Israel as a state has failed to realise that it can only sleep peacefully in its bed, so to speak, when it treats its neighbours fairly. Illegal occupation of Palestinian land, illegal settlements which push resident Palestinians out, retributive action against innocent people, brutal military repression in recent months, all these things make for more suicide bombers not less.

Israel does not have it easy. There is a clash of two peoples and cultures in a small space, a very small space for the number of people. But there are so many inequalities in the situation that it is hard to know where to begin (all Jews, no matter how distant a connection they have with Israel, have the 'right of return'; no one is saying that even those Palestinians in exile who were born in Palestine will have the right of return to Palestine when any settlement is made).

Generosity by Israel is not beyond the possible but after the recent conflict would need a totally new departure which is only likely to come with a new government. Meanwhile our hearts go out to the Palestinian people who have suffered so much. And our hearts go out to those in Israel who oppose the current military policies and long for peace, those who resist through various NGOs, and those who resist serving in the military in the occupied territories or as conscientious objectors. The Palestinian people suffer the most; but there are Israeli victims too, and the hidden pain of those in Israel who grieve that their country could do such things.

Power can grow from the barrel of a gun. Real security cannot grow from the barrel of a gun because it is the product of good relationships. That is a hard and a long lesson to learn. It is not one that larger powers in the world are giving any good lessons to Israel about.