Reference:- Conservative commentator and leading intellectual , young Douglas Murray ,does make some strange remarks at times .

Reference :-  Young Douglas  Murray supports Israel so strongly that he occasionally gets rattled and makes a fool of himself . 

Dear Douglas , 

                              Steady on young fellow , steady on . Try to stay calm and don't let the crazy left, riddled as it is with Holocaust deniers ( even the ones who survived the Holocaust are Holocaust deniers , you tell us) , rattle you .  You are the clearest of thinkers , and your moral compass sets an example for us all .   As you regularly say , war is war , and civilians die , like WW2 in Dresden for example . Of course that is why the Geneva Conventions were ratified in 1949 , establishing humanitarian laws .  But naturally , nobody could give a sailor's cuss for all that malarkey , especially Israel . 

Anyway Douglas , although you are championing the Israeli agenda to great effect , I feel compelled to point out an error in your reasoning that does make you look foolish .  I am no linguist , like that leftist idiot Noam Chomsky , who you could no doubt humiliate in a debate , but I think I do know the meaning of the words  " proportionate " , and " equivalent " .  

When you say that Israel's response to the attack on Oct 7 need not be proportionate , since that would mean killing , kidnapping , raping and beheading the exact number of Palestinians in return , you appear to be confusing the word " proportionate " with the word " equivalent "  .     A proportion can be in any ratio one chooses  . Both 1:1 and 1000 :1 indicate  proportions .  Are you with me son ? 

Mind you , you are correct when you say that it is stupid to discuss proportionate responses to Oct 7 .  For starters the number of Israelis killed , and by which side  , and the number of rapes ( recently quietly removed from the New York Times website due to conflicting evidence) and the number of beheaded  babies ( down from 40 to 1 , which is also questionable ) clearly means that a proportionate response is not possible .   If the IDF had beheaded Palestinian babies they would have overdone it by a ratio of 40 :1 . 

(Doubtless that has happened , but at arms length in a distant blast , which sanitizes the whole process and makes it suitable  for television audiences .   ) 

I see that the IDF has just freed two more of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas.  If they can free one more that will compensate for the three Israeli hostages that they accidentally shot dead .  That could then be called equivalent , or proportionate if you prefer  , in a ratio of 1:1 .    The mathematics of genocide are endlessly fascinating , are they not  ?

It really is  a shame about the three slaughtered hostages , but sadly in war , mistakes are made , and one can hardly ask  IDF soldiers to tell the difference between an Israeli hostage and a surrendering unarmed Palestinian civilian at a moment's notice . 

 Ken junior has read this , since he does all the proof reading at The Sky Reply .  He says the whole thing makes about as much sense as one of your interviews on Sky News.   That is high praise indeed. 

Your comrade , 

Ken . 

PS   Ken junior reckons " proportionate " and " proportional " have subtly different meanings and wanted to know which word you used .   For the love of God , how different can they be ? 

PPS  A copy of this is being forwarded to Noam Chomsky for his opinion .