Are there differing degrees of ‘deadness'? Is a Palestinian child with half their skull blown off by an Israeli shell, while going about daily tasks in their home - or 40 civilians kills by an American bombing raid in Iraqi going about daily tasks in their hometown - any less dead than four journalists or aid workers beheaded by ISIS in a war zone they chose to enter? No – death is absolute. Are some lives of more value than others?

Is a Christian worth more than a Muslim? Or an Israeli Jew worth more than a Palestinian? Or is a Protestant worth more than a Catholic? Or an American citizen more than anybody else on this planet. The answer is ‘no' – we are all born of equal value. There is an adage that ‘The violent death of one man is a tragedy but a 1000 violent deaths is a statistic'.

Well, it seems to me the Palestinians and ISIS rebels create tragedies.

While the Israelis and US-led coalition of the coerced, create statistics.

Please note I abhor violence in any context but find media coverage biased and designed to engineer opinions.

P Dolden, Papamoa.