Not sure I agree with you there, Jim: fly the flag to show your support, but *not* as a political statement on a public building.

The one is a personal statement; the other contains implicit endorsement of a political position. And as far as I can see at the moment, the only political position in the UK is 'I wish the beggars'd stop'.

There is No Solution that involves attacking Israel. After thousands of years of persecution culminating in the Nazi death camps; the homeless, nationless Jews, somewhat understandably vowed they would never let themselves become passive victims again, and would instead be aggressive in the defence of their nation. We turfed the the Palestinians out of their homeland and gave the land to the Jews to form that nation of Israel and they will absolutely never give it up. Hamas want to incite Israel into shelling them and in turn - other Arab nations into greater war against Israel, as they know that alone they can never hope to defeat Israel. This is highly unlikely as the Arab nations remember too well the bloody nose they recieved when they last went to war against Israel. They were comprehensively defeated by Israel within Six days
Flying a flag or not is irrelevant and will change nothing for the beleagured Palestinians.
The only solution is to talk and to acknowledge each others right to exist.
Everything else just ends with the murder of innocents.

My father in law reckons that there is a sort of conspiracy to achieve the above and that 'The West' wouldn't object to it as Israel crushing a few of their neighbours might smooth things out in the wider Middle East.

Your father-in-law is probably right Tim, as there is no doubt plenty people in "the West" and elsewhere, that would benefit from and be content to see that happen.

Neil, all I'm saying is that it doesn't matter very much and it's not worth getting one's underwear in a tizzy over. I'm not saying I approve of the action or that it's a right and proper thing to do over the headquarters of an elected body that hasn't given a mandate for it. I'm saying that if this fella has a flagpole and a flag and an opinion, it's not a huge surprise that the 3 things have combined, literally or metaphorically. It's not that much of a leap of imagination to see Boris pulling a similar stunt.

Also, I'm not as naive as perhaps Lego might think in terms of the effect the entire world's disapproval (with a few exceptions) might have on Israeli policy or it's execution thereof. I'm also reasonably well aware of the history of the region. On the other hand, the Israeli government emphatically does not speak for the entire nation.
And, regardless of plots to lure Israel into battering Gaza, there is simply no legitimacy for the creation of what Netanyahu astonishingly termed "telegenic dead Palestinians".

Actually we turfed the Israelites out of their homeland to give it to the Eastern European Jews who became the Israelis. The Palestinians are the jews who remained in Israel and who were forced by the Crusaders to convert to christianity and then in turn forced by the troops of Saladin to convert to islam. It is the usual result of the cancer of religion and politics on society. Hamas are without doubt terrorist scum who feed on the corpses of the people they claim to represent but Israel is the abused child become the abuser, seeking "lebensraum" by invading other lands and treating their populace as subhuman, creating ghettos which they have no compunction about liquidating at need.

Agreed.

The way there will ever be a stable status-quo in Gaza is for Hamas to be removed from governance.

To lighten things up a little, here's one from my Jewish mother in law.

What's the difference between a Jewish mother in law and Hamas? Sometimes, you can negotiate with Hamas...