I don't understand the unshakeable faith that some have in the UN. Without a single success to point to, and with a huge track record of genocides not prevented and other disasters, how anyone can sit there and say, "Let the UN sort it out" is beyond me.

Unless they hate Jews, sorry Zionists, and want them all killed.

Well, Simon Schama doesn't hate Jews.

I think a lot of people just love government, for some reason.

Of course he doesn't, I'm just feeling a bit threatened at the moment. Despite all the Guardian's reassuring cartoons, I'm not seeing Israel as a huge bully beating up little boys...

I've been thinking about this some more, and I think it's because the idea of internationalism, to some, is so self-evidently correct, that it can survive any amount of real-world failure. If you feel deeply embarrassed about your own country and what it stands for, it must be easy to feel that nationalism is the problem. Add to that, as you say, a love (or at least a deep, abiding trust) of government, and you have the answer: a big, lovely world government that can stop all these horrid nationalists from fighting with each other. It's just so obviously the solution, we have to keep trying until it works. Almost a religious faith, as though the UN is the father figure giving security and comfort in place of the G-d they have rejected.

I love the way Israel said:

"UN troops? No thanks. We want NATO."

And the best bit: I recall, a few years ago, a head of NATO stating that "we're not a peacekeeping organisation".

Good job.