Both in the case of the confrontation in eastern Ukraine, and in the battle between Israel and Hamas, there appears to be a dialogue of the deaf.

Writing about the former on the New York Times op-ed page, Igor Ivanov, a former foreign minister of Russia, and Malcolm Rifkind, Britain’s former foreign minister, argue the current crisis is deepening even as our mutual capacity to discuss, manage and control it is either shrinking by the day or is non-existent.

In Gaza, Israel has begun to pull back after the United Nations Secretary-General had called the second strike by the Israelis on a UN school in a week “a moral outrage and a criminal act”. The Financial Times reported that the United States state department had issued an “unusually harsh”condemnation of the Israeli strike. In The Guardian Geoffrey Robertson suggested any move by the Security Council on Israel would be vetoed but proposed the use of the International Criminal Court in The Hague initiate investigations that might provide an incentive to both sides to “punish their own criminals”.

As always Geraldine Doogue on ABC Radio’s Saturday Extra provided extra insights, returning to The Australian’s John Lyons for an analysis on Hamas. Meanwhile The Conversation explains why casualties in Israel from Hamas rockets have been so low – the Iron Dome anti-missile system has been effective.

Looking to the longer term Alan Gresh in Le Monde provides a useful history and says that so long as the Palestinians do not have a state of their own any ceasefire will only amount to a temporary cessation of hostilities.