The love I’ve always had for Israel: Graeme Souness sheds light on the human stain of atrocities.

This week I mourned the babies and children, Israeli and Palestinian, victims of the horrors that have engulfed the Middle East.

Israel is a country that I have visited at least a dozen times and whose people have always shown me extraordinary warmth when I arrived as a foreigner who did not share their faith. It is no exaggeration to say that a trip I took to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, for my stepson Daniel’s Bar Mitzvah, a few years ago, was one of the most interesting and most enjoyable of my life.

I will also never forget my first visit, to Liverpool in 1978. I took Shabbat on a Friday evening at the home of lawyer and politician Ruvi Rivlin, his wife, son and daughter, in Tel Aviv. Ruvi, who became president of Israel, ended up showing me around Jerusalem, which became a personal lesson for me in the history of the Holy Land. I was too young to appreciate it. I wish we could do it all again now.

I thought of Ruvi last weekend, and also of the family of my former Liverpool teammate, Avi Cohen, a wonderfully gifted player we signed in 1979. I know that so many people I met there -lows will suffer now.

These atrocities are a stain on humanity. Random killings carried out by agents of a terrorist organization who – make no mistake – should be called “terrorists”, even if some media outlets, for reasons beyond me, choose not to. We’re not talking about protesters waving flags. The victims include babies and children, for goodness sake. There is no greater abomination.

It also shames me, as a proud Brit, that British Jewish parents now feel it is unsafe to send their children to school. And for British Jewish schoolchildren to learn what to do if a gunman shows up at their school. Let’s just pray that this nightmare scenario never happens in a classroom on these shores. But how dare we scare children and parents like this?

My connection with Israel began the moment Avi was mooted as a possible signing for Liverpool. We started going there to play exhibition games and relax. We discovered that Israel wasn’t worried about a group of professional footballers being a little too rambunctious and drinking a little too much Maccabee beer. Good times, a million miles from the devastation we are currently witnessing.

Israel was so proud of Avi. I’ll never forget the day he first appeared at Melwood in 1979 when we were playing a full-scale match on what they called the ‘A Field’. We immediately saw that he had qualities, but perhaps not quite the aggressiveness necessary for English football. He was a central defender capable of playing central midfield and left back and I then signed him for Rangers. A class act, who died far too young in a motorcycle accident 13 years ago.

My attachment to this country makes me feel very strongly that we must strive to find a formula that allows Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side, for the good of all, in the future. I wasn’t too concerned by the FA’s decision not to light the Wembley Arch in the colors of the Israeli flag for Friday night’s match against Australia. But we must support a nation whose people have also contributed enormously to the British way of life.

The challenge, of course, is how to end this tragedy. And this quickly, when so many lives are lost. It’s a tragedy on both sides. Both sides in this conflict will have to bend and give in to some extent. Concessions will have to be made in pursuit of what is unachievable: a path to peace for the people of the Middle East.

This is a colossal challenge for those who bear the responsibility for brokering such a peace. In the meantime, all we can do this weekend is pray for the innocent on both sides – and hope that a solution to the disaster unfolding before our eyes can be found.

Rooney is in the last chance salon in Birmingham

Wayne Rooney didn’t get the job at Birmingham because of what he has achieved so far in his managerial career.

He was truly a great player and there is still time for him to become a great manager. But he is now in charge at St Andrew’s as he has 63 million followers across all social media platforms. This is the football world we live in, with the power of social media. It’s also what appealed to Birmingham’s new American owners, who made a business decision rather than a footballing one – just when the club appeared to be getting its act together, for the first time in years. Wayne’s predecessor, John Eustace, paid the price for the new way of running football clubs.

Wayne will be aware of the risks associated with this work. I see this as a last chance moment for him as a manager, given he has a 27.5 percent win rate during his tenure at Derby County and DC United.

His 13 years spent under Fergie’s management at Manchester United will have taught him a lot. I do not subscribe to the idea that he will have to demonstrate great tactical sense. I know what Fergie’s attitude was about it. He didn’t like to complicate things – and he didn’t do too badly with it. Wayne was exposed to a management credo of putting together a super group of footballers who were aggressive and worked as a collective. Put all these ingredients together and you’ll rarely be beaten. I discovered the same thing under Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Ronnie Moran at Liverpool.

Wayne obviously knows what it takes to be successful and win games, but he has yet to successfully convey that to the players he has worked with.

The transition from player to manager can be difficult. You can accept that people have different levels of abilities than you. But it’s harder to accept that they don’t have the attitude that “this is the most important thing in my life for the next 90 minutes.” Wayne was a warrior. Not every player he manages will be.

He obviously wants to become a successful manager because he moved to America, sacrificing seeing his children every day of the year, which is something any young father would want.

Promotion to the Premier League is certainly not out of the question for Birmingham this season, but there is so much luck in management. At the right time, in the right place. I wish him good luck.

The mystery of Hazard

Footballers don’t know why Eden Hazard didn’t succeed at Real Madrid.

I know injuries played a part, but even his own father said football wasn’t something he went to bed and woke up thinking about.

There has always been an idea in football that Hazard did not live and breathe football and I think that is significant.

The true football greats are obsessed with the game.

Scotland has every right to be proud of itself

It’s a shame Scotland couldn’t secure Euro qualification in Spain this week, but I’m not worried.

There is no shame in being beaten 2-0 by Spain in front of a hugely passionate crowd in Seville.

Qualification is in the hands of Scotland. This is where they want to be. Onwards and upwards.