Hello Peter,
I must say that you have managed with good panache to maintain this forum in high standards.
I have not read all of it, but sufficient to get the trend of your feelings as well as them from other participants here.
Obviously, if there is war in this part of the world it is not because of someone that was murdered by some suicide attack or even because of land having been stolen lost or captured. These things when they happen are the jobs for police to look after and are misdeeds sadly trivial to all parts of the world. The problem in the mid-east (one should say near-east) is far deeper entrenched. It is of abysmal proportions and depth. Their roots lie deep down into history and culture, a history and culture that have for the former nothing to do with politics and for the latter everything to do with recent political blunders from just about all sides of the equation. (Sounds as if I am rambling along to say nothing! J)
There are three parties in this war and there are at least for two of them divided into two different opinions or ambitions but it seems to the onlooker that only Israel is at war with Palestinians, or said differently with their neighboring Arabs. Was it that simple, the problem would never have existed.
One more and not the least ingredient needs to be brought to the table, and that is religion, and we know that in this subject there is no grounds for anything more than a gist of minimal tolerance.
Who are these parties? For the religious ones we have Jewish, Christian, and Islam. (As a Catholic I say that there is no objective religion if it is not that one brought to us by Our Lord Jesus Christ (sun of God, second person of the Trinity) and his Apostles during the time of revelation.) The Jewish say it differently because they see themselves as antecedent to the two others. The Islam’s believe what Mohamed teaches and that is a long shot from the two other parties. To make a long story short, all in all we have three books here and enter today’s politicians.
Palestinian lands Biblically promised to Gods chosen people, and history considered by all as traversed by the other party, not to mention that all of them having internal divergences as well, is a great fuse for the present situation.
I would need to first of all give a full history of Islam since their appearance in 650 AD or so, then an understanding of the Palestinian people that are or were predominantly Christians in the region today named Israel, and then a good insight of the Israeli understanding of what their country stands for before we enter what I would call the modern opportunist political factor and ambitions for which the USA (yes, they come into the picture as well) are not all too innocent. Needless to say that Europe neither, with its socialistic garbage since many decades is in no way an innocent party.
We have a huge problem here, and I do not see any outcome. It is a knot of monumental proportions impossible to sort out in any human language, and definitely impossible by war. I simply ask why during the first half of the 20th century when just about 85% of Africa had been freed from Islam, 85% of the upper part of Africa is presently Islamic and the southern part is either at war or starving from aids and famine. One more question; Is it totally at odds to say that Israel is in some way fighting a war that the Crusaders forgot about some 8 centuries back? My answer is that until we admit to our floundering attitudes since 60 years, children will die from all sides. I am sorry if all of this does not make sense to all, but that is what this war is all about.
Friendly yours,
Robert.