Palestine is the area between the Mediterranean & the River Jordan. It has always been a crossroads for trade, religion & politics. It is the birthplace of all 3 Abrahamic religions, Christians, Muslims & Jews. One & a half million years ago Homo Erectus arrived out of Africa, so the area is one of the earliest areas of human habitation. It's history is a story of numerous warring tribes & peoples & it's rulers & borders have constantly changed over history.
You would hope that we humans would learn from that chequered history of suffering. Apparently not. The death of the innocent alongside the fundamentalists continues on both sides. Apportioning blame only perpetuates the problems, the fighting, the destruction & the death.
Truth & humanity are also casualties of this war. It's tentacles are widespread. Responsibility also lies with the nations who benefit from war by trading in weapons & gaining lucrative contracts from the results of any war.
Both sides have behaved with cruelty and a total lack of empathy or humanity. Their professed "religion" ignores the tenets of the actual religions they supposedly belong to. They all think their actions are justified. They are not & never can be. Deliberately taking life is murder. Taking the lives of innocent children & adults going about their daily lives is abominable whichever "side" they are on.
Everyone has human rights, even misguided fundamentalists on both sides. At the root of this problem is the fact that people are poor, displaced, opressed, lacking in basic facilities for themselves & their children, & corralled into a space that is no better than a Ghetto. The Jews know about Ghettos first hand. You would think that might enable them to fully understand what they are doing.
The Jews want a secure land of their own & the right to live there. We gave them Israel & walked away. We have a responsibility for this mess.
When the face to face dialogue stops attitudes harden. The Middle East needs to sort out it's own problems with all possible help from the developed world. For a start all arms trade should cease. If the guns & missiles dry up war becomes much more difficult. But the West isn't going to do that - it earns us too much money.
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