excellent article. Thank you

Glad you liked it, Chestnut I was impressed with both his original text and his explanations about things that he thought perhaps did not sound as the way he intended.

Agreed. It was long but very much worth the time it took to read. Thank you for sharing

I'm areligious, but I think there's some non-religion-based gold in that article. Regardless of any religious implications or theistic arguments about "Who owns Jerusalem, the areas around it, and why",

the 'rest of it' very quickly boils down to "Q: Hey, Isreal, if you could do anything you wanted right now, what would it be? A: Pretty much just kind of, you know, live, run businesses, have kids, play some

games, maybe paint a little, yeah?" and "Q: Hey, Palestinians, if you could do anyting you wanted right now, what would it be? A: Exterminate the jews and take all of the land anywhere around here!" When it

comes down to that, it makes it not very hard for me to figure out my personal sympathies. I don't 'get' either sides' religious arguments because I have issues w/ what I consider (not trying to be offensive

but I'm about to be in the sake of clarity) fairy tales or mythology being the basis for something like land ownership or citizenship. But the whole "70% of Palestinians want Isreal gone" vs "80% of Isrealis

want Palestine to quit trying to wipe them out so the Israelis can go back to what most of the world considers a decent living".

(The other 20% of Israelis are prolly pissed enough they actually want some true hard payback, just like IMO about 30% of Palestinians are so tired of people dying for stupid reasons they've decided living with

their neighbors might just be worth a shot)

And that's about all I have as input, as poorly put as it is

This is a very good article, thank you for pointing me at it. My question is still the "Why?" Why do 70 % of Palestinians want to wipe out the Israelis? When I seek information on the occupations, and see

things like Israel, Palestine and the Occupied Territories I think that maybe it is because of that.

I agree that the Israelis have been very, very lenient in this action, their military might compared to Palestine is pretty serious.

I just can't seem to shake the feeling that there is a missing bridge of information between both variations on the reasons for the conflict.

And I suppose if the 'why' got tracked down all the way back to the first stone thrown, it wouldn't help. It wouldn't change the ingrained hatred or stop the war.

Some might say when the UN created Israel in the aftermath of the Holocaust it was not done very well, leaving a terrible legacy of occupation. Some might say it is pure anti semitism. Probably there is no one

single "why" but what is absolutely true is that Hamas and several other countries surrounding Israel have as a stated goal the destruction of Israel and of Jews. That is undeniable fact.

Chestnut: thank you for that, sometimes I also tend to forget that just because a certain body creates or declares an issue, it does not make it right for all involved. Sometimes not even close.

That thought would go far in bridging that gap in my understanding of the why as well, along with the pure and hard antisemitism.

I sometimes annoy people inadvertently even at home when I am trying to sort things out on subjects that leave large gaps in my ability to logically process my understanding of something. I tend to appear as

an advocate of one thing or another when I ask questions or state how I understand something, until I have gained enough data to sort it out.

Gaza and the Loss of Civilization Here is another interesting read on this. After reading both the first letter, and the reply, let me know what you think.

Thought it was just a bug but I don't see anything chestnut has posted so I'm assuming I've been blocked.

Here's one I saw earlier today that makes some interesting points: 7 Things to Consider Before Choosing Sides in the Middle East Con...

seanmcpherson: Try reloading from the link at the bottom right? Sometimes plurk is weird.

it works if I right-click copy the link before I left-click on it - then if it doesn't work I paste it, and I'm there.