James:

I don’t think too many people blame ordinary Gazans for the violence and deaths (I certainly don't). The blame lies with Hamas who are using them to protect their terror weapons and to score public relation points. It's no secret that they are indeed using their own citizens as human shields, they are clearly saying so in public interviews available for all to see, glorifying their "Industry of Death".

It's easy to accuse Israel of maintaining a stranglehold on the territory. But the Israeli restrictions on the flow of people and merchandise was a gradual process that was initiated once it became obvious that the Gaza rulers (Hamas) are hell-bent on destroying Israel. Ask yourself, if Israel is the source of all evil and Hamas are so good and noble, why is Egypt blocking their border with Gaza as well? Is everyone there evil except for Hamas?

You're referring to the attacks mounted by Israel on Gaza, yet ignore the trigger for those attacks, some 10,000-15,000 rockets fired on Israeli civilians from Gaza over the last 8 years or so. That's a rough average of 4-5 rockets a day, give or take a rocket or two. What other country in the world would accept such terror against its civilians without responding? You mentioned war crimes, don't you agree that firing rockets at civilians falls squarely into the "war crime" category? Do Hamas have an exemption?

You say the Israelis do not have a genuine interest in any peace process. They might try to drive a hard bargain, but at least the Israelis are negotiating for peace and have been doing so for several decades. Peace was reached after all with Egypt, once a sworn enemy of Israel, and with Jordan. Both those countries fought bitter wars with Israel in the past. Hamas on the other hand defines itself as a movement with the sole purpose of eliminating Israel. No matter how many peace offers you come up with, they will never accept it. There can never be peace in the region as long as Hamas are in power.

Awv

My reading extends from the Christian New Testament, the Old Testament, the classic Greeks, Romans, Russians, Europeans, the Romantics through the great liberal traditions, the British classics, American classics. I have head all the great moralists from Augustine , Aquinas, Gregory and much of the encyclical literature of the 20th century Catholic church.
I subscribe to the great western Liberal traditions and reject socialism in all its forms. I have read much of the traditions othe literature of the Hebrew and Muslim religions. I have read some Asian literature and have a little knowledge of eastern spirituality.

I now write prose and poetry and think the backward religions of the Jews and Islamist Muslims the cause of all the great atrocities in the world today. Since both subscribe to the beliefs of revenge and reaping that which is sown both will continue to kill each other until the west asserts it's natural moral superiority and directs one or either side to adopt western traditions of a belief in forgiveness and treating it's enemies with love. So that both sides can develop a philosophy that allows all the disparate people's of the region to live with uncertainty without being paralyzed by fear or violence. (Adapted from Russell) just as we have done for centuries in the Liberal Democratic west.

Now try very hard to argue against that philosophical argument without pointing fingers or abuse.

Imanutter:

This is your third post following my demonstration that your claims were baseless, and you are still unable to address any of the points I raised. Each of my posts offers direct replies to your claims, quoting the relevant section in your post, yet all you can do is boast about the number of (largely irrelevant) books you've read and your (equally irrelevant) poetry. It seems all those books did little to improve your understanding of the Israel-Palestine problem, or your grammar.

"I...think the backward religions of the Jews and Islamist Muslims the cause of all the great atrocities in the world today...both will continue to kill each other until the west asserts it's natural moral superiority and directs one or either side to adopt western traditions of a belief in forgiveness and treating it's enemies with love"

You show them, those primitive barbarians, that we are much better than them. Demonstrate your superiority and everything would be fine.

Do you realise what utter nonsense this statement is? Forgiveness and love? Are we back in the sixties? Are you a late-developed hippie? Maybe we should throw some flowers at the conflict to fix it?

Do you also realise that as soon as you force Israel (one side of the conflict, as you suggest) to accept the hippie ideology you are promoting, Hamas will eliminate it? Have you managed to find time to read their charter?

Christianity was not denounced by you as a "backward religion", presumably because it preaches to turn the other cheek, which happens to conform to your childish hippie mentality. Are you aware of the number of worldwide conflicts between Muslims and Christians? Or between Muslims and Buddhists? Was it mentioned in any of that great literature that you've read?

Cont -->

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And how exactly is the "backward" Jewish religion responsible for all the great atrocities in the world today? Let's look at some examples of the current world problems. Can you explain how it is responsible for:

The ISIS conflict
The Syrian civil war
The massacres in Oman and Yemen
Egyptian massacres
South Sudan
Boko Haram
Sri Lanka and the Tamils
North Korean massacres

This should prove interesting, or at least entertaining. Let me know how you go.

"...live...without being paralyzed by fear or violence…just as we have done for centuries in the Liberal Democratic west"

Surely those tiny skirmishes less than a century ago called WW1 and WW2 were mentioned in your extensive reading material?

So many blunders and factual errors, and this is just in one paragraph. Sadly this is a repeated theme in all your posts.

As for finger-pointing and abuse, can I remind you that I'm not the one accusing people of lying without being able to back up my accusation.