Hi Rhian,

The issues of the Holocaust and the behavior of the Israelis are of course separate issues.
Sadly Israeli propagandists link both and seek sympathy from the former to cover the crimes of the latter.

I personally think we should demand both sides adopt the peaceful passages of their traditional scripts and expunge the evil parts. A reformation so to speak of both religions.
We should encourage both sides to endorse only those passages which align with our western liberal Democrat values of forgiveness and peace-seeking. The extremists on both sides would soon be quite isolated and a genuine peace would result.

Any propagandist from either side advocating violence as a solution or excusing violence should be utterly rejected.

I have held this view for a very long time and have often been abused and denigrated for offering it as a solution.

Odd in a western Liberal Democracy. Our ways are debased every time we excuse or support violence. It is time we stood up and told the terrorists and warmongers among us their attitudes corrupt the harmony of our society.

The reason why Israel's" "crimes" go unpunished Ali Omedi, is because people of every race, creed and culture have a problem with Islam, and they much prefer the Israelis to the Arabs.

You people are incredible. You revel in a religion which preaches world domination, social exclusion, hostility to non Muslims, Jihad, and then you wonder why nobody supports you. Your people have committed acts of terrorism all around the world against innocent civilians and your people are becoming the most despised on planet Earth. Your region of the world is a cesspit of trouble. Your civilisation is a disgrace. Your civilisation has contributed nothing to world knowledge in 600 years. Half the females in Islam can not read or write. Half of your people who live in western societies are beggars who live entirely on social security. You are still stoning people to death for "crimes" which are not even considered crimes in enlightened societies.

Almost everybody who is not a Muslim or who's brains have not been atrophied by studying for a humanities degree, know that all you Muslims want to do is exterminate Israel. Nothing else matters. They know that the Arabs just keep firing rockets over the border and they don't blame the Israelis for shooting back. Everybody, even Muslims knows about the right to self defence. So save the feigned moral outrage because it doesn't work with intelligent people.

Reform your stupid religion or keep killing yourselves. Use your oil wealth to built universities instead of damned mosques. Ask the Israelis to help you, because they obviously know how to run successful societies using the accumulated capitol of a smart population, while your people do not. Emulate them. Learn from them.

Stop trying to kill the people who are proving every day how much smarter and superior they are to your people.

Hi imajulianutter
I agree that the holocaust in no way justifies or mitigates Israel’s behaviour. But nor does Israel’s behaviour diminish the holocaust.

I’m not sure appealing to the peaceful and tolerant elements of Judaism and Islam will solve the problem, though both faiths certainly have them. While religion is an element in the conflict, I suspect at core it is sectarian and territorial, rather as the conflict in Northern Ireland was not primarily about religion. Early Zionism was largely secular and even opposed by some orthodox Jews, who believed Israel could only be restored by God, not human agency. Admittedly some modern Israeli hard liners believe that God gave Israel to the Jews and mandated the extinction or expulsion of other peoples, as there are Palestinians who would wish the same on the Jews. Hopefully, neither will prevail.

I agree that any propagandist from either side advocating violence as a solution or excusing violence should be utterly rejected. But both sides argue that the violence they perpetrate is not initiated by them, but a necessary defensive measure against the violence of the other, and both sides have a point. Breaking this spiral is the only way to prevent violence erupting again in future, but it requires a degree of forbearance that neither side seems willing to exercise. Until they do, I fear the horrible tragedies such as we have seen in recent weeks will recur.

Rhian

There is a solution it is quite simple.
Support the Palestinians gaining sovereignty and engaging with the world community.
Peace would naturally follow. Hamas would be sidelined as a terrorist force by the Gazan's. They would peacefully get on with their own life's.
Set up a fair dinkum Palestinian state in the west bank. Have it engage with the world.
Much of the support for terrorism in the mid east is the resentment harboured by Muslims over the west's support for Israeli expansionism in the west bank.
Stop that and Muslims will do what they have always done. Control their own extremists in much the same way we in the west have done. Currently because of the injustice in Palestine Muslim communities have an aversion to and find it nigh impossible to dissipate support for extremists in their wider community.

"Set up a fair dinkum Palestinian state in the west bank. Have it engage with the world."

I agree.

I suspect its not quite that simple though. Borders, economic relations, right of return, the view of extremists on both sides that they have a right to the other's territory, religious antagonism, ideological differences, political interference by outsiders, ecomomic inequality, and a host of other issues are gpoing to make it a long and rocky road even when we get an autonomous and sustainable Palestinian state.

Dream on,you pair.

Peace was supposed to come when Israel withdrew from Gaza. The Israeli hawks opposed the pull out and said that Gaza would simply become a Muslim terrorist stronghold where the Muslims would be free to throw rockets and mortar bombs over the fence into Israel.

Just in case you did not notice, the Israeli hawks were proven right.

And you think that the Israelis are going to withdraw from Jerusalem and repeat their well intentioned mistake? What is it like dancing with the fairies at the bottom of your garden?