Nahum,

The Middle-East is a far more complex place than just Israel vs Palestinians. For centuries, waves of Islamic and other invaders from from the east have shapped the politics of the region. Internal factional fighting has destabalised the region since Mohammad.

The Middle-East has always been a cross-roads for trade. Asia lies to the east, Europe to the west and Africa to the south. It's geographic location has historically been critical for overland and sea trade between these three continents, and those that controlled the trade routes taxed them handsomely. And there is religion.

The biggest problem with just waving the magic wand and wishing peace will not happen with unilateral Israeli disarming. In the last year or two, Israel had abondoned Gaza and Trans-Jordan (West Bank), they had previously withdrawn from the 20-mile buffer zone in Southern Lebanon, only to find that the justification for military occupation has been realised - that these areas are being used by Terrorist (Hamas and Hezbollah) to lauch attacks against Israeli men, women and children.

In some ways GWB was correct, if Syria and Iran stopped urging the Terrorist on then Israel wouldn't need to defend itself. What would you have Israel do, just sit back and take it? As far as I can see, Israel conceeded much and has been rewarded with rocket attacks against them. Someone earlier in the week said "if Hezbollah disarms there will be peace, if Israel disarms there will be a blood bath".

Israel and Palestine have been fighting for 60 years, and barring a major catastrophe will continue for another 60.

Neither side senses the suffering of the other bigmal, and while Israel has never said publicly it wants to wipe Palestine off the map its actions tell us otherwise.

The point of my piece was to express frustration with a system which does not allow for adaptation of humankind. In fact, it procludes it because of vested interests. I'm interested in alternatives, in evolution.

Alchemist has some interesting perspectives. God IS the problem. Abolish God and our problems will be solved. But which God? The perpetually militant Israelis have long since left behind the God of Israel and constructed a new God of the unrestrained power accessible through possession of the sacred bricks and mortar in Jerusalem. The radical Muslims have cast aside Allah preferring to construct a violent God of homicidal martyrdom. The Christians of the Crusades, and of Hitler's Reich left behind the revolutionary Jesus for a Machiavellian God of harmful homogeneity, a God that gave legitimacy to their insanity. At the root, it's about power. God is the only logic that can be readily applied to ridiculous ideologies.

Both sides would claim to have God on their side in this conflict. In truth, God isn't on either side. Perhaps this is what we need to realize. God isn't in dichotomies. In all of the monotheistic faiths, God is about equality and justice. (The Bible mentions justice over 2100 times.) In embracing this God, we must divest ourselves of power.

Perpetual violence is a function of persistent inequality. In capitalism, someone always prospers at the expense of another. The very notion of equilibrium implies that for me to enjoy luxuries, others must go without.

This isn't a tiresome tirade against capitalism. It's about peace, justice and equality. For there to be peace, something must be willingly sacrificed by one side. One party must make an unthinkable concession. But if power is our God, then this will never happen and the unwilling sacrifices will continue to mount up.

Shakespeare had it in Hamlet when he spoke of armies who would go to their graves over a patch of land not continent enough to bury the dead. This conflict is a deadly game of chicken, a juvenile pissing contest. Nobody is winning.

If you wanted to be cynical, you could suggest that the only way for the arabs and the jews to resolve their differences would be to follow the one proposed in 1947 by Sir Stafford Cripps; that is, they should settle their differences in a true christian spirit.

Joking aside, it is clear to me that there is no solution except the destruction of Israel that will be acceptable to the arabs. They believe that time is on their side, and look back to the period of the crusades when it took them 200 years to expel the invaders. The important thing for us to discuss is where Australia's interests lie.
The overwhelming factor here is that the forces Israel is fighting are the same that have been killing Australians since 2001; islamic facism.
I would therefore suggest that as far as the middle east is concerned, Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria, Iran, etc., are our enemy, and Israel is our ally.

Nahum,
A thoughtful article. Pride forbids them forgiving the other.

Carl,
I am interested to know what you see as the real threats to our way of life if Islamic terrorists are not more than pacifists in comparison.
"The sooner you realise this the sooner you can focus your attention on the real threats to our way of life"

Why is it that guys like Alchemist constantly refer to how belief in God has caused so much death, yet ignore the number of deaths from atheistic societies which are an order of magnitude higher.

Nahum is frustrated, and I completely understand. The conflict has been one long botch job by the international community as much as anything. I don't think however, simply telling people to get over their current mindset is going to help the issue. The arab world has been trying to destroy Israel for years, that aint going to stop with wishful thinking.

So what is the solution? Given our world's current proclivity for trying to hold status quo with nations, there is no solution. Lebanon's government is obviously impotent to rule their own country. Israel, in spite of giving back Gaza is now rewarded with a thousand rocket attacks, so they are not really going to listen to the international community about the peace process for a long time. Palestine is ruled by terrorists. Iran and Syria are supporting Hezbollah.

What most people seem to forget is that ultimately statehood comes down to force. You need to be able to exercise enough force to control and run your country (cf lebanon), and you need to be able to exercise enough force to protect your country. Words are all well and good, but ultimately, push always comes to shove.

My solution is harsher than most. It deals with motivations. Palestine continues to use terrorist attacks to try and force israel to give them land. That is their motivation (short-term a state, long term no israel). Israel can either positively or negatively reinforce these actions. Since the motivation is land, Israel simply needs to turn it on its head. For every terrorist attack, they need to acquire land from the Palestinians. Make this clear to the Palestinians.