How much of this Israeli-Palestinian conflict could have been avoided....

[RussBLib]

...without the "holy books" in existence? All of it? I read some of the Hamas murderers were yelling, "Allahu Akbar" while killing Israelis.

Holy shit is more like it.

[Walleye]

1. It's like, "we're gonna kill you and your family and take your home, and God says it's OK"

Humanity may not have to wait for that asteroid bring its destruction

[samnsara]

14. thats what the Gop says all the time about freedoms

[Lonestarblue]

2. I don't think this war is about religion.

Among several issues are the continuing confiscation of land by Israel, the denial of rights for Palestinians, the feckless Arab world that did little to support a Palestinian state, incompetent and corrupt Palestinian leadership, and a world order in 1947-48 that reeled from the horrors of the Holocaust and failed to create a more equal division of land and options for the Palestinians. Over the years, both sides have failed to work to create a livable solution that could lead to peace. And now Israel’s hard right are controlling the government and they want to evict all Palestinians from the West Bank to take their land. Those living in Gaza lack enough drinking water and their living conditions are essentially a prison camp. Under such conditions, they are unlikely to kick out Hamas, which gets funding from other countries to help feed Gazans. I’m not excusing Palestinians for this latest attack, but faced with a state that wants to evict you entirely from your ancestral lands, wouldn’t you fight too?

[RussBLib]

5. That's a good recap

...so many missed opportunities for peace.

[Karadeniz]

3. People use religion to legitimize hate.

[jfz9580m]

17. Not to mention assloads of every type of bs

It is basically brainwashing..if it has been around for less than 50 years it is a cult..else it is a religion.
Talk about acceptable delusions..

[Magoo48]

4. Origin myths about promised lands and superheroes, god given property rights and dominance,

combined with centuries of hate, driven by different religions cults and their deities who all want their clubhouses on the same turf. It goes ever downhill from there.

[walkingman]

6. It's foolish to presume *anything* in the Middle East/Levant is non-religious in nature.

Religion is used to mobilize angry young men who are often angry for reasons that are irreligious. Religion cannot be untangled from this conflict. It is absolutely an exacerbating factor. But there are absolutely other factors that have been feeding this fire for years, aggravating the situation needlessly.

Hamas is not representative of Palestinian or Arabs any more than Trump is of US.

Religion is like Oxygen to this fire, not the fuel itself.

[samnsara]

13. i dont think a holy war can ever be won and i dont even know which side to take

..just wish they would knock it off.

[walkingman]

15. Me too! It is a shame we waste so much of our time fighting and killing one another. ☮

[NeoGreen]

7. In my humble opinion...

...all of it.

Israel qua Israel, as we know it, wouldn't exist without the influence of US evangelicals.

Without the magic books, there would be no conflict in this insignificant plot of land at this scale.

[anciano]

8. "The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries,

that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed religion." --- Thomas Paine

[Warpy]

9. Yes and no, they're both Abrahamic books

and both claim the same origin story. The mess might have been avoided had Israel become a purely secular state, the clergy limited to marrying, burying, and scolding but not being part of the government. There would likely have been clashses between groups of fanatics, but the majority of people would be fine with each other. There wouldn't be this organizd military bullshit leaving thousands dead.

[progressoid]

10. That it is called the "Holy Land" is the ultimate irony.

If I were to pick a place to call holy, that wouldn't be in my top 10.

[Mr.Bill]

11. If not for religion

these two entities would likely be settling their differences on a soccer field.

[MayReasonRule]

12. If Not For Religion They Might Make Love Not War

[Butterflylady]

16. That sums it up.