I would like to hear your opinions about the Palestine-Israel conflict..

And by opinion I mean some kind of oveview of the conflict, instead of details ~ so which are the roots of the conflict, how it could be solved etc.

And since people tend to take sides on this conflict, you can answer the responsiblity poll ~ so who to blame.

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IMO, there is one fundamental source for the conflict: the ownership of the (Holy) land. This reason is manifestated in the Israeli settlements, and the previous wars, where the Arabs tried to push Israel back to ocean.

There are also this kind of 'indirect reasons' for the conflict. The main indirect reason is hate, which is fed by itself, violence and history plus on the Palestinian side by poverty, powerlessness and humiliations.

The main contradictions of the fundamental reason are currently caused by the Israeli settlers. They have continuosly reduced the size of the small Palestinian area and also splitted the Palestinian areas into pieces. If the conflict would suddenly stop the Palestinian state would barely be viable, when partly separeted into isolated pieces by the Israeli settlements.

In this way the radical orthodox jews force a major obstacle for the peace process. I would still see, that at least the current right-wing goverment symphatizes them and their values of this 'sionism'. Still, as we might have seen from the current conflicts between the settlers and the goverment, we can hardly talk about a real mutual understandment between these parties.

The source of the conflict from the Palestinian side is - with no doubt - the radical half-military (~ or terrorist) organizations. The reasoning for these group's activity seems to be both political and simply hate. It is still unclear would some reasonable peace agreement be sufficient to calm these organizations. Still, if they would be satisfied with the peace, they could hardly been seen as the sources of the conflict. This anyway cannot be known.

With the conflict I would not blame the majorities (>50%) of either of nations. The Israeli majority wishes for peace, and they seem to share some level of antipathy towards the radical minority. Also - if I have understood right - the Palestinian majority seems to be quite fed of the poverty, misery and conflict and are ready for the peace.

In this way, I would divide the blame between the radical groups of both Israel and Palestine. I would also divide some blame towards the Israeli authorities. It might also be that the Palestine authorities deserve some blame

The reason, why I would blame Israel more, is the simple reason that they have (resently) proved their aggressiveness throught settlement. The palestinian factions are lacking this prove. I wouldn't regognice the aggressions from several decades ago as any kind of prove against the current Palestine factions. Still, the reason, why the Israel has this prove and Palestinians don't, might be simply because Palestinians are so weak in power that they have been unable to execute aggressive politics.

And by aggressive politics I mean means (like violence) used to advance current situation, not means used to defend current situation. At least the last intifada can be seen as spontaneous responses to the advancement of the settlements and overall - to the stasis of the peace process. And perhaps that Sharon's provokation was also involved.

- BtD

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"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
[George Orwell, 1984]

Palestine and Israel were once two independent nations. Palestine however, chose to invade Israel in an attempt to annex it. As aresult, Palestine lost their sovereignty. All that was formerly palestine is now Israeli territory and what the Israelis do with it is their business.

Stop giving Israel the equivalent of welfare handouts and let them deal with their own problems. Likewise, we shouldn't be giving Palestine $50 million in aid.

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Proudly a "South Park Republican"

Palestine is not really a viable nation..

It is economically isolated, resourcesless piece of desert with decaying infrastructure and land area, which is pierced in small parts by israeli settlers. Simply to move inside the Palestinian area requires moving throught Israeli road blocks. As an addition to this, it is involved in a wasteful conflict and more or less under occupation.

Without external donations the place would likely collapse.

Edit: I forgot to mention the weak, but still so corrupted goverment

- BtD

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"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
[George Orwell, 1984]

There is no right or wrong here. There are two rather large groups of people fighting to live on some of the holiest land in the world, and oh yeah, it's the size of New Jersey. This is such a complicated issue in which both sides have done attrocious things to the other. The part that bothers me has been our unilateral support of Israel up until recently. israel feels they can do wahtever they want in that region because we have made them feel that way.

-Demosthenes

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"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower