Israel and Palestine

The “One God” religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and the disputes between them, both intellectual and nationalistic, are, and historically have been, the greatest of evils.

All three religions are based on books (Torah, Bible, Koran) written from the late Iron Age to times of early antiquity and are full of inconsistencies, myths, and outright untruths. Based on oral lore, this lore later became written. The various writers then included their own variations and interpretations. Later, these books were many times revised for purely political and socio-economic reasons by powerful rulers. See: Religious-Texts.

One thing that all three religions have in common is that Jerusalem is central to their beliefs.

Move forward through the slaughtering of the Crusades, the slaughter of the schisms of Europe, the Spanish Conquistadores, various religiously backed wars, Colonialism and so on, to the late 1800s.

Jerusalem, in Palestine, has gone through centuries of rulers, usually the result of wars, including Egypt, Persia, Alexander the Great, Rome, and many more.

In the late 1800s, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire.

Under the Moslem Ottomans, Moslems, Jews and Christians all lived together somewhat harmoniously in Palestine, respecting each other’s religions. The Ottomans, however, were on the losing side of WW1, losing Palestine to British forces. In 1917, the Balfour Declaration and in 1920, the League of Nations Mandate for the British Administration of Palestine both stated the desire for a Jewish Homeland alongside the Palestinian Arabs, who were the vast majority of Palestine’s people.

In the period between the two world wars, Britain administered Palestine (until the countries were able to "administer and support themselves" – according to the mandate) during which time Britain oversaw a variety of riots, protests and revolts between Jews and Arabs.

The appalling Nazi Holocaust during the second world war was, in the main, based on Antisemitism. (The roots of Antisemitism were the Christian belief that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus. Antisemitism grew throughout the centuries, promoted by the Christian religion). However, the Holocaust included many others considered to be of an “Inferior Race” or for other reasons, coupled with strict Nationalism.

The Holocaust hardened the Zionist faction of the Jewish religion (Zionists believe that Palestine is the Promised Land based on the Torah and the Old Testament of the Bible).

In 1945, the USA requested Britain to issue 100,000 visas for Jewish refugees from Europe for admission into Palestine.

In 1947, the United Nations proposed a plan for the partition of Palestine into two states – one Jewish and one Arab.

In 1948, the British Mandate ended. On the last day of the mandate, the creation of the state of Israel was announced. The following day, the USA recognised the Jewish government of Israel. This was quickly followed by the Arab-Israeli war.

For 75 years, there has been conflict between the Arab world, which supports Palestine and wants to eradicate all Zionist Jews from Palestine, and other countries, especially the USA, who want a peaceful two-state solution.

Terrorist organisations, especially Hamas, have received vast sums of money from both state and private supporters, especially Iran. They have used this money in two ways. To build schools, hospitals, and other social services to support Palestinians and gain local support. Also, to build up weaponry and terrorist militias to work towards a military overthrow of Israel.

The Hamas use of financial support for Palestinian social improvements has undermined the official Palestinian Government, which is more inclined towards accepting a two-state nation peace agreement. Also, Hamas sadly uses many of its schools, hospitals and other buildings as terrorist command centres, using these buildings and their inhabitants as human shields against Israeli attacks.

It is unlikely that the conflict will ever end. Most Arab states are united against Israel today, more so than ever, with more moderate Arab states having little influence. I have watched video recordings of Arab leaders, as well as Hamas, Hezbollah and other leaders, categorically stating that even if it takes a thousand years, they will never rest until Israel has been totally destroyed.

Ordinary people in both Israel and Palestine, families with children, would love to go back to the pre-WW1 situation where Moslems, Christians and Jews could live together harmoniously in a single state sharing Jerusalem.

Sadly, many of these people have no voice. The factional organisations wanting control of a single Palestine state are not elected democratically. They and the hard-line Arab states that support them are ruled by murderous theocratic tyrants, worse even than the murderous communist tyrants now ruling large parts of the world.

And what is behind it all? Religion, of course! Thousands of years of religious conflict between the “One God” religions, exacerbated by Nationalistic Fervour.

The world's two greatest evils are Religion and Nationalism.

Charles.

NB. Of course, the entire subject of the Israel-Palestine conflict is far, far more complicated than my above summary. The point I am making is the one that I believe that Religion and Nationalism, especially Religion, are the greatest evils of the world.  

"To teach [Religious] superstitions as truths, is a most terrible thing. In fact, men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as for a living truth — often more so..." Hypatia c. AD 415

No people anywhere in the world would accept being expelled en masse from their country; how can anyone require the people of Palestine to accept a punishment which nobody else would tolerate? – Bertrand Russell.

“It would be good to be able to say we no longer need to remember, but it is not so. In many parts of the world, the politics of hate still thrive. It is always easier to avoid real problems by blaming someone else. It is never true but, as a tactic, it rarely fails. Nations without freedom, human rights, or accountable government, riddled with poverty, disease and illiteracy, continue to blame some outside factor or conspiracy, and so the tragedy continues. Hate destroys the hated, but it destroys the hater even more.” – Holocaust Survivor.