I am sick of the slaughter in Gaza

[Martin Eden]

195. The continued slaughter is no longer self defense within the confines of this current war

Bombs cannot destroy an idea, but they can cause severe trauma among the survivors and inspire insatiable thirst for revenge. Seeds for the next generation of terrorists are being planted in every crater.

Netanyahu and his hardliners are using this war as an opportunity to decrease the Palestinian population within the expanded borders of Greater Israel, which is the long term goal. They have flatly rejected a Two State solution, and they certainly don't want a sizeable and possibly growing Palestinian demographic within the Jewish state. Hamas and its predecessors don't want to share the land either, and would destroy the Jewish state (along with its citizens) if it could.

This is not a conflict for a year, or a decade, or even a century. Jews have been persecuted wherever they scattered in the Diaspora, even in the USA. In Europe, the Holocaust convinced them they would never be secure as guests or citizens in a foreign land. After that horrific genocide they were given a home in their ancestral lands, and they are determined to keep it. Arabs living there are displaced and denied sovereignty.

Identifying who cast the first stone, and placing blame, is a useless exercise. This is an existential struggle in a violent world. Might may not make right, but it can determine who survives. I do not for one moment intend to justify anything either side does. I'm describing things as I see them, though my knowledge is incomplete and my perception imperfect.

What should US policy be in this matter? Look after our own interests first, which includes promoting peace and human rights for all people when such goals can be achieved with wisdom to avoid unintended consequences -- lofty concepts, extremely difficult to apply in complicated volatile situations.

Personally, I think the Holy Land around Jerusalem should be an international city of peace and brotherhood promoted by the three branches of the Sons of Abraham if they truly do love the One God they all claim to worship.

Rodney King asked "Why can't we all just get along?"