war in Gaza

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why has this thread taken such a religious digression. It may involve some religious people, but this is a political problem.

Politics and religion usually go hand in hand.

And two topics that will ever get everyone to agree and live in harmony....sadly.

Well I say this because Israel, though a Jewish state, is really a secular place. By that I mean that most Jews in Israel are not observant, although there are a minority of observant Jews. And the PLO wasn't driven by religion but by nationalism. And it doesn't seem to me that the bordering countries were driven by religion so much as pan-Arabism or maybe their own national interests. So yes, there is (particularly with Hamas) a religious aspect to this. But it does not seem that the issue is fundamentally religious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And two topics that will ever get everyone to agree and live in harmony....sadly.

Well I say this because Israel, though a Jewish state, is really a secular place. By that I mean that most Jews in Israel are not observant, although there are a minority of observant Jews. And the PLO wasn't driven by religion but by nationalism. And it doesn't seem to me that the bordering countries were driven by religion so much as pan-Arabism or maybe their own national interests. So yes, there is (particularly with Hamas) a religious aspect to this. But it does not seem that the issue is fundamentally religious.


However, it seems as though the primary way in which the participants in the conflict identify themselves (at least, perhaps, on the Israeli side) is by their religious cultural identity. It's not a question of skin color. It's not a question of geographic origin. It's a question of self-identification with a particular culture (Jewishness) which is a religion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well I say this because Israel, though a Jewish state, is really a secular place. By that I mean that most Jews in Israel are not observant, although there are a minority of observant Jews.

But Israel is not a secular state. Maybe being secular would save them a lot of trouble.
Even Turkey is secular and it has been proven that a secular government is a much better way than religion based. Hopefully that will change in Israel too.

Fortunately for them, the external strife means less focus on the internal strife. It also means less policing in and therefore they have problems with the local mafia.
It really is very diverse population wise. In about 50 years the ethnic composition will be very different, and some realigious jealots are upset about this.