I may make enemies with this, but I think it must be said.
What would the world have the Palestinians do? Maps of Israel over the years show how the land left for Arab Israelis has been stolen piece by piece ever since Israel was created by the U.N. and the colonial powers. Every new Jewish-Israeli settlement requires ousting Arab-Israeli villagers and farms. None of the Arab nations around Israel want a few million refugees added to their populations; they have nowhere to go.
As I remember the Old Testament, the original Israelites gained the homeland through the slaughter of Canaanites. Is that being repeated now? Is this not proof that theocracy is a terrible foundation for a nation?
If each religious party in a nation is sure they are destined by the Almighty to rule, then they must drive out or kill all others.
The U.S.A. must admit that our claim of “Manifest Destiny” — giving us rule over the original nations of the Americas — led to exactly the same driving out and genocide.
Our European ancestors drove all the native peoples into land held to be barren and not worthy of white settlements, and then stealing the mineral rights and water back again.
The logical end of the Iraeli-Muslim conflict as now being waged is for all of the Palestinians to be slaughtered or driven into exile; at which time the Arab nations surrounding Israel will unite to slaughter the Jews.
Is this not proof that theocracy is a terrible foundation for a nation?
If each religious party in a nation is sure they are destined by the Almighty to rule, then they must drive out or kill all others. There is no chance for peace other than the unification of all as equal citizens in a secular nation with open government and no religious laws.
Calvan North, Kearns
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