“God” is the problem

In the never-ending conflicts in the middle east, violence is not the problem; territory is not the problem; history is not the problem; anger is not the problem; even corruption is not the problem. These are all symptoms of the problem. The problem is “God”. All parties to the conflict believe this mystical, magical, supposedly omnipotent, merciful, caring, benevolent, yet somehow always conspicuously absent, particularly in times of strife (are there any other kinds?), is allied with their views. Were it not for this insane belief, perhaps the parties could examine the reality on the ground and conclude that there are other actions each can take for the mutual benefit of all instead of striving for mutual annihilation.

On Holy Wars and a Plea for Peace

I came across this and felt it deserves to be seen by more people. This is an earnest effort by people on both sides of the Gaza / Israel border - common folk, not religious zealots or political power-brokers, to talk peace; to think and dream about what a 'normal' life might be like; to share those dreams between real people.

Please take a look at http://gaza-sderot.blogspot.com/ to get a different and more human perspective on the conflict in the region.

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Note to readers: I have shamelessly borrowed the title of a paper, now somewhat famous in the Internet development community, if a bit dated, addressing a very technical topic of concern during the formative days of the technology that led to this Internet on which we blog today. Though not directly relevant to this topic, I link to it here out of respect for the original author, ironically, an Israeli named Danny Cohen who made significant contributions to the development of the Internet..