Regarding the goings on in Israel, specifically the Gaza Strip, there is really only one thing to take from the whole nasty mess. You can go all the way back to the Bible, then forward all the way to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and beyond -- to the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948 -- and I'll be damned if anyone can make a solid case for the state of Israel or Palestine as concerns territory. What you can do is point out thousands and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, on both sides, who've had their lives shattered throughout the whole affair by the machinations of international politics, state conquest, and politicized ideology ("religionism"). Those poor people in Gaza, today. Those poor people of the past, Jews and Arabs both, who've had their homes, lives, livelihoods, and even families torn apart. And the fundamental reason why is because we senselessly identify individuals only on the basis of being party to some group, ideology, race, or [arbitrary] territorial boundary line. I, of course, don't know that it could ever be any different, given human nature and demonstrated behavior as either conqueror or conquered, but I still...