From the (San Jose) Mercury News wire services:
The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly endorsed the idea of an unprecedented treaty regulating the global arms trade, despite opposition from the United States.
Of the U.N.’s 192 member nations, 147 voted in favor of drafting the treaty. Only the U.S. and Zimbabwe voted against it, with the other nations absent or abstaining.
What do the United States and Zimbabwe have in common?
Both heads of state were illegally elected. Mugabe, the dictator who seized power after being elected out of office, needs armaments to protect his illegal control of Zimbabwe and also to slaughter opponents of his regime. George W. Bush, elected by the Supreme Court of the United States against the clear vote of the citizenry of the country, must repay the armaments industry that contributed heavily to his election campaign.
Mugabe’s actions and the reasons for them are clearly discernable. He and his supporters are the power elite of Zimbabwe. Bush’s actions are cloaked by the opaque curtain drawn between the government of the United States and the power elites behind the curtain that manipulate the strings of the elected puppets acting on the stage in front of that curtain, for their benefit.
So, if there is a God, and if He wanted to bring peace to the world, He is finessed by the more powerful forces driving for ever greater wealth and greater power. It is also possible that if there is a God, He belongs to the power elites of the world.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
HOW THE WEST SUPPORTS TERRORISM
Manufacturers of weaponry used in terror attacks are mostly located in the Western world. The cockamaimy export regulations used by these nations as safeguards against weaponry falling into inappropriate unacceptable hands are obviously useless, and obviously, intentionally useless.
Merchants of death throughout the world have no problems supplying their clients with whatever they want in arms and munitions so long as the dollars (and only dollars) are there to pay for them. Terrorists of all stripes, mini-revolutionaries, governmental terrorists ala Mugabe, rapists and land-grabbers, Muslims, Sikhs, past and present Russians, American loonies, Indians and Pakistanis, Phillipinos and Palestinians, Kurds and Turks, and the list goes on and on barely describing who and why they need killing tools and against whom those tools will be used.
The vast land of the United States will become a killing ground in the same way that other sophisticated modern nations will become killing grounds; because the weapons of terror are available and easily obtained. The Supreme Idiot Court of the United States has upheld the right of all citizens to bear arms. What enormous gigantic power lies in the hands of arms manufacturers and merchants to be able to obtain a majority of the justices to twist the clearly stated language of the 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution that calls for citizens' RIGHT to bear arms in a WELL REGULATED MILITIA.
When sufficient money enters the cabals that hold violent beliefs, the country will recognize the errors of ommission and commission that enabled the United States to join the modern world of terror alongside Iraq, Pakistan, Gaza, Afghanistan, and other centers of suicide bombers, ideological nut-cases, anti-government neo-fascists, and just plain crazies who believe that death is a form of life and a way of life.
Let's make money from this new era. Join the NRA.
Merchants of death throughout the world have no problems supplying their clients with whatever they want in arms and munitions so long as the dollars (and only dollars) are there to pay for them. Terrorists of all stripes, mini-revolutionaries, governmental terrorists ala Mugabe, rapists and land-grabbers, Muslims, Sikhs, past and present Russians, American loonies, Indians and Pakistanis, Phillipinos and Palestinians, Kurds and Turks, and the list goes on and on barely describing who and why they need killing tools and against whom those tools will be used.
The vast land of the United States will become a killing ground in the same way that other sophisticated modern nations will become killing grounds; because the weapons of terror are available and easily obtained. The Supreme Idiot Court of the United States has upheld the right of all citizens to bear arms. What enormous gigantic power lies in the hands of arms manufacturers and merchants to be able to obtain a majority of the justices to twist the clearly stated language of the 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution that calls for citizens' RIGHT to bear arms in a WELL REGULATED MILITIA.
When sufficient money enters the cabals that hold violent beliefs, the country will recognize the errors of ommission and commission that enabled the United States to join the modern world of terror alongside Iraq, Pakistan, Gaza, Afghanistan, and other centers of suicide bombers, ideological nut-cases, anti-government neo-fascists, and just plain crazies who believe that death is a form of life and a way of life.
Let's make money from this new era. Join the NRA.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
HIS STORY - PUTIN CREATES & DESTROYS THE PAST
The New York Times: November 27, 2008
Nationalism of Putin's Era Veils Sins of Stalin's
That's the headline of the story about how "history" is created. Vladimir Putin, the Dictator of Russia, theoretically the leader of a democracy, is intent on creating the events of the past, today. This former KGB agent, (the Russian secret service under the Stalin dictatorship,) is intent on rewriting the history of Soviet Russia to conform to his idea of what the Russian people and the world SHOULD know about that era. Records of events of that past horror show are locked up now, and will in all likelihood be destroyed so that the new Putin version of what took place will not be subject to verification.
Skeptics of the notion that history is created by power elites, the winners of wars and controllers of information and education, may wish to evaluate the impact of Putin's acts on the truth, the realities, the facts, of what took place in that prior time. They may wish to examine how George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and their minions in the United States have so tightened their control of the evidence of their actions as those actions affected the course of events while they were in power, that Putin and the American power structure of the past eight years may be partners in historic revisions that overlap in time.
Historians, at least those who believe they write history, are forced to create structures from the scraps of evidence they find, much as anthropologists create whole skeletons from single bones.
The sad truth is that children learn about the past what kings and queens want them to learn.
Nationalism of Putin's Era Veils Sins of Stalin's
That's the headline of the story about how "history" is created. Vladimir Putin, the Dictator of Russia, theoretically the leader of a democracy, is intent on creating the events of the past, today. This former KGB agent, (the Russian secret service under the Stalin dictatorship,) is intent on rewriting the history of Soviet Russia to conform to his idea of what the Russian people and the world SHOULD know about that era. Records of events of that past horror show are locked up now, and will in all likelihood be destroyed so that the new Putin version of what took place will not be subject to verification.
Skeptics of the notion that history is created by power elites, the winners of wars and controllers of information and education, may wish to evaluate the impact of Putin's acts on the truth, the realities, the facts, of what took place in that prior time. They may wish to examine how George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and their minions in the United States have so tightened their control of the evidence of their actions as those actions affected the course of events while they were in power, that Putin and the American power structure of the past eight years may be partners in historic revisions that overlap in time.
Historians, at least those who believe they write history, are forced to create structures from the scraps of evidence they find, much as anthropologists create whole skeletons from single bones.
The sad truth is that children learn about the past what kings and queens want them to learn.
Monday, November 17, 2008
TERRORISM AND STATECRAFT - 21st CENTURY
The dividing line between terrorists and statesmen has been eroding over the past few decades, unless the rise of Nazism is included in the definition of terrorism.
Iran, whose political leader, with the acquiescence of its religious - and more powerful leaders - has called for the destruction of another nation, Israel. Iraq's Saddam Hussein attacked neighboring Kuwait in a clear terrorist attempt to gain hegemony over that state. Syria's previous president, Hafiz Assad, killed 10,000 citizens in what can only be described as a terrorist attack. Libya's president Qaddafi sent terrorist minions to place a bomb on board a Pan Am airliner that resulted in the deaths of over two hundred passengers and crew.
Terrorists are supported, trained, and sent on missions by nations. They are not sent out to hold up banks. They are sent to kill innocent civilians in what the statesmen consider an act of retribution, a political act. The New York City World Trade Center twin towers were destroyed by terrorists from Saudi Arabia. It is difficult to believe that this cadre of killers was unknown to the leaders of that country.
Terrorism as statecraft has spread to oppressive regimes and to the regimes' internal opponents as the most effective means of retaining and obtaining power. War craft and statecraft were, and in many countries are, the means of settling conflicting claims to power. The difference between terrorism and war craft is found in the targets of the killing and destruction that takes place. Thus, Saddam Hussein's attack on Kuwait's civilian population might be classified as terrorist until other nations' armies engaged Iraq's armed forces.
The killings of Sunnis by Shiites and vice verse are terrorist, by definition. However, with both religious groups in the Iraqi government, and with the killing of each other by civilian bombers, we see 21st century terrorism as statecraft and statecraft as terrorism. This condition is a harbinger of a new way of electing political leaders and political parties.
President Mugabe of Zimbabwe has shown that the next step in this march to political expression is voting machines that blow up, along with the voter, when the wrong button is pushed.
Iran, whose political leader, with the acquiescence of its religious - and more powerful leaders - has called for the destruction of another nation, Israel. Iraq's Saddam Hussein attacked neighboring Kuwait in a clear terrorist attempt to gain hegemony over that state. Syria's previous president, Hafiz Assad, killed 10,000 citizens in what can only be described as a terrorist attack. Libya's president Qaddafi sent terrorist minions to place a bomb on board a Pan Am airliner that resulted in the deaths of over two hundred passengers and crew.
Terrorists are supported, trained, and sent on missions by nations. They are not sent out to hold up banks. They are sent to kill innocent civilians in what the statesmen consider an act of retribution, a political act. The New York City World Trade Center twin towers were destroyed by terrorists from Saudi Arabia. It is difficult to believe that this cadre of killers was unknown to the leaders of that country.
Terrorism as statecraft has spread to oppressive regimes and to the regimes' internal opponents as the most effective means of retaining and obtaining power. War craft and statecraft were, and in many countries are, the means of settling conflicting claims to power. The difference between terrorism and war craft is found in the targets of the killing and destruction that takes place. Thus, Saddam Hussein's attack on Kuwait's civilian population might be classified as terrorist until other nations' armies engaged Iraq's armed forces.
The killings of Sunnis by Shiites and vice verse are terrorist, by definition. However, with both religious groups in the Iraqi government, and with the killing of each other by civilian bombers, we see 21st century terrorism as statecraft and statecraft as terrorism. This condition is a harbinger of a new way of electing political leaders and political parties.
President Mugabe of Zimbabwe has shown that the next step in this march to political expression is voting machines that blow up, along with the voter, when the wrong button is pushed.
Friday, November 14, 2008
THE ISRAEL PALESTINIAN CONFLICT – Part 2
THE ISRAEL PALESTINIAN CONFLICT – Part 2 - NOVEMBER 2008 & SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND – Part 2
After evaluating alternative methods for approaching solutions to the conflict, it appears that the bases for thinking, discussing, and arriving at agreements, are so rigid and intractable as to prevent any realistic method from arising to enable resolution of the conflict.
To start with, the Islamic world is intent on wiping out the State of Israel and Israel refuses to cooperate in its extinction. Past attempts to ignore, breach, or bypass this wall have ended in much death and no change in this fundamental and foundational element.
As with most of the conflicts between peoples on the face of the earth, the intractable elements of history, religion, patriotism, geography, love of country, military strategy, wealth and its power, all work against peaceful solutions and accommodations between the parties. Often, within a country, conflicts arise between competing political entities over the degree and nature of concessions to be offered to achieve peace. The more powerful grouping, the wealthy and the ones who benefit most from conflict are the winners and the mass of populations send their sons to war.
The earth has been and is divided and rotates in two orbits; one, the masses, the pawns, and the other, the power elites – the kings and queens - with their knights, rooks, and bishops.
Through the centuries, “conventional” arms have inflicted limited damage on conflicting parties. However, we have entered the age of “non-conventional” warfare. Nagasaki and Hiroshima are the only real examples of the results of such warfare. The pictures are there for all to see but the experiences of that kind of warfare have been hidden from today’s players in both orbits, by intent and by a kind of stupidity that defies explanation. Power elites do not benefit from holocausts.
The United States and Russia have set examples to the world of that stupidity cloaked in a variety of garments that have been woven from the cloth of history, religion, patriotism, and simplistic bravado. The atomic nations and the nations that aspire to join the nuclear club have been dumbed down by the sheer excitement of owning such destructive power.
Until such moment when parts of our world again experience the immense tragedy and sorrow of nuclear holocaust, no progress will be made in mankind’s ability to solve its relational problems and conflicts. Until peoples with burnt out eyes and immolated flesh are shown to monetary and religious fundamentalists, the “decision-making powers,” will there be any possibility for conflict resolution between nations and peoples.
RESPONSES TO THE ABOVE POSTING:
REPLIES
You conclude that it will take a nuclear holocaust to resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestine. I find nothing in your essay that addresses the Israel-Palestine conflict itself, and no constructive suggestions toward any kind of settlement. What is the actual aim of this essay?
Adina
Sorry, Nachum, I don't get it. Are you saying that we are so inured to the nuclear age that we need another city to be annihilated in order to solve some problem, possibly the Islamist/Jewish conflict? I think you are mixing metaphors here.
/Rick
There has not been a weapon invented that humanity did not use - and no horrors have stopped wars.
Yes - western Europe has been at peace these 60 years - I am not knowledgeable enough to know why. perhaps those power elites have not seen any advantage to war - yet. Same goes for North America. Our problem - Ahmedinajad (?) and his ilk do not care about the holocaust they might cause - there are those virgins in heaven and who knows what is needed to bring back their missing messiah/immam (the word I would need has just eluded me). remember - it's the Christians who expect Armaggedon before the second coming.
We were in germany talking to classes as part of Kristalnacht commemorations. A girl asked me if I don't want to live in a safe country (instead of Israel). I said, sure - and then gave her the Zionist spiel. So yes, I am happy for every day without catastrophy - and fear for my kids and theirs, and nothing to be done...
TAMAR
Nach- sounds like you are saying that our only hope is nuclear war? Why bother?
ANNE
YOU WANT FEEDBACK..OK..YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND.
I READ EVERYTHING TIL I'M RED.WHITE AND BLUE IN THE FACE. SO MUCH FOR PATRIOTISM. YOU PRESENT ALL THE NEGATIVES AND NO SOLUTIONS. WE KNOW ALL THE BAD THINGS BUT WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THEM. YOU SEEM TO FEEL THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT THEM EXCEPT REMIND EVERYONE WHAT THEY ARE AND WHOSE FAULT IT IS. IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANY SOLUTIONS I AM SUGGESTING THE ONE THING I CAN NEVER EXPECT FROM MY GOOD FRIEND...GIVE UP!.ENJOY THE BLESSING OF THE NEW ADDITION TO THE CLAN AND HOPE (RATHER THAN PRAY) THAT SOMEONE IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE SOLVES THE PROBLEMS THAT EXIST IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND EVERYWHERE ELSE. HOPE YOUR NEW ADDITION WILL NEVER HAVE TO FACE THE PROBLEMS THAT, IT SEEMS, THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR THE NEXT GENERATIONS. THESE ARE THE TIMES THAT I AM THANKFUL THAT I AM NEARING THE END AND NOT HAVEING TO START AT THE BEGINNING. OLD AGE DOES HAVE ITS ADVANTAGES.
BOB J.
The last entry about how they should forget the past and plan for the future was a memorable idea that will stick in my head, as long as it works.
HARVEY
After evaluating alternative methods for approaching solutions to the conflict, it appears that the bases for thinking, discussing, and arriving at agreements, are so rigid and intractable as to prevent any realistic method from arising to enable resolution of the conflict.
To start with, the Islamic world is intent on wiping out the State of Israel and Israel refuses to cooperate in its extinction. Past attempts to ignore, breach, or bypass this wall have ended in much death and no change in this fundamental and foundational element.
As with most of the conflicts between peoples on the face of the earth, the intractable elements of history, religion, patriotism, geography, love of country, military strategy, wealth and its power, all work against peaceful solutions and accommodations between the parties. Often, within a country, conflicts arise between competing political entities over the degree and nature of concessions to be offered to achieve peace. The more powerful grouping, the wealthy and the ones who benefit most from conflict are the winners and the mass of populations send their sons to war.
The earth has been and is divided and rotates in two orbits; one, the masses, the pawns, and the other, the power elites – the kings and queens - with their knights, rooks, and bishops.
Through the centuries, “conventional” arms have inflicted limited damage on conflicting parties. However, we have entered the age of “non-conventional” warfare. Nagasaki and Hiroshima are the only real examples of the results of such warfare. The pictures are there for all to see but the experiences of that kind of warfare have been hidden from today’s players in both orbits, by intent and by a kind of stupidity that defies explanation. Power elites do not benefit from holocausts.
The United States and Russia have set examples to the world of that stupidity cloaked in a variety of garments that have been woven from the cloth of history, religion, patriotism, and simplistic bravado. The atomic nations and the nations that aspire to join the nuclear club have been dumbed down by the sheer excitement of owning such destructive power.
Until such moment when parts of our world again experience the immense tragedy and sorrow of nuclear holocaust, no progress will be made in mankind’s ability to solve its relational problems and conflicts. Until peoples with burnt out eyes and immolated flesh are shown to monetary and religious fundamentalists, the “decision-making powers,” will there be any possibility for conflict resolution between nations and peoples.
RESPONSES TO THE ABOVE POSTING:
REPLIES
You conclude that it will take a nuclear holocaust to resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestine. I find nothing in your essay that addresses the Israel-Palestine conflict itself, and no constructive suggestions toward any kind of settlement. What is the actual aim of this essay?
Adina
Sorry, Nachum, I don't get it. Are you saying that we are so inured to the nuclear age that we need another city to be annihilated in order to solve some problem, possibly the Islamist/Jewish conflict? I think you are mixing metaphors here.
/Rick
There has not been a weapon invented that humanity did not use - and no horrors have stopped wars.
Yes - western Europe has been at peace these 60 years - I am not knowledgeable enough to know why. perhaps those power elites have not seen any advantage to war - yet. Same goes for North America. Our problem - Ahmedinajad (?) and his ilk do not care about the holocaust they might cause - there are those virgins in heaven and who knows what is needed to bring back their missing messiah/immam (the word I would need has just eluded me). remember - it's the Christians who expect Armaggedon before the second coming.
We were in germany talking to classes as part of Kristalnacht commemorations. A girl asked me if I don't want to live in a safe country (instead of Israel). I said, sure - and then gave her the Zionist spiel. So yes, I am happy for every day without catastrophy - and fear for my kids and theirs, and nothing to be done...
TAMAR
Nach- sounds like you are saying that our only hope is nuclear war? Why bother?
ANNE
YOU WANT FEEDBACK..OK..YOUR WISH IS MY COMMAND.
I READ EVERYTHING TIL I'M RED.WHITE AND BLUE IN THE FACE. SO MUCH FOR PATRIOTISM. YOU PRESENT ALL THE NEGATIVES AND NO SOLUTIONS. WE KNOW ALL THE BAD THINGS BUT WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THEM. YOU SEEM TO FEEL THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT THEM EXCEPT REMIND EVERYONE WHAT THEY ARE AND WHOSE FAULT IT IS. IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANY SOLUTIONS I AM SUGGESTING THE ONE THING I CAN NEVER EXPECT FROM MY GOOD FRIEND...GIVE UP!.ENJOY THE BLESSING OF THE NEW ADDITION TO THE CLAN AND HOPE (RATHER THAN PRAY) THAT SOMEONE IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE SOLVES THE PROBLEMS THAT EXIST IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND EVERYWHERE ELSE. HOPE YOUR NEW ADDITION WILL NEVER HAVE TO FACE THE PROBLEMS THAT, IT SEEMS, THE FUTURE HOLDS FOR THE NEXT GENERATIONS. THESE ARE THE TIMES THAT I AM THANKFUL THAT I AM NEARING THE END AND NOT HAVEING TO START AT THE BEGINNING. OLD AGE DOES HAVE ITS ADVANTAGES.
BOB J.
The last entry about how they should forget the past and plan for the future was a memorable idea that will stick in my head, as long as it works.
HARVEY
PROP 8 - BUILDING BLOCK OF FUNDAMENTALISM
California's Proposition 8, passed by a small majority in the recent election, defines marriage as ONLY between a man and a woman.
The years have shown that the marriage of any two individuals and the way they live their lives together or the way they get a divorce, is independent of law. Prop 8 overthrew a California Supreme Court decision that permitted marriage of any couples requesting the State's license to marry.
Now, as a nation, we are faced with the choice of enshrining this same proposition in the Constitution of the United States.
Unless we recognize this attack on individual rights and freedoms for what it is, we as a nation are doomed to an explosion of reactionary law-making that will bring Americans to live under similar intolerant tenets of religious fundamentalism seen in the Islamic world.
Proposition 8 is similar in kind to the attacks on women's rights now being conducted in courts throughout the land. Citizens running for election to political offices, from town Librarian to Mayor to member of the Board of Education and on up to the President, will declare their desire and willingness to tear down the separation of church and state and make decisions required in their positions that will dictate LEGAL prejudice, isolation, discrimination,
Prop 8 has many faces and many disguises. As our New England forebears stated so eloquently, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Unless we are vigilant and act on that vigilance, our liberties will exist only in history books.
The years have shown that the marriage of any two individuals and the way they live their lives together or the way they get a divorce, is independent of law. Prop 8 overthrew a California Supreme Court decision that permitted marriage of any couples requesting the State's license to marry.
Now, as a nation, we are faced with the choice of enshrining this same proposition in the Constitution of the United States.
Unless we recognize this attack on individual rights and freedoms for what it is, we as a nation are doomed to an explosion of reactionary law-making that will bring Americans to live under similar intolerant tenets of religious fundamentalism seen in the Islamic world.
Proposition 8 is similar in kind to the attacks on women's rights now being conducted in courts throughout the land. Citizens running for election to political offices, from town Librarian to Mayor to member of the Board of Education and on up to the President, will declare their desire and willingness to tear down the separation of church and state and make decisions required in their positions that will dictate LEGAL prejudice, isolation, discrimination,
Prop 8 has many faces and many disguises. As our New England forebears stated so eloquently, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Unless we are vigilant and act on that vigilance, our liberties will exist only in history books.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND - PATH TO ??
Palestinians are Arabs who lived in a geographically ill-defined area of Middle East land, the borders of which have changed innumerable times over the centuries. Jews also have lived in that area for thousands of years. With the rise of the Zionist movement in the late eighteen hundreds whose goal is the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people, those Jews are often defined as Zionists, sometimes against their objections to such a non-religious name. Most Palestinians wish that Israel would disappear or be "disappeared." Hence, the Palestinian-Israel conflict.
"SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND" is the name of an organization seeking to resolve the Palestinian-Israel conflict. Notice the difference between Palestinian, meaning people who live in a geographical area called "Palestine," and Israel, meaning a nation established in 1948 in part of that area. The conflict began in biblical times and continues to the present, having assumed many shapes over the centuries.
Common ground is an expression that generally implies an area of agreement between parties with differing points of view. Searching for that area of agreement and finding it should or may lead to agreement on issues in dispute by holding up the pictures of areas of agreement as guideposts on the way to agreement on those opposing issues, those issues in dispute.
However, when there are no common grounds that relate to the issues in dispute, the search for common ground is a misleading tactic in the way to agreement on issues in dispute. Being friendly with your opponent, a desired condition growing out of common ground, is of no use in the resolution of issues of belief and historical/geographical imperatives. As an example, if one loses a piece of jewelry that is found by another in neutral territory and claimed by the finder as belonging to him, no common ground can resolve the conflict of ownership.
Or, if one believes that a certain rock is holy, no finding of common ground will enable a non-believer to destroy or remove that rock from its location.
Or, if one is brought up to believe that a national territory extends to a certain location and if, after warfare over that territory, a non-national attempts to occupy that territory and claim it under the rules of war, absent some agreement that is based on a fair exchange of territory - patriotism, love of country, and history will simply nullify any change that is not found to be fair.
These are examples where “common ground” leads nowhere. History, religion, geography, patriotism, prior ownership, all nullify the benefits of cordial relations generated by finding common grounds that enable antagonists to discuss their disagreements in an amicable fashion.
The solution to the Palestinian-Israel conflict lies in the parties defining a future without reference to history, geography, religion, patriotism or any unchangeable immutable points of reference. What do the parties to the conflict want for their following generations? Peace, health, education, opportunity, prosperity, equality, and all the happiness that these may provide. Until the definition for the future is agreed upon, no discussion of territory will lead to a solution.
"SEARCH FOR COMMON GROUND" is the name of an organization seeking to resolve the Palestinian-Israel conflict. Notice the difference between Palestinian, meaning people who live in a geographical area called "Palestine," and Israel, meaning a nation established in 1948 in part of that area. The conflict began in biblical times and continues to the present, having assumed many shapes over the centuries.
Common ground is an expression that generally implies an area of agreement between parties with differing points of view. Searching for that area of agreement and finding it should or may lead to agreement on issues in dispute by holding up the pictures of areas of agreement as guideposts on the way to agreement on those opposing issues, those issues in dispute.
However, when there are no common grounds that relate to the issues in dispute, the search for common ground is a misleading tactic in the way to agreement on issues in dispute. Being friendly with your opponent, a desired condition growing out of common ground, is of no use in the resolution of issues of belief and historical/geographical imperatives. As an example, if one loses a piece of jewelry that is found by another in neutral territory and claimed by the finder as belonging to him, no common ground can resolve the conflict of ownership.
Or, if one believes that a certain rock is holy, no finding of common ground will enable a non-believer to destroy or remove that rock from its location.
Or, if one is brought up to believe that a national territory extends to a certain location and if, after warfare over that territory, a non-national attempts to occupy that territory and claim it under the rules of war, absent some agreement that is based on a fair exchange of territory - patriotism, love of country, and history will simply nullify any change that is not found to be fair.
These are examples where “common ground” leads nowhere. History, religion, geography, patriotism, prior ownership, all nullify the benefits of cordial relations generated by finding common grounds that enable antagonists to discuss their disagreements in an amicable fashion.
The solution to the Palestinian-Israel conflict lies in the parties defining a future without reference to history, geography, religion, patriotism or any unchangeable immutable points of reference. What do the parties to the conflict want for their following generations? Peace, health, education, opportunity, prosperity, equality, and all the happiness that these may provide. Until the definition for the future is agreed upon, no discussion of territory will lead to a solution.
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