[Michael Chui]

Originally Posted by Keith

You make a good (though slightly oversimplified) point. It's really an aside though. Whether you call them a 'race' or a 'culture', those lands are the historic and spiritual home of the Jewish people.

Well, I stayed out of this thread because I don't want to get into the argument since I disagree with it at a fundamental level. So, I want to disclaim that I'm only going to point out a couple things, and I won't do anymore than clarify what I mean. Not even going to defend what I'm going to say outside of this post. I'm completely on the fence in this discussion.

1) The Jewish people themselves establish that they won the land they "own" through conquest. It's a key part of their holy texts.

2) Declaring a spiritual center does not assign a right. If I believe that the White House is on top of a powerful reserve of dilithium according to the holy texts of my religion, I don't have the right to go digging down there to grab it. If it did, then that makes the Puritan versus Royalist war in early Colonial England a bit... unjust.

3) A long history does not assign rights. I can't quite back this statement up, other than to question the premise that just because someone decided to sit down in a place before someone else did doesn't inherently declare any kind of ownership.

4) That you can have a right to a piece of land is a concept that just annoys me. On what authority? (First person who says "God" dies. God will kill you. Preferably using something other than old age.) Land ownership is based entirely on this macho chest-thumping contest of wills. Whoever flinches first loses it, or gets a tiny piece. If you fail to maintain said will, whether by homeland security or a decent military for repelling invaders, then no land4u. If no one flinches, then well, you can already see what happens.

In short, I don't have a resolution to the conflict. I don't really expect there to be one unless something miraculous (like a flinch). Then again, I also haven't tried playing PeaceMaker, by Impact Games. I hear it's good. And the creators are really nice people. (ends plug)