While discussing the degradation of humanity sparked by my post on ‘Redefining Radical’ the conversation went on a tangent and a few friends began to discus who is at fault for the continuous war between Israel and Palestine.

One friend asked, “Let’s say u walked into your house and your wife was getting raped. What would you do? Would you stand idle or would you attack him?” Without getting into the merits of comparing war to rape or anything of that nature, I answered, “I’d attack him”. 

However, that’s not the solution to the problem, that’s only an action that results from the problem itself. 

The real problem is why do such acts take place in the first place and why do we have a culture that is okay with killing as long as it’s a war waged between governments. It’s this acceptance of behavior that keeps the killing going. One kills to avenge another kill which avenged another kill. The timeline of killing stretches so far back that no one knows what instigated it or why it even continues only that it MUST go on. 

The real problem is that we live in a world where such violent behavior exists and it is reciprocated. Over and over again ad infinitum. We’re not talking about finding a man in your home, we aren’t even talking about finding a man in your home because you were once in his, violating his family. We are talking about behavior that goes back generations, where the reason he’s in your home can be traced back to what your great ancestors once did to his great ancestors. 

Can you tell me who started the war between Israel and Palestine? Can you tell me who started the war between Christians and Muslims? Can you tell me when, where, why? You can’t. No one can. We’ve been fighting for so long that it’s the only thing we know. We don’t even know a life in absence of war exists. 

I don’t single out Palestinians or Israelis to cast blame on. Both are equally at fault, as is every nation or individual who has ever supported or opposed either side, publicly or secretly. 

@Suga_Shane