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Pick a better fight
From 7,000 miles away, it appears there might be better things and better places for humanity to argue over than Israel and Palestine. Here's a not so random comparison of two areas at the same scale. At the scale of the western US, the "Holy Land" would stack up as a few moderate-size counties. (Click map for larger view.)

Israel has about 7.2 million ihabitants. The occupied territories (would-be Palestine) has about 5 to 6 million; there is no official census, and about as many persons living elsewhere consider themselves in part "Palestinians" though it is not clear how many would really move there if they could. So we're dealing with about 20 million people, about as many as the population of the Los Angeles - San Diego region.

The US has spent about $3 trillion on the war in Iraq. That is about $150,000 per person in the disputed lands of Israel and Palestine. It's also considerably more than the net worth of those folks on average. One wonders how many would rather have a nice condo in the Caribbean or elsewhere.

With the money planned for the war in the future one could even furnish them nicely, especially if the funds were used to leverage the investment instead of for outright purchase, thus leaving a few shekels and pounds to fund education, law enforcement, etc., for the relocated (volunteers, survivors, pick your noun) to increase opportunity and decrease fears of "the other" and memories of the bad things that happened way back when. My guess is that all 11 million have better things to do than fight over who gets the sand.

Yes, I know, the war was over something else, though the reason keeps shifting. And yes, I know, it's "holy." So are lots of other places. Pick your culture; pick your myth.

Every people has been enslaved, Every people has been displaced. Every people has endured the opprobrium of their neighbors. Get over it!

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