re: #595 austin_blue

I will respectfully disagree. It’s about land, tribes, gold, and, in the end, water. Middle East religions were created to justify the righteousness of the tribes to the acquisition thereof. Until Islam was created (by men) the tribes of the peninsula had no rallying cry around which to expand their access to land, water, and gold (You can also call gold trade goods. It means the same thing.). Once it caught hold, Shazaam! It’s a miracle of Allah! They had the strongest batch of berserkers in the region and they kicked ass.

Your “creation of religion” theory seems plausible :0

Only problem is many times settlements are built with affordable subsidies bt the Israeli government. There are some cases where the claim can be made that the expansion would claim territory that if retained would make the borders more defensible. But when Israelis give back land, they usually give up the excesses that had nothing to do with security.