re: #481 iossarian

I am not trying to goad you. I am however asking a pointed question because I believe that it is at the root of most of these problems.

But of course, there was a point far back in time when the part of the world now called “Israel” was not a Jewish state. Over time, people lay claim to pieces of land, and use various methods to legitimize those claims.

I think that using religion, ethnicity, and other such more-or-less exclusionary identity definitions to decide ownership of pieces of land and/or membership of a state is not conducive to long-term stability.

I completely agree that Israel is vastly more sinned against than sinner in current and recent conflicts. However that doesn’t change the fact that there are real problems that arise from the blurring of religious identity and citizenship, in Israel and of course in other parts of the world as well.

Every other religion can have a “seat” and every other religion can have their followers live there and it can be considered a holy city. All those other cities can have lots of citizens of many faiths, too. But only one should be admonished? Ok.