How do we stop the violence...?

[FirstLight]

You know, as long as I can remember Israel and Palestine have been shooting eachother and setting off bombs in public places.

Now, I just tune out when I hear it...like it is so common I am just numb

Iraq, same story

(insert name of country here) - (insert # here) of people were killed/injured today when a bomb went off in a (school, market, church, mosque...etc...)

An idea has been running thru my head lately that somehow this has to just stop. Here in our country, we have no idea what it is like to grow up not knowing if the car across the street is going to blow everyone to shreds, or if you school is safe, or if you could go to the market to get dinner fo your family and never see them again.

WHEN wil the insanity end?

HOW does blowing up a bunch of people get anyone anywhere as far as what they want for their cause?

Hell, is it really necessary for the US and Russia to have enough warheads to blow us up a thousand times over? WTF

As Obama and his National Secutity Team prepare to deal with a world with a new mentality for a new century, they MUST realize that the issues and problems are NOT new. Humans have been warring for centuries, people have ben praying for peace for just as long.

I think of the tactics I use with my irrational kindergarteners when they fight. It isn't about who did what, it is about each person wanting something diferent, and someone getting the upper hand. By saying out loud "I understand you are mad because they did this, and they are mad because you did that... Let it go, say you are sorry, mean it, and either find a new game that you both can play - or agree to play separately." Now, as the parent, I have to remain rational and they have to respect my guidance...

The US is in no position of being a Benevolent Adult...If you resort to irrational violence against your kids, they won't listen to you saying that violence isn't wrong.

Besides the thousand year old grudges and tribal rivalries, what can be done to place some boundaries on the agression?

I know this is a Gordian Knot
I know I haven't come up with a brilliant answer
AND I wish there was a way of unifying humans, that there was a way of mandating peace, and having everyone agree that dismantling the weapons is the best for us all

[dysfunctional press]

1. gort?

[madokie]

2. I am inclined to believe with competent help in the whitehouse

that the incidence of violence throughout the world will subside somewhat. With time we can erradicate most of it if we stay on a course of understanding like I feel President Obama and company will do.

Damn, do I have hope for this new President or what???

[JonQ]

3. I don't think *we* can

the US can't, and shouldn't try to, solve all the worlds problems.

Let the Israelis/Palestinians solve it.

[Deep13]

4. For the Israeli/Palestinian thing, violence will stop when one of two things happen:

Either both sides stop believing that they have a deed from god to that land or they are all dead.

The problem is not culture or anything like that. The problem is religion plain and simple.

[FirstLight]

7. tootrue

religion, land and something else (drugs? lol) are always reasons for war...isn't that what we learn in history classes?

and, this isn't just a US problem, but if we are to stop this whole "war on terror" menality...we have to end the idea that declaring WAR on ANYTHING makes it justifiable to bget violence ...

(gotta run to work, I'll check back in a few...talk amongst yourselves!)

[hfojvt]

11. it's what we learn if we get our history from a religiophobic viewpoint

religion is more often used to market a war that is really happening for economic or political reasons.

[Deep13]

13. "religion is more often used to market a war..."

Because people believe it.

"Religiophobic" is a made-up word. The word you are looking for is "skeptical." When people believe irrational things, they will invariably behave irrationally. The dispute in Palestine is one of Jewish Israelis versus Muslim Arabs. To ignore the significance of that is to ignore reality.

And I'm "phobic" of religion because it is fucking scary. Nothing is more horrifying than someone who thinks it is his god-ordered duty to do something horrible.

[Phx_Dem]

15. Wrong

The IP conflict is mostly about land and ownership.

However among the extremists on both sides religion is sometimes used as way to justify marginalizing the other group.

[Deep13]

20. What is preventing the two-state solution from being a reality?

It is primarily the influence of rabbinical extremists who insist that the state has no right to give away land that was promised to Israel by god.

[Phx_Dem]

22. A lack of realistic, mutually beneficial solutions

The peace process as of right now is a zero-sum game, neither side can gain enough concessions to make a final settlement worthwhile. The only way for anyone to really restart the process and make real progress is by promoting and exploring new creative solutions to the problems.

The religious settlers have never had any formal involvement in the peace process, and in fact past Israeli PMs have made it clear though their actions and past signed agreements that they are not being unduly influenced by the settlers as you asserted in your post.

[deaniac21]

19. That's the way the soviets did it.

[Deep13]

21. I don't know that the Soviets really had to sell the war to its people.

The state had taken over the reigns of the previously Tsarist government and that of the Orthodox church which supported it. Since the people had already been beaten into submission by a thousand years of theocracy, they had no will to overthrow it. As far as WW II goes, many of the Russian villagers greeted the Germans as liberators. It was not until the German atrocities became known that many Russians began to resist with a will. It is pretty easy to side with ones own country when the alternative is slavery under the Nazis.

I do not suggest that religion is the root of all evil, but it is a powerful tool for those who seek to use it.

[hfojvt]

9. well that's simple

but simply wrong.

For one thing, both groups are claiming the land because of thousands of years of history, and not based on God. Secondly, Jews have historical reasons for wanting their own country, so they can live free from the fear of pogroms. Third, violence never stops anywhere. There are hundreds of thousands of beatings and threats and homicides happening every year in the United States and probably every other country.

[Deep13]

12. The justification for the violence is "god gave us this land."

If you ask any of the combatants, that is the answer you will eventually get. I'm not willing to pretend religion is not at fault just because it is PC to pretend belief doesn't matter.

[Phx_Dem]

17. You're generalizing too much

Israel and the Palestinians are largely secular, but because of vocal extremists on both sides, the focus tends to fall on them and their rigid religious beliefs.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

5. It won't.

As a whole, humanity has tried to end violence countless times, and each time met with failure.

If we wish to reduce violence around us, then we must move to strike violence from our own lives. I won't be naive and say that if enough of us do it, it will have a massive effect on the world, but we can make the world immediately around us a little better.

[YOY]

6. Economic Stability and the deinstitution of Religious Organizations mettleing with affairs of state.

Just how you do that without making the situation worse is a mystery to me.

[The2ndWheel]

8. I think you found your answer

"AND I wish there was a way of unifying humans, that there was a way of mandating peace, and having everyone agree that dismantling the weapons is the best for us all"

"and either find a new game that you both can play - or agree to play separately"

"it is about each person wanting something diferent"

Eliminate diversity. If everyone thinks the same way, acts the same way, has the same stuff, there won't be a problem. How you implement that on a global scale, that's the tricky part. The process up to the current day to implement that on an ever increasing scale has resulted in massive amounts of violence. Just look at the way America came to be, as one of an endless number of examples.

[Fumesucker]

10. That cure would be far worse than the disease..

Eliminating diversity I mean.. I don't think it's possible to make everyone think the same way, just look at the conflict here on DU, it's not just two sides, it's a virtual infinity of sides. And DU is but a microcosm of the diversity and conflict throughout the world.

Personally I would prefer to live in a diverse world with some violence than some utopia where everyone thinks alike. Since my thinking is quite far from the human norm I guess my preference is selfish, because I have no doubt I would be one of the first into the reeducation camp.

[The2ndWheel]

16. Obviously, but that is what we try to do

We attempt to simplify life to the most efficient level possible, meaning a single way of doing things. Even me saying that we attempt to do that is simplifying it down to a single answer.

We monoculture crops. We breed the most profitable livestock to such narrow guidelines that they couldn't exist without factory farms. We try to make the world a placeless place, every city with a McDonalds for example. We've created a world of, by, and for the large scale institution, not living people.

Like I said, to get to that violence-free utopia, massive amounts of violence have had to be used. That's been going on for thousands of years. Be it against other humans, non-humans, land, water, etc. Pesticides are violence for example.

That's why there is no solution to any of these problems. The problems just end up changing into other problems. That's why, on another topic, to me, swtiching from oil to some other form of clean energy won't really solve anything, it will just create some other problem that we have to deal with, and if we increase the scale of our activity, the problems will just be that much bigger.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. It would be helpful if we stopped selling/giving arms to the region.

But, bloodstained profits rule.

[tjwash]

18. There you go, with that commie "making sense" shit again.

We could also stop propping up dictators in countries like Nicaragua and El Salvador to make way for Chiquita banana to drive the locals off of the land there as well.