Why can’t the Israelis and Palestinians just live in peace?!!

[elprup]

Surely that’s what the overwhelming majority want. Let’s face it, 99% of us just want to get on with our lives in a quiet, peaceful way and do the best for our kids. So why can’t they all just lay down the weapons and live together, in harmony? Open the borders and live as one, forging a brighter future for their kids?

Erm, have you been to West of Scotland or Northern Ireland?

Golda Meyer said there will never be peace until the Patestinians love their children more than they hate Jews

This ⬆️
and for anyone in any doubt you can easily access school lesson materials / resources being used by Palestinians to indoctrinate their young children into a deep fundamental/ ideological / fear and hated of Jews. Not just Israelis but Jews. period.

Your analysis of war has missed out a fundamental element, and describes the mis- understanding of the conflict ‘ security’ from terrorist attacks. If you were in charge of a country which was under attack from an extremist death cult would you seek to push their borders away from you, thus taking control of more land and consequently ensuring more security for your population?

The next stage of the Russian/Ukrain war and the inevitable peace deal will illustrate this by Russia pushing the threat of Ukrain (Nato) away from its borders and thus taking land into its control.

She also said

"If Palestine laid down it's arms there would be peace - if Israel laid down it's arms there would be no Israel"

A very erudite lady.

Hard to say. How many Iraqis did Saddam Hussain kill? How many Syrian civilians did Assad kill? How many Syrian Christians and Yazidis has IS butchered, burnt or enslaved? Have you been taking notes? Keeping tallies? Elsewhere, have you been reading about the ethnic cleansing of non-Arab populations in Sudan? Estimates vary, but with roughly 150,000 killed, 12 million displaced, and many thousands of women and children brutally raped as a tactic of war it’s not an insignificant conflict. So sure. Keep telling me about how Christians, secular Western nations and Jews are wicked monsters and Islam brings only peace.

This is absolutely wonderful news:

www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/oct/13/gaza-ceasefire-live-updates-israel-hostages-release-hamas-trump-middle-east

Hamas killed dozens of Palestinians in the streets last night... despite agreeing to withdraw.
Until they are truly gone there will be no safety or peace.

I am so happy that the hostages have been reunited with their families, but the price paid has been a heavy one, with many convicted murderers released in exchange for innocent hostages. We can only hope for lasting peace.

You might as well ask why the human race can’t live in peace. The reason is human beings are irrational, partisan, greedy, scared, aggressive, selfish, etc. Conflict, sadly, is part of the human condition. The best we can hope for is to resolve situations as peacefully as we can, in as lasting a way as we can.

Haven’t RTFT, but my answer is, because Palestine is run by a barbaric, murderous, terrorist death cult that wants to exterminate the entire Jewish race, starting with Israel. Weirdly, Israel isn’t so keen on that, and being the vastly superior military power of the two is capable of robustly defending itself. The rest of the world would apparently rather Israel just rolled over and let its citizens be tortured, raped, kidnapped and murdered because Jews.

because Palestine is run by a barbaric, murderous, terrorist death cult that wants to exterminate the entire Jewish race, starting with Israel.

Got it one @AngeloMysterioso

I used to have a boyfriend back at Uni who had very strong views about Israel / Palestine - very in favour of one side and against the other - and said this very thing re Northern Ireland - something like “Why are they fighting just over this bit of land because of religion - if they can’t just live in peace we should just cut them all adrift, out to sea”. Definitely something about sweeping them out to sea.

He couldn’t see the irony!

Edit - I think maybe he thought it was different Catholics and Protestants were the same religion in his eyes, but ultimately Christians/ Jews/ Muslims are a very similar religion!

As far as I was aware we killed far more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein. I know less about the other conflicts you mention but am not sure how massaged your world view is.
I’m not sure I was touting “Islam brings peace” more that the barbaric behaviour doesn’t seem to be limited to one religion. I don’t think the west is angelic and they obviously have participated in Middle Eastern affairs for many years.

There was a 16th Century travellog written about ancient Palestine by Ottoman traveller Evliya Celebi, who was there in 1650 ish. His is one of the only surviving direct descriptions of Palestine back then. One thing of note is that there were a mix of people living there, including the Jewish. He specifically refers to the 'Land of Palestine'.

I'd absolutely agree that barbaric behaviour is not limited to any one race or religion. The most cursory knowledge of human history would provide ample evidence otherwise. For what it's worth, which isn't much, I marched against the Iraq war, and I think it was an instance of appalling over-reach and poor judgement by the US and Britain. What I object to in your post is a tendency to respond to any recognition that non Western nations or peoples may have cultures that are incompatible with our own, or may be committing ethnic cleansing or other atrocities, with 'what about what we've done!'.
Understanding the history of a conflict is important, but suggesting that British or American involvement in that history removes any agency from those still engaged in the conflict seems to me supremely unhelpful. Similarly, recognising that Western nations have been responsible for violence and bloodshed is right, but using that to distract attention from conflicts in which white people are currently absent or peripheral is completely pointless, and means that genocide and mass rape on the African continent in particular goes mostly ignored by the Western media, in some cases despite desperate attempts by prominent figures in the affected communities to attract some sort of attention or help from the international community.
You suggest my world view is massaged, yet you apparently know nothing about some of the worst human rights violations that are taking place now or have done so in recent years. The BBC has an extensive article on the ongoing conflict in Sudan. I sourced all my figures from there. Is that too 'massaged' for you? There's a good piece about the horrific fate of the Yazidis on the King's College London website referencing (amongst other sources) UN reports and articles from the Harvard Women's Law Journal. The Syrian Network for Human Rights reports that Assad's regime murdered over 200,000 civilians over 14 years and that over 15,000 of these people died from torture. This wasn't during a war, this was simply brutality and political and religious control. My world view is of course 'massaged'. We are all vulnerable to that. Perhaps take the time to think about how yours might not be as pure and uncompromised by partiality and propaganda as you think.

Peace and harmony is irrelevant to Jihadis.

With the amount of anger people seem to have against other people (immigrants here on the UK) for just being here, can you imagine the level of fear and anger people in Gaza and people in Israel have against each other? Think about Northern Ireland. It's barely resolved. Think about all the wars.

Yes, your post is incredibly naive but you already know that. Time to dig deeper...

The conflict and aggression on this thread is a perfect demonstration of why they can't live in peace.

I think that's a naive post. Why don't they just live in peace. Simple answer - because men want land and power.

Are you English? Why didn't the English live in peace throughout history? They didn't. Why invaded many countries and took their land. Because they wanted land and power.

Why didn't the English want peace when they invaded Ireland and took all of their land?
Because they wanted land.

Why didn't England give back Northern Ireland to Ireland when the recent war was happening in Northern Ireland? Answer: because England will not give up the land.

Religion the root of many wars.

I always think its funny when people from the U.K. say "why dont those awful countries just have peace", like the U.K has never done anything to anyone.

It is so hypocritical!

The U.K has been one of the most barbaric, brutal colonising countries in World history.

Op what do you think of the UK.taking land from the Irish? What do you think about the UK still owning Northern Ireland and refusing to give it back, despite this causing a long term war in Northern Ireland? Many lives were lost.

It seems to be :
When other countries invade each other, kill people and steal land, people in the U.K. think its awful.

However when the UK invades other countries, kills people, rapes people and steals land, no one in the UK cares in the slightest.

It is so fucking hypocritical

. Anytime anyone mentions the huge damage that the U.K. did to Ireland, damage that is ongoing to this day, people in the U.K usually say that they don't care.

Why?

Refuse to give it back? There is a substantial part of the population of Northern Ireland (around half) who don’t want to be given back. I’m assuming they should just be ignored?

I actually think it should, ultimately, go back and Ireland should be united, but I also don’t think it’s as simplistic as you make out.

Just to put that statement right - the Troubles in Northern Ireland were a secular issue that was fought along religious lines.