" governments *love* war, and will exploit any and every insecurity of the populace to mobilise them."

...that is such an oversimplification and ridiculous generalization!....'Some' men who happen to be in positions of power find it all to easy to let their testosterone rule, and 'some' men would sell their grandmothers for a few shekels....but you ignore how many wars and battles were NOT fought because people resisted the temptation!

It is easy to make lists of actions by Israel **and* the Palestinians (as well as by various groups of Irish!!!) and demonstrate hateful and violent behavior. And it is easy for either side to take those lists and edit them until they 'prove' who started it. What does not seem to be easy is for someone to say "this is NOT working and we need to stop".

In these days of senseless acts of violence, murder and revenge, there are always enough hot-heads on BOTH sides to keep passions high and tempers flaring. And as Nietzsche indicated in "Zarathustra", there are always old women to say..."Of course it was a just war...my son died in it".

BOTH sides in the Middle East have painted themselves in a corner until continous cycles of violence is all they can concieve of....and THREE religions claim the area as THEIR holy ground. (I know, I'll just go over there and explain to them rationally that they should share both land, government and religious sites!)..........do I sound cynical?...it's been a rough week here.........