And don't forget the religious implications. If the Temple Mount did not exist, I think there would be a lot less tensions. But the Jews bob down at the base, and the Muslims built a mosque on the top (which occasionally a crazy Jew tries to blow up), and both regard it as especially "holy". Both sides claim dominion over it.**

Ultimately, both are an indigenous people, and both think that a deity deeded them that plot of land. (That deity must have hated both of them as that bit of land is about the only place in the middle east that doesn't have oil under it.) This further complicates the situation.

Like most people (hopefully!), I am aghast at the civilian casualties. Those are people who just want to work in their shops, feed their families, and not worry about getting shot. But extremists (on both sides) want to push the other group out. In this case, HAMAS didn't like that the situation was cooling in the middle east, so they attacked Israel expecting this response, and hoping that other "Arab" nations would pull back from normalizing Israeli relations. At the same time, I ponder how I would react in that situation. In Afghanistan I was "try to minimize civilian casualties, but get those SOBs". I think Israel (like us in Afghanistan) is pursuing a lost cause: you can't get them all. It's whack-a-mole. We crippled the Taliban, but when we finally left they had had a resurgence, and promptly took over the country again. That same likely will be true with HAMAS.




**Of course, the Xians have their own zaniness, with fights breaking out over who gets to clean a church...but that's not part of the Temple Mount.