Hey Bill, You're absolutely right about this. It seems to me that Zionist ideology exploits the historical trauma of the Jewish people-specifically European Jews, to impose what is very much a European project of taking over indigenous peoples' land and claiming it exclusively for oneself. There have been long periods of peace in this part of the world-but only when the controlling powers of the time recognised, genuinely, that it is a place where everyone can belong together with equal dignity and respect. And only when European nations were not in control.

Many people do not know that it was Muslims who brought Jewish families back to Jerusalem when the Caliph Umar entered the city peacefully (circa 637CE). He was horrified to find that the Christians of the time had expelled all Jews from the City and specifically ordered that Jewish families be invited to settle in Jerusalem because the land is sacred to all three faiths. In the Islamic sacred tradition it is recognised that if anyone wants to rule over the Holy Land they can only do so if they are genuinely respectful of all three faiths for whom the land is holy.

If Western leaders truly care for Israel and the Jewish people they will call them towards the higher values of Judaism, not the racism of Zionism. If we care for people, we can help bring them together-but only if we care for all people-Palestinians and Israelis, Jews, Christians and Muslims.

One of the tragedies of the current bloodshed is that it is avoidable if the elected leaders of the West listen to their own voters and if we live up to our own 'Western' values-I mean here the values that we claim, not the ones that the historical record demonstrates.