The Israel/Palestine conflict is sort of a religious dispute but not completely. The Palestinian Christians hate Israel too. I’m on a Telegram channel of basically Palestinian Communists (basically atheists), and they differ little from people like Hamas. Same mindset. So it goes a lot beyond a religious dispute, but religion is definitely fueling it and making it a lot worse.
It looks like Jews did something in Palestine to make Palestinians, regardless or their religion or lack thereof, hate them.
Now granted, there are Druze in Israel that don’t hate Jews or Israel. But the Druze in Syria, the Golan, and Lebanon despise Israel. You see, this is because the Druze just support the state wherever they live. Some Israeli Druze are refusing to serve in the army lately though.
A lot of Bedouins serve in the Border Police, but the Jews treat the Bedouins horrendously.
There are almost no Palestinian non-Bedouin Muslims in the army (maybe two dozen), and they are the one group who doesn’t have to serve.
This conflict is really all about nationalism. With even the most horrendous terrorist attacks, the very honest Israeli Shin Bet lists the motive as “nationalism.” Not antisemitism. Not Nazism. Not religious hatred. Nationalism.
What we have here are two groups of people with maximalist claims on the land.
The Jews say that all of that land is for Jews and none of it is for non-Jews, or non-Jews only live there at the whim of the Jews.
Similarly, the Palestinians, in particular the Muslims but also the communists, say that all of the land is for Palestinian Arabs and none of it is for Jews, or Jews only live there at the whim of the Palestinians.
Zero sum game for both groups. Both groups frankly refuse to share the land with each other, which is probably the only way for the conflict to be ameliorated.
*This refers only to Israeli Jews as they are the only ones committing these acts. The Jews in the Diaspora are not part of it in any way, shape or form, so leave them out of it. It doesn’t matter what they think or feel as there’s no such thing as thought crimes.
