the religious war in palestine

Simon,
You miss the point, in the case of Israel/Palestine it is a religious conflict, there is no other explanation for the situation. It may have started off as a conflict between one group taking over the lands of another group but it has been taken over by the two religions, Jews and Muslims, and this is despite the probability that the majority of ordinary people yearn for a peaceful settlement of the problem.
As I said before, it can be likened to the situation in Northern Ireland but in that case the people were of different ethinic origins, i.e. Celts and Picts, but it the case of  palestine, both groups are of the same ethnic origins so it is almost like a civil war.
I still reckon the solution is to have a common country of Palestine with one government, which the constitution would demand be secular, and get the protaganists to live together with one common constitution and law.To keep on having retaliation for seeming afronts is a no where situation. A Palestinian kills an Israeli and the Israelis then kill a dpzen Palestinians, who were probably not anti Jewish till they were targeted in the revenge attacks, but then they want revenge and so it goes on. Why has the Ulster problem taken 400 years to solve and it still lingers to this day?
G