What Makes People Tick?

Today is the second day of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah (חנוכה), also known as the Feast of Lights. Hanukkah celebrates that once upon a time over 2000 years ago, a miracle happened in Jerusalem. Read all about the story of Hanukkah on Chabad's website, here: What is Hanukkah, from Chabad.org . Chabad writes: In the second century BCE, the Holy Land was ruled by the Seleucids (Syrian-Greeks), who tried to force the people of Israel to accept Greek culture and beliefs instead of mitzvah observance and belief in G ‑ d. Against all odds, a small band of faithful but poorly armed Jews, led by Judah the Maccabee, defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to the service of G ‑ d. When they sought to light the Temple's Menorah (the seven-branched candelabrum), they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks. Miraculously, they lit the menorah and th...

 About 11 years ago, I penned " A Two-State Solution with a Twist - My approach to the problems facing Israel and Palestine today "  full of hope and idealism. Af ter October 7th 2023 and the long, drawn-out war in Gaza that followed those horrific attacks, a peaceful so lution seems further away than ever. Ever the optimist, I find myself revisiting my thoughts on the topic. Today, I'm finishing the post from 2014 with some edits and some newer thoughts mixed in. M any years have passed since 1948 and whether one likes it or not (I'm looking at you, Hamas !), the State of Israel is an established fact. The only way to remove the State of Israel is to wipe every last bit of it off the map entirely, which would equate to the mass genocide of millions of innocent people. Seeing the world already tried that 'solution' some seventy-odd years ago, let's try building bridges this time instead of fences. Just as the State of Israel is an established fact , so...