Israel/Palestine

What can be accomplished through sheer force of will.

Unsustainable conditions can be sustained for truly awesome lengths of time. That which cannot go on forever, won't, but it can go on for seemingly forever. Being a bully is usually a successful strategy - at least for a time - if one picks one's target carefully.

Believing in a religion, or a mythology, some ideology, or any other lie can drive people to accomplish extreme things, both good and bad. Yet, eventually, all of those models have come tumbling down into ruins. The people at the front edge of the current conflict fervently believe in doing what their invisible friend tells them to do - which is typically violence to somebody else. One wonders why there are not more anti-psychotics prescribed.

This one has some time to play out - probably not in my lifetime, but I am reminded that demographics is destiny.

Israel - like everyone else - has a series of long term problems, and I am not sure that it is addressing them. The segment of Israel's population that has the high birthrate is also the part which has a relatively low secular education, makes the least economic contribution (negative it seems), is politically amongst the most active, and drives a policy of constant confrontation. I am not sure at what point these factors become unsustainable (probably not soon).