Do I still think religion is the source of all problems in Israel/Palestine?

 Ya know, for a while, I used to write off the Israel-Palestine conflict due to my own biases against religion. The Jews think they have a god given right to the land and just took it over and don't give a fudge about the Muslims, and the Muslim extremists dont give a fudge about the Palestinians. I used to think religion and its regressive thinking was the source of all problems in the world, and this conflict was a prime example of this.

But...I've matured a bit since then. And honestly, there are material conditions that lead to things being the way they are. It's not just religion. It's culture. Although the culture of both factions is informed by religions. ANd honestly, nationstate disputes happen even without religion involved. Religion is the source of many of them, but even if it didn't exist, there's the colonials dynamic there. Israel took over the region, it displaced the Palestinians who lived there previously, And there's been bad blood ever since. 

JUst look at Ukraine. Something like that just happened there. And it's not over religion. It's more about democracy vs authoritarianism if anything. And tbqh, I just think Putin is a jerk. 

So...even if both sides werent religious, would this conflict still happen? Yes, probably.

Although, at the same time, I doubt the schism between the two factions would be AS BAD if neither were religious. Both want the land for reasons related to their religion and are uncompromising because of it. Israel thinks they have a god given right to the land, and Palestine thinks they deserve it and they have the right interpretation of gods words. And honestly, that's why israel is so big on settling there, and that's also why the palestinians wont compromise. I think if both factions didnt have religion on as blinders, that perhaps they would both be more reasonable and willing to come to the table and compromise. 

So religion arguably isn't the source of the problem, although it does exacerbate it a lot. And I believe it locks both sides into believing they're right and the other is wrong. And while I do believe at this point one faction (Israel) is the lesser evil here, let's face it, neither are morally perfect, and both have problems, which are again, exacerbated by their respective religions. Extremism and fundamentalism are truly a blight on humanity in general. *sigh*

Anyway, that's all I have to say on this matter for now.