re: What is the Israel vs Hamas feud about

Sorry to inform you, but in the old city, the biggest conflict is between the Orthodox and regular? Christians. Not between Jews and Muslims or Jews and Christians. Read more on what is going on with the Church of the Holy Sepulcher even today, regarding ladders that are decades old, nobody can decide who can change a light bulb, etc. It's not us Jews creating controversy.

I'm treading into dangerous territory here, and partially intentionally so. Solomon's temple was 587 BCE. Then Herod built another one, also BCE. I have no issue with sharing space, but there is a frustrating (particularly among the left) tendency to act like Jews didn't appear in the area until the Romans killed Jesus, somehow vanished for almost 2000 years, and then showed back up after the Balfour Declaration.

But yeah, Israel doesn't start a lot of shite, but they *need* to finish it.

The Ottomans were clearly expantionist, and were turned back at important junctures by the Polish Hussars and others, for hundreds of years. But, one must admit that the Christian church (or kings operating under their banner) often launched ops that were more about staying in power in their home fiefdoms than they were about doing anything about Islam or the holy land.