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CYCLE_OF_VIOLENCE

                                             December 10, 2006



   About the "cycle of violence" theory:
          
   One way of looking at the continued 
   dispute between Israel and Palestine
   is that there's a "cycle of             
   violence" -- each side sees itself  
   as responding to a wrong inflicted   
   by the other side.                      
                                       
      Two equal partners in a 
      self-reinforcing knot. 
                         
   There's an objection to this, in
   that it ignores the possibility
   that one side might really be at
   fault, or perhaps "more at fault".


     For example, the Noam Chomsky
     take on the situation is that
     the fault for "sabotaging the              I used to think
     peace process" lies largely                that was an
     with Israel.                               "extreme" point
                                                of view.  I've
        Presuming that this                     since come to
        is correct, then                        believe it's all
        the superficially                       too plausible.
        reasonable                       
        cycle-of-violence  
        point of view can  
        actually be an     
        impediment to      
        actually solving          
        the prolem.               An application of   
                                  Okrent's Law?           
                                                          
                                  "The pursuit of balance can create
                                  imbalance because sometimes
                                  something is true."

                                          NEUTRAL_ADVOCATE


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