The Attack in Jerusalem: Religion's Advocacy of Murder and Mayhem: As a Jew, every Jewish death is like a stake in my heart. I was sickened, to put it mildly, by the murders of innocents in a Jewish rabbinical school in Jerusalem several days ago. I think one needs to understand that this is and will be a part of life there. It is something, difficult as it may be, to which we must reconcile ourselves. There will, I believe, never be peace in my lifetime. The fear of attack and killing will always be there.

It is my opinion there will never be peace because religion makes people absolutely intractable and uncompromising in their positions. It is impossible to deal with anyone -- Muslim, Jew or Christian -- when extreme religious adherence is at the heart of their motivations. Unfortunately, the ones who would use murder as a tool to promote what they want is not new. It is hard wired in us. Religion, though, has brought modern political violence to a new level as it successfully dupes the masses so its leadership can gain power. Through the fog of irrational belief, much of organized religion is, underneath it all, about acquiring power. For Jews, this is problematic because our numbers are so small and the competition is vast.

In my opinion, until humanity can get the monkey of fundamentalist religious world views off its backs there will be no peace. No amount of military expertise will stop these attacks when people think they have God on their side and that He is not on the other guy's side. I have lost hope a long time ago. I believe each side must listen to the other but when some do the other extremists (both Arabs and Israelis alike) don't and they won't. So Israel's fate and many others in that violent neck of the woods will suffer tit for tat ad infinitum endless violence until that violence engulfs all of us. Our life eradicating weaponry could mean, ultimately, the end of our species and civilization on earth as we know it. This may happen, if it continues as it has, sooner than we think.