Time for a fresh look at Israel and Palestine

It's a treacherous topic, but it's always sat in the back of your mind. You know the conflict is a root cause of many things that impact our lives but you've never quite dug in to self educate yourself beyond the snippets and bites you hear on the news, or read in the headlines. What do you say now is the time to do some reading on the history of the Israeli Palestinian conflict? It's a dangerous thing when people are afraid to educate themselves. Understanding both sides of any conflict is crucial to even come close to solving the conflict. Just how far back does this conflict go? What exactly is Zionism, and what role does it play in this all?

An award winning documentary "Occupation 101" sheds some light on the conflict which (in the film's words) has sometimes been portrayed to us by the news and media like a badly dubbed foreign movie.

I ran across this article on CNN, and while I agree Obama should "engage" with Hamas, I think he also should "engage" with Israel. The world has been watching this "all out war".. we know both sides have blood on their hands and approaching such a sticky predicament with anything approaching one-sidedness is only going to dig the trenches deeper.