Could atheist westerners, please explain?

[Brian37]

No, I am not delusional. If you look at where most of the planet was in antiquity, which was mostly local and tribal, vs how the west is more pluralistic and more civil, it is not unrealistic to foster a long term attitude. I don't fool myself into thinking there will be a day in a perfectly civil world. But we can and should do as much as we can to promote a more civil world.

What you always fail to see, since you're that fixated on religion being behind everything, is that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict started out and still is a nationalistic and political conflict. The motivations of the fighters changed over the decades, but the problem is still the same.

We're not exactly strangers to that. Even in our more recent history, as we can see with Ukraine, former Yugoslavia or the nationalist parties having a field day in many parts of Europe. Also using appeals to religion, but not being motivated by it.

No "nationalism" is the excuse, religion is the cause. Again, this goes back centuries, long before 48. It isn't that all people consider it religious, but that just enough in all camps DO consider that land given to them by their respective books. The words are in all three that give dominion over that region, and all three started in that region. 

If Jews didn't consider Israel their god given right, nobody would have sought to move there after WW2. And if Christians didn't believe in the bullshit end times story of Israel becoming a nation as a sign of the second coming of Jesus, there would be no reason to support Jews.

Now again, it does not talk all Christians or all Jews to buy into that, it simply takes just enough. And like any club, when your tribe feels a threat, unfortunately even liberals and moderates will turn to the toughest guy on the block to protect them. It still amounts to evolutionary tribalism mistaken for religious entitlement. That is what religion hides behind to avoid being criticized. 

Of course the excuses shift over time, I am not ignoring that. But the root of all this is still the idea of a "chosen people" and just enough in all camps, certainly not all, are holding everyone hostage in the process.

Look, this even applies to other religions. I got called a racist by a Hindu because I told him his religion was just that, a religion, not a race. I even pointed to India born former Hindus now atheists with the same family background and skin tones. 

Religion avoids scrutiny by hiding behind words like "race" and "ethnic" and "culture" and "nationalism". Now again, it isn't that you can force religion out of existence, but it should not be given code language like that to hide behind, which it does.