Ruth, Why do you say I'm distorting an open thinking process? I'm not sure I understand your meaning. Please explain. As you wisely mentioned in your previous comment, there are many shades of gray here, and we're in a very complex system. My words are gross oversimplifications, and I apologize if I sound too conclusive. Of course not everyone in Israel keeps thinking we're the victims. But the overall narrative in Israel after Arab violence (suicide bombers, Qassams, Katyushas, Scuds, etc.) is that even if they are the result of our own aggressiveness, then our aggressiveness is only the result of self defence, so basically we are innocent victims again. BTW, even those who feel that Arab violence towards us is because we are conquerers, feel that the peace process is a victim of hatered - both from the Israeli Right and from the Arab extremists. As for honor: you don't have to convince me that the Arab value of honor is definitely a major factor here. I have felt this very strongly in my online conversations with Arabs: the word "justice" simply keeps coming up again and again and again. However, I want to try to convince you that honor is a major factor in our society as well. We Israelis simply can't bare to lose. Look at Israeli drivers, for example. How many times have you seen an Israeli driver trying to "educate" another driver who has cut him off? A few weeks ago, I spoke with a friend and told him about the killing of the 9 year old daughter of a Palestinian peace activist. She was killed by an Israeli soldier. His immediate response was: "she was probably near a terrorist". This is such a typical Israeli response. When it comes to our own mistakes, we always justify them with self defence. We just can't bare to be wrong. How many times have you seen an Israeli admit to being wrong? When was the last time you saw an Israeli politician (or president, for that matter) resign because he made even the gravest of mistakes? And yes - I do think that there is a symmetry between us and Arabs as human beings, and I challange you to convince me otherwise. I think that as individuals we all share common traits: We need a feeling of safety. We need food. We need a purpose in life. We have a desire for fairness. We need to belong to a group. We identify with our group, and we want to be proud of our group. We hate being wrong. We can't be proud of our group when it is wrong. So when we feel our group is wrong, we instinctively associate ourselves with a subgroup that agrees with us, so we become right again.