This is sadly true in many conflict zones today, some inside Western countries.
But only profitable for elites, and only so long as externally sponsored.
Discussion
But, that's the thing. The elites are the ones who determine when and where to wage war. They believe that they're the only ones who matter.
Elites, always and everywhere, are self-serving backstabbing parasites. If an alternative policy has a hope of working, an elite faction can be tempted to try it.
Israel and Palestine would have a very different dynamic if (terrorist, supremacist - but moderate) Yitzhak Rabin had not been assassinated by a member of a political movement the young Netanyahu was frequently photographed with.
