Where to begin? You state that the British forced the Zionist state on the Jews? No choice in the matter? Where are Hertzl and the Zionists who followed in your argument? You think the settling and division of Palestine was an invention of the British? You think Balfour dreamed it up all by himself? Think again.

Before it was Judea it was Canaan. Palestinian lineage can be traced back to the bronze age, to the Ghassulians (carbon dated c. 4300–3300 BCE) and later the Canaanites (3300–1200) BCE. People became urbanized and lived in city-states, including Jericho (Wikipedia). I personally know Palestinians who trace their lineage back to the Canaanites. They were there before the Israelites (as were the Philistines).

Jewish tradition states that their promised land is in Palestine. Actually, it states a much larger piece of land called Judea and Samaria. The first historical record of the word “Israel” comes from an Egyptian stele documenting military campaigns in Canaan. This stele which referred to a people (the determinative for ‘country’ was absent) is dated to approximately 1211 BCE. (thanks Wikipedia)
The Israelites were merely a conquering party. Then, as now.

Murder is not a civilised act. Nor is extrajudicial assassination. Nor is collective punishment. Nor is expropriation of land. Nor is imprisonment without trial and/or just cause. Nor is carpet bombing Gaza every other day. Nor is stealing natural resources from indigenous peoples. Nor is forced cantonisation and ghettoisation of their land. Nor is any part of the oppression and occupation of the Palestinian people.

“How can you thank a man for giving you what’s already yours? How then can you thank him for giving you only part of what is yours?”

“You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or who says it.”

“If we don’t stand for something, we may fall for anything.”
-Malcolm X

Not in the same, hateful world as you thankfully! I have heard this smear tactic several times before, and it is very boring now. One example was when the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs published a so called “report” about religious persecution of Christians in Palestine. This again was supposed to infer that Palestinian muslims were a bunch of illiberal, religiously intolerant maniacs. Christians in Palestine were furious about it, and one of their representatives, Salim J. Munayer, was forced to issue a repudiation of it.
However in supposedly “liberal”, “secular” Israel it is a different story. … some quotes from the above link:

“The results showed a particularly weak identification by the Jewish majority with the values of pluralism, with 53 per cent believing Arabs should be denied equal rights and slightly more, 57 per cent, wanting Arabs transferred out of the country. Only 77 per cent of respondents thought democracy was the best system of governance.” …

“Despite the diplomatic language required of a UN body, the report concludes that it is “deeply concerned by the continuing differences in treatment between Jews and non-Jews” and notes that Israeli law “does not enshrine the general principles of equality and non-discrimination”. It lists many aspects of Israeli life in which the rights of Palestinians and the country’s one million Arab citizens are being violated in favour of the Jewish population.” …

“Although it is critical of Israel’s performance on a whole raft of human rights tests, including policies towards women and foreign workers, it reserves its harshest rebukes for the treatment of Palestinians and the country’s Arab population.” …

“It notes — despite claims to the contrary made by the Israeli delegation — that a precedent- setting Supreme Court judgement allowing one family, the Kaadans, to move into a Jewish community has still to be enforced three years later.” There is much more.

This is hardly “liberal” and any country which is predicated on religious discrimination cannot be described as “secular”. Sorry Michael, but if that is your idea of a “liberal”, “secular” society, then I would much rather live under an illiberal, religious maniac like Mahmood Abbas (sarcasm intended!-)

Even some Israelis who won’t vote for Likud may be taking a quiet “I told you so” satisfaction. A sizeable portion of Israeli Jews are convinced that “the Palestinians” (as if several million people were all one person) really want to destroy the state of Israel. That deep-seated fear, more than anything else, keeps the Israeli public supporting harsh repressive policies in the Occupied Territories.”

(readers please read the entire article because it goes on to say much more)

Israel has a vested interest in continuing it’s claim to victimhood simply because it diverts the observer’s attention away from their policies. Israel is NOT a pluralistic society open to all, that is obvious.

On another note, in continuing my own attempt at understanding how I would feel in a parallel situation I also know this, if after the war that took my land away, the new government invited people from around the world of their religion to flock to their new country stolen from my people, offered them great incentive to come http://www.moia.gov.il/english/index_en.asp
was backed financially from the richest nation on earth, the US, with Zionist backers abundant, I would hate every last person who ignored the fact that my land was stolen from my people in order to create a “homeland” for them and then chose to live in MY LAND that I can no longer call my own. I suggest that this is what the “they just don’t get it” could in part mean. There they sit happily in their Zionist state, puffing up their feathers like peacocks prancing all the while not EVEN recognizing the fact that others had to suffer for their so called dream to come true.
How can ANYONE be proud of ANY accomplishment when it comes at the GREAT suffering of another people? For all you Israelis out there reading, did it EVER occur to you that you are dancing on the tears created by your attrocities?

A note from history to all “westerners” who criticize Lebanese and Palestinians who ally themselves with Hizb’Allah, or Hamas for that matter. In the second world war, the allied forces were in a fight for survival with one of the greatest monsters of the twentieth century, Adolf Hitler. So what did they do? … they allied themselves with Josef Stalin, who by all accounts was the biggest monster of them all! Josef Stalin was a paranoid sociopath who murdered around 30 million people in his career of slaughter, yet he was THE crucial ally of the UK, the US and the other allied forces. The Germans weren’t crushed in western Europe, north Africa, and certainly not in the US. They were defeated on the Russian front by Stalin’s top soldier, Field Marshal Georgi Zhukhov. Therefore, it is rank hypocrisy for these nations to criticise other people who are fighting for their own survival when they ally themselves with organisations who by comparison are Kindergarten teachers.

Incidentally Haitham, Hizb’Allah is a proscribed “terrorist” organisation in Israel and the US, but NOT in the European Union.

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF PALESTINIAN REFUGEE RIGHTS

During the past 50 years, the international community has repeatedly called for a resolution to the refugee problem. The most important and explicit support for the rights of Palestinian refugees is UN resolution 194 signed in 1948. Resolution 194 was adopted only six months before Israel’s admission as a member of the United Nations (GA Resolution 273, 11 May 1949). Israel’s admission was conditioned by an Israeli commitment to carry out the obligations under the UN charter and United Nation resolutions, including Resolution 194. (xi)

According to Paragraph 11 of the resolution, recognition of the refugees’ right of return to their homes is stated as follows: “Refugees who wish to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practical date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to, property which under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible.”
http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/mideast/palestine/refugeeFacts.html

Here we are 58 years later, there is not only the problem of the refugees created in 1948 but there is also the occupation which has lasted for 39 years in Gaza and the West Bank, the Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms. All in all, Israel has failed to abide by more than 30 UN resolutions concerning the Palestinians. There will always be a reason given by them, but the fact remains, they are in breach of these rulings. Today it is not wanting to become over-run by non-Jews in their country they took by force, tomorrow it will be some other reason.
Currently I am on vacation 1500 miles from home in a beautiful setting. Three days ago I was sitting on the beach just relaxing when a thought came to my mind, what if I could NOT go home. What if while I was away, a group of people had brought a war there and turned MY country into THEIR country, they had taken MY land, they would not allow me to return and I didn’t even have a chance to retrieve my personal belongings. All was lost. I began to feel a physical reaction starting in my stomach, moving upwards towards my throat and eventually the tears came at the thought I was entertaining. I was feeling fear. Then I wondered what else I might feel. I know I would feel disorientation, severe loss of my actual home, neighborhood, identity, I would not trust anyone, I would be missing my entire existance that I had known and that if my family had lived where it does now for generations, loss and RAGE. What would I do in such a situation?
Well on good days I would be doing all I could to adjust and on those other days I would be FIGHTING LIKE HELL to get my home back. There would be no question about it, I would NOT just walk away politely.
You see Michael, no one can force another person to walk in their shoes. But there is one rule that all the good citizens of this earth were given by their common creator, the GOLDEN RULE, simply put, do unto others as you would have done unto you. No where has this maxim been followed by the Israelis in their treatment of the Palestinians. It is NOT up to the Palestinians to roll over, it IS up to Israel to right their wrongs and pray to God for forgiveness for breaking the most important law he put forth.

You seem to forget that Robin (unlike “nitwit” Sean) actually knows the Middle East very well, hence she knows that your vision of hordes of intolerant, “fundamentalist” Palestinian refugees is a cynical lie. I know Palestinians too, and all of them in my experience, whether Christian or Muslim have been generally “secular”, “liberal” and frankly lacking the arrogance and intolerance that characterizes many Israelis.

As for your figures, Andrew (above) is correct. If most of the post 1948 land is still uninhabited, then what is the problem with letting the refugees return?