Response to WC: I visited the website you recommended. It claimed as its opening salvo that Israel was an illegitimate state because it displaced Palestinians in its creation. I beg to differ.

Israel was created by a UN resolution in Nov. 1947 as part of a partition of the British mandate Palestine. Palestine had previously been partitioned into an Arab state and a Jewish state. The Arab state created was Jordan. Then in '47 they decided to partition Palestine again giving Israel the low-lying marshlands ridden with malaria while an independent Arab homeland was to be right next to Israel on the high ground---Palestine---and Jerusalem was to be an international city. Israel accepted the deal and all the Arab countries rejected it and waged war on the infant country. Despite this animosity to a Jewish homeland anywhere in the mideast, the Israelis begged the Arabs to stay and build the new nation of Israel with them. About 10% of the Arabs did stay and now Israel is nearly 20% Arab within the green line. These Arabs are not Jewish and have full citizenship rights. So no Palestinian needed to have been displaced by the new Israeli govt. In truth, about 650,000 fled in fear of the coming war and on the advise of their Arab leaders. None of them were Palestinians in those days either. They were Arabs--united in their effort to drive the Jews into the sea.

The second premise is that Israel will have peace when it "returns Palestinian lands" and "ends the occupation". Except there was no occupation in 1948. There was no occupation in 1956. There was no occupation in 1967. Yet the Arabs attacked Israel each time in a war of attempted annihilation. Jordan and Egypt "occupied" the West Bank and Gaza respectively until 1967. There was no cry for an independent state of Palestine until after Israel conquered vast land areas in 1967 in a war the UN ruled as a defensive war.

Suddenly, the Arabs in Israel overnight became "Palestinians" "stuggling for their independence".

Its all still the same game. the Arabs hate the Jews and want to crush the tiny state of Israel (on .01% of the land in the mideast)and use dupes on the left to be their mouthpieces. Look how well they have got you! You are actually creating rationalizations for teenagers committing suicide while becoming mass murderers of civilians!

And you blame the building of Jewish settlements on 1.7% of the land of the West Bank as a justified cause?

The conflict in the Israeli/Palestinian war is about whether Israel has a right to exist as Jewish state. It will only end when the Palestinians recognize the sovereignty of Israel.