Here is a simple solution to the Israeli/ Palestinian problem. It is so simple that I am sure no one will pay the least bit of attention to me. To simple, can't be done. That's what I expect to hear. Yet here in the United States we are living that solution. So knowing that it won't be very popular, here goes nothing...
How about a one state solution? Israel keeps it's borders and all the "Palestinians" become Israelis. It would work. We are living proof that it can work if everyone wants it too.
Look at us here in the United States. We are probably one of the most diverse nations on the planet and yet somehow we make this work. We are a nation of blacks and whites from various ancestries. We are Asian and Hispanic. We literally come from many different cultures and religions and yet , somehow, against all odds, we make this work. Why? Because we are united in one thing. We are all Americans, subject to the rights and privileges thereof. Are we perfect? Not even close. But if there is anything that can be learned from us is that despite our differences we make this nation work and it can work in Israel as well.
Why should there be two separate nations when the simple solution is to join together. The Jewish people have been there for 4,000 years and they are willing to accept the so called Palestinians as members of their society if they would simply stop all the terrorist activities and recognize that Israel has a right to exist. This is not difficult and I have heard various reports from Jews and Arabs alike, who are Israeli citizens , who say the same.
What or who ,after all, is a Palestinian? They are Jordanians, Syrians, Egyptians, amongst others as well as the Jewish people themselves, so why not become one people , one nation, rather then fighting about it? If the Arab peoples of that region are so upset about what they consider bad treatment of "Palestinians" that they support the two state solution, why have they never allowed for their kin to return home?
The "Palestinians" could have things much better then their Arab neighbors if they wanted it to be so and should toss out all their leaders who prevent them from doing so. We are a diverse people who have made it work and I believe that they could do the same. Israel wants peace and from what I have heard so do most of the common people in the Arab world. So the solution isn't two states. It is one state where they can show the world that it is possible for the Jewish and Arab peoples to get along.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Thursday, September 15, 2011
For You J
I recently received a comment on my last posting, Nothing New Here, from a friend and brother who I will simply call "J" that I agree with and would like to share with you.
This is what he said at the very end ;" I think that you're about 0300 on a twenty-four watch. Stay the course my friend".
Now at first glance it might sound like an insult but for any of you who have served in the military and have been on duty for 24 hrs, or more ,straight, you know that the worst time is the hours between 0200 and about 0500. Every thing is generally quiet and the last of the drunks have made it back to the barracks and you are freaking tired. In my old unit no one who was on duty slept. We went to work all day and then reported for duty at the barracks as the duty NCO, in my case, or the actual sentries who walked the posts. By the time you got to 0200 you were usually wiped out and there wasn't enough coffee in the world to keep you going. I usually spent my time on my feet either just standing or walking the posts my self just to stay awake. There were a few times I remember actually falling asleep while standing and leaning on the wall. Tired does not begin to express it. Once it got to be about 0500 though the barracks would start to come back to life and I found that I could usually get to the end of the duty with out to much trouble.
So to say that I am at about 0300 is about right. I am tired and a bit cranky around the edges. I have stood my watch faithfully, doing my bit to keep the wolf from the door and the bad guys from our shores.I have served king and country, I have helped stare down the Soviet Union and fought against terrorism, just as some of you reading this have. But I have had about enough of all the BS that is currently going on in our nation. I am tired of watching the American dream slip away from so many people ,including my family, because we were lied to and scammed by bankers and politicians alike. No one has been arrested for it and no one has been prosecuted and yet they stole billions of dollars. I am tired of illegals getting benefits while disabled Vets get nothing. I am tired of people telling me what I can say, or believe for that matter or even what I can eat. I am tired of a government who makes it a point to violate the constitution and bill of rights and then tell us it's for our own good, I am even more tired of those who allow it to happen. I am tired of writing to my representatives or congressmen expressing my concerns over many of these issues only to be ignored. This list could go on.
I love my country. I love what it used to stand for, but I am indeed tired of what I see as an endless up hill battle with forces that seemed to be stacked up against us.
It is indeed 0300 my friend, but despite how tired I am, I am still on watch.
Semper FI.
This is what he said at the very end ;" I think that you're about 0300 on a twenty-four watch. Stay the course my friend".
Now at first glance it might sound like an insult but for any of you who have served in the military and have been on duty for 24 hrs, or more ,straight, you know that the worst time is the hours between 0200 and about 0500. Every thing is generally quiet and the last of the drunks have made it back to the barracks and you are freaking tired. In my old unit no one who was on duty slept. We went to work all day and then reported for duty at the barracks as the duty NCO, in my case, or the actual sentries who walked the posts. By the time you got to 0200 you were usually wiped out and there wasn't enough coffee in the world to keep you going. I usually spent my time on my feet either just standing or walking the posts my self just to stay awake. There were a few times I remember actually falling asleep while standing and leaning on the wall. Tired does not begin to express it. Once it got to be about 0500 though the barracks would start to come back to life and I found that I could usually get to the end of the duty with out to much trouble.
So to say that I am at about 0300 is about right. I am tired and a bit cranky around the edges. I have stood my watch faithfully, doing my bit to keep the wolf from the door and the bad guys from our shores.I have served king and country, I have helped stare down the Soviet Union and fought against terrorism, just as some of you reading this have. But I have had about enough of all the BS that is currently going on in our nation. I am tired of watching the American dream slip away from so many people ,including my family, because we were lied to and scammed by bankers and politicians alike. No one has been arrested for it and no one has been prosecuted and yet they stole billions of dollars. I am tired of illegals getting benefits while disabled Vets get nothing. I am tired of people telling me what I can say, or believe for that matter or even what I can eat. I am tired of a government who makes it a point to violate the constitution and bill of rights and then tell us it's for our own good, I am even more tired of those who allow it to happen. I am tired of writing to my representatives or congressmen expressing my concerns over many of these issues only to be ignored. This list could go on.
I love my country. I love what it used to stand for, but I am indeed tired of what I see as an endless up hill battle with forces that seemed to be stacked up against us.
It is indeed 0300 my friend, but despite how tired I am, I am still on watch.
Semper FI.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Nothing New Here
I have been discovering lately just how hard it is to write about the news. Normally I am filled with sarcastic or cynical remarks about all that is called news or those who are doing the reporting.
I am finding this to be more difficult as time goes on. Not because there is nothing to talk about but because it is generally the same thing over and over with only the names of people changing. What is there that is new that I could really offer an opinion on? Occasionally someone comes up with a new tech toy that's pretty cool but I don't claim to be tech savvy so it leaves me out. Sometimes someone will come up with a religious piece that I could go after, but to what end? I am not going to change anyone's minds on what they are predisposed to believe in the first place. Nope I can't think of much that is new.
Less you think I am wrong, consider for the moment; we have been in a perpetual state of war for twenty years. Twenty years of war and no fly zones. It hasn't mattered who was in office or who controlled the house and senate, we have been in a state of war. Nothing has changed except for the official count of countries we are fighting in.
More to consider; Have our politicians changed? Nope. Still obeying the lobbyists rather then the people, they openly admit this through the things that they sponsor and through the way they treat thier so called constituents, Some openly admit that they don't follow the Constitution, which i something that they are sworn to do, and they laugh us all to scorn. Th few that have any integrity are marginalized and ridiculed. So nothing has changed there.
The rich are getting richer faster today then they used to, that might be news worthy, but they are doing it on the backs of the poor,as always, so that negates that as being anything of real value to report.
The economy is shot to hell, but that's not really new either. Seems to be in my 46 years of life I have watched it go up and down like a see-saw, the only real difference was how long the good days lasted prior to the bubble bursting, but still this is nothing more then a repeat of history. Nothing new here.
The world itself has gone a bit crazier, but I'm not sure this is new either. China is building a massive military, the Russians are doing the same, we have our noses in everyone else s business. Iran is getting nukes, Turkey is escorting ships to Gaza, Hamas is firing rockets into Israel and that whole region is one spark away from starting the next great world war. Is any of this really new though? Nope.
So how do we change any of this? I really don't know. Until we get passed all our differences and start looking for solutions to those issues that we have in common, nothing will change. As long as we continue to look only to our own personal religious or political views and never consider that there might be some other points of view that are legitimate, nothing will change.
Perhaps Ronald Regan was right when he wondered if would take "Alien invasion" to make us put down all our stupid differences. I hope not. From all the movies I've seen we don't do so well against them.
I am finding this to be more difficult as time goes on. Not because there is nothing to talk about but because it is generally the same thing over and over with only the names of people changing. What is there that is new that I could really offer an opinion on? Occasionally someone comes up with a new tech toy that's pretty cool but I don't claim to be tech savvy so it leaves me out. Sometimes someone will come up with a religious piece that I could go after, but to what end? I am not going to change anyone's minds on what they are predisposed to believe in the first place. Nope I can't think of much that is new.
Less you think I am wrong, consider for the moment; we have been in a perpetual state of war for twenty years. Twenty years of war and no fly zones. It hasn't mattered who was in office or who controlled the house and senate, we have been in a state of war. Nothing has changed except for the official count of countries we are fighting in.
More to consider; Have our politicians changed? Nope. Still obeying the lobbyists rather then the people, they openly admit this through the things that they sponsor and through the way they treat thier so called constituents, Some openly admit that they don't follow the Constitution, which i something that they are sworn to do, and they laugh us all to scorn. Th few that have any integrity are marginalized and ridiculed. So nothing has changed there.
The rich are getting richer faster today then they used to, that might be news worthy, but they are doing it on the backs of the poor,as always, so that negates that as being anything of real value to report.
The economy is shot to hell, but that's not really new either. Seems to be in my 46 years of life I have watched it go up and down like a see-saw, the only real difference was how long the good days lasted prior to the bubble bursting, but still this is nothing more then a repeat of history. Nothing new here.
The world itself has gone a bit crazier, but I'm not sure this is new either. China is building a massive military, the Russians are doing the same, we have our noses in everyone else s business. Iran is getting nukes, Turkey is escorting ships to Gaza, Hamas is firing rockets into Israel and that whole region is one spark away from starting the next great world war. Is any of this really new though? Nope.
So how do we change any of this? I really don't know. Until we get passed all our differences and start looking for solutions to those issues that we have in common, nothing will change. As long as we continue to look only to our own personal religious or political views and never consider that there might be some other points of view that are legitimate, nothing will change.
Perhaps Ronald Regan was right when he wondered if would take "Alien invasion" to make us put down all our stupid differences. I hope not. From all the movies I've seen we don't do so well against them.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Jewish Land 2
I think it can be said,with out a shadow of a doubt, that I am pro Israel to the point of being a Zionist. I'm not sure that a non Jew can actually be a Zionist but I do believe that Israel is the rightful home of the Jewish people and that they have every right to take care of their own land in whatever way that they see fit. It's not our place or the UN's place to tell them what they need to do any more then it would be for Israel to tell us what we should do with ours.
I have nothing against the so called Palestinians just their supposed leadership. I say supposed because they are really holding their people hostage to their own prejudices and sadly are passing that on to future generations. But I guess that is about where my sympathy ends. They don't have to live like this, yet they choose to and some how that is Israel's fault. They could rise up and throw out all of Hamas, among others, and make it very clear that they want to have peace with Israel but instead the hide the terrorists and allow them to fire rockets and send out suicide bombers from there, this does not sound like a people looking for peace to me.
The news media in our country is real good at showing the Palestinians point of view any time there is some supposed atrocity going on , however they always seem to be absent when Israelis are hiding out in bomb shelters because they are being shelled again or when an innocent family is slaughtered, including a baby ,for no other reason then they are Jews.
I remember one time they were supposedly showing the IDF killing some kid in the middle of a firefight and it turned out that the whole think was a staged hoax, where was the American media then? Or the guy who was hauled off on a stretcher in three different pictures from three different places. What a bunch of hooey.
I have also seen pictures of the"horrible" conditions that they live under, they eat better then many here in the US do. I have seen their food markets chock full of fresh fruit and veggies along with many varieties of meat. Some will say that they have to go through check points to get out of Gaza and go to other places to work, that they have to carry their papers with them. Let me ask you a question, how is that any different then here? Here in the good old USA you can be detained and arrested if you don't have some sort of ID on you so I can't really see a difference, but more importantly who's fault is it that they have to go through all those check points? I have never heard of a Jewish suicide bomber going into Gaza to blow things up or to try and kill teenagers on a bus. No this has been brought upon them by their so called leadership and their own reluctance to be rid of them.
Have mistakes been made? Certainly. Could things be better? Yes. But it generally takes two sides to work out agreements.
Time and time again Israel has given up land and territory to have supposed peace, do they get the peace? No! Every Arab nation there in the middle east ,including the Palestinians, have only one goal and that is the annihilation of the Jews. It's in their media constantly, it's taught in their schools it's damn near a way of life for them. I you don't believe that this is true, just search the internet and you find all the evidence you need, providing of course you have the courage to do so, or better yet go to Israel and actually talk to people who live there, see it for yourself, then you can make an informed decision.
Show me one nation that wants peace with Israel that can't have it. Israel simply wishes to exist and be left alone and be a place where all Jews have their homeland. I should point out here as well, that under Jewish rule everyone can practice their own religion, serve in the military and government. Women have full rights there unheard of in any Arab nation as well.
But for the sake of argument,lets just say that all the Jews decided that Israel was not worth their time any more any they decided to leave. Who is going to take them? Where could they go that they haven't been kicked out of over the centuries? Sure many of them could come here but just how long do you think that would last before antisemitism sprang up here? How long before someone would get it into their heads that our nations problems are caused by the Jews? Some people already believe that, so that would make it worse.
The bottom line is that Israel is the home for the Jewish people and has been for thousands of years. Israel is only about the size of NJ so trying to split it up more with people bent on their destruction seems to me to be a very bad idea. If the Palestinians really want to live in Israel then all they have to do is stop all the killing, throw out all the terrorists and become Israeli citizens. Then they could come and go as they please and have all the rights that they claim that they don't have now. This isn't difficult if this is truly what they want.
For those of you who would suggest that I go there to live, if I am so passionate about Israel, I will say in closing, I will go as soon as it is possible for me to do so. Israel is the land of the Jews but it is truly the land of G-D because He gave it to them, so if I had to choose between this land and His..I'll take my chances with Israel.
I have nothing against the so called Palestinians just their supposed leadership. I say supposed because they are really holding their people hostage to their own prejudices and sadly are passing that on to future generations. But I guess that is about where my sympathy ends. They don't have to live like this, yet they choose to and some how that is Israel's fault. They could rise up and throw out all of Hamas, among others, and make it very clear that they want to have peace with Israel but instead the hide the terrorists and allow them to fire rockets and send out suicide bombers from there, this does not sound like a people looking for peace to me.
The news media in our country is real good at showing the Palestinians point of view any time there is some supposed atrocity going on , however they always seem to be absent when Israelis are hiding out in bomb shelters because they are being shelled again or when an innocent family is slaughtered, including a baby ,for no other reason then they are Jews.
I remember one time they were supposedly showing the IDF killing some kid in the middle of a firefight and it turned out that the whole think was a staged hoax, where was the American media then? Or the guy who was hauled off on a stretcher in three different pictures from three different places. What a bunch of hooey.
I have also seen pictures of the"horrible" conditions that they live under, they eat better then many here in the US do. I have seen their food markets chock full of fresh fruit and veggies along with many varieties of meat. Some will say that they have to go through check points to get out of Gaza and go to other places to work, that they have to carry their papers with them. Let me ask you a question, how is that any different then here? Here in the good old USA you can be detained and arrested if you don't have some sort of ID on you so I can't really see a difference, but more importantly who's fault is it that they have to go through all those check points? I have never heard of a Jewish suicide bomber going into Gaza to blow things up or to try and kill teenagers on a bus. No this has been brought upon them by their so called leadership and their own reluctance to be rid of them.
Have mistakes been made? Certainly. Could things be better? Yes. But it generally takes two sides to work out agreements.
Time and time again Israel has given up land and territory to have supposed peace, do they get the peace? No! Every Arab nation there in the middle east ,including the Palestinians, have only one goal and that is the annihilation of the Jews. It's in their media constantly, it's taught in their schools it's damn near a way of life for them. I you don't believe that this is true, just search the internet and you find all the evidence you need, providing of course you have the courage to do so, or better yet go to Israel and actually talk to people who live there, see it for yourself, then you can make an informed decision.
Show me one nation that wants peace with Israel that can't have it. Israel simply wishes to exist and be left alone and be a place where all Jews have their homeland. I should point out here as well, that under Jewish rule everyone can practice their own religion, serve in the military and government. Women have full rights there unheard of in any Arab nation as well.
But for the sake of argument,lets just say that all the Jews decided that Israel was not worth their time any more any they decided to leave. Who is going to take them? Where could they go that they haven't been kicked out of over the centuries? Sure many of them could come here but just how long do you think that would last before antisemitism sprang up here? How long before someone would get it into their heads that our nations problems are caused by the Jews? Some people already believe that, so that would make it worse.
The bottom line is that Israel is the home for the Jewish people and has been for thousands of years. Israel is only about the size of NJ so trying to split it up more with people bent on their destruction seems to me to be a very bad idea. If the Palestinians really want to live in Israel then all they have to do is stop all the killing, throw out all the terrorists and become Israeli citizens. Then they could come and go as they please and have all the rights that they claim that they don't have now. This isn't difficult if this is truly what they want.
For those of you who would suggest that I go there to live, if I am so passionate about Israel, I will say in closing, I will go as soon as it is possible for me to do so. Israel is the land of the Jews but it is truly the land of G-D because He gave it to them, so if I had to choose between this land and His..I'll take my chances with Israel.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Jewish Land.
For a long time I have sat on the sidelines when it comes to the politics that involve Israel. It has not been a lack of interest on my part, but rather the feeling that I am but one person, who doesn't have much to offer for solutions to the problems in Israel. While I haven't really figured out anything that would help the current situation I am going to express some thoughts just based on historical facts and insights I have from people who actually live there and from various news sources that you won't find here in the US.
It amazes me that a people, as small in number as the Jews are such a hated group of people. I think the entire population is something like 14 million worldwide and yet for such a small group they are hated beyond all measure. A friend once suggested to me that it was because of the time they wandered in the desert fighting people or because they took over the land of Canaan. Others have suggested that it's because they killed Jesus. Neither of these explanations really make any sense though.
Jews have been in Israel for 4,000 years, they conquered the various nations that were there thousands of years before this current batch of hatred ever began. The only people after that that they had a running war with was the a nation of people known as the Philistines. This again is a nation of people who no longer exists ( this is where the name Palestine came from via the Romans) but it had nothing to do with Israel, it had to do with other more powerful nations that ran them all over such as the Romans or earlier the Persians and Babylonians. So if the argument is because of something that happened thousands of years ago, then why are we not trying to kill off Germans or Japanese or Russians etc. for all their destructive ways during the early half of the 20th century? That at least is recent history. Shouldn't we then deny them their rightful homeland and try to kill them all? Those nations did more then just take land that was theirs, they took entire nations and killed millions, and yet we as a whole have forgiven and let the past be the past. But not so for the Jewish people who's conquering days ended thousands of years ago.
It can't be that the killed Jesus, though for thousands of years that had been Christianities excuse, because most Arabs and Palestinians are Muslim. While they may see Jesus as a martyred prophet, they don't see him as god and, in fact, given the opportunity, those radicals would kill off Christians as well.
So really there isn't a legitimate reason for the hatred.
So what is the historical record then?
In this historical account I am skipping all of the OT references to the Jewish people simply because many of you who read this would not except it as historically accurate, though personally I do, and instead have focused on various historical references that any one can find if they are willing to take the time to look. What I have compiled here is only a partial list of all the historical references . One note, I don't site all my sources simply because it would take to long and this is a blog not a book, but I take no credit for any of this except for taking the time to actually research.
So starting with King Cyrus of the Persian empire:
Following a decree by the Persian King Cyrus, conqueror of the Babylonian empire (538 BCE), some 50,000 Jews set out on the first return to the Land of Israel, led by Zerubbabel, a descendant of the House of David. Less than a century later, the second return was led by Ezra the Scribe. Over the next four centuries, the Jews knew varying degrees of self-rule under Persian (538-333 BCE) and later Hellenistic (Ptolemaic and Seleucid) overlordship (332-142 BCE).
Hasmonean Dynasty (142-63 BCE)
First led by Mattathias of the priestly Hasmonean family and then by his son Judah the Maccabee, the Jews subsequently entered Jerusalem and purified the Temple (164 BCE), events commemorated each year by the festival of Hannuka.
Following further Hasmonean victories (147 BCE), the Seleucids restored autonomy to Judea, as the Land of Israel was now called, and, with the collapse of the Seleucid kingdom (129 BCE), Jewish independence was achieved. Under the Hasmonean dynasty, which lasted about 80 years, the kingdom regained boundaries not far short of Solomon’s realm, political consolidation under Jewish rule was attained and Jewish life flourished.
Roman Rule (63 BCE-313 CE)
When the Romans replaced the Seleucids as the great power in the region, they granted the Hasmonean king, Hyrcanus II, had limited authority under the Roman governor of Damascus. The Jews were hostile to the new regime, and the following years witnessed frequent insurrections. A last attempt to restore the former glory of the Hasmonean dynasty was made by Mattathias Antigonus, whose defeat and death brought Hasmonean rule to an end (40 BCE), and the Land became a province of the Roman Empire.
In 37 BCE Herod, a son-in-law of Hyrcanus II, was appointed King of Judea by the Romans. Granted almost unlimited autonomy in the country’s internal affairs, he became one of the most powerful monarchs in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. A great admirer of Greco-Roman culture, Herod launched a massive construction program, which included the cities of Caesarea and Sebaste and the fortresses at Herodium and Masada. He also remodeled the Temple into one of the most magnificent buildings of its time. But despite his many achievements, Herod failed to win the trust and support of his Jewish subjects....
The total destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple was catastrophic for the Jewish people. According to the contemporary historian Josephus Flavius, hundreds of thousands of Jews perished in the siege of Jerusalem and elsewhere in the country, and many thousands more were sold into slavery.....
Although the Temple had been destroyed and Jerusalem burned to the ground, the Jews and Judaism survived the encounter with Rome. The supreme legislative and judicial body, the Sanhedrin (successor of the Knesset Hagedolah) was reconvened in Yavneh (70 CE), and later in Tiberias...
Without the unifying framework of a state and the Temple, the small remaining Jewish community gradually recovered, reinforced from time to time by returning exiles. Institutional and communal life was renewed, priests were replaced by rabbis and the synagogue became the focus of the Jewish communities, as evidenced by remnants of synagogues found at Capernaum, Korazin, Bar’am, Gamla, and elsewhere. Halakhah (Jewish religious law) served as the common bond among the Jews and was passed on from generation to generation.
Byzantine Rule (313-636)
By the end of the 4th century, following Emperor Constantine's adoption of Christianity (313) and the founding of the Byzantine Empire, the Land of Israel had become a predominantly Christian country. Churches were built on Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Galilee, and monasteries were established in many parts of the country.
Jews were deprived of their former relative autonomy, as well as of their right to hold public positions, and were forbidden to enter Jerusalem except on one day of the year (Tisha B'av - ninth of Av) to mourn the destruction of the Temple....
Arab Rule (636-1099)
The Arab conquest of the Land came four years after the death of Muhammad (632) and lasted more than four centuries, with caliphs ruling first from Damascus, then from Baghdad and Egypt. At the outset, Jewish settlement in Jerusalem resumed, and the Jewish community was granted the customary status of dhimmi (protected non-Muslims), which safeguarded their lives, property, and freedom of worship, in return for payment of special poll and land taxes....
The Crusaders (1099-1291)
For the next 200 years, the country was dominated by the Crusaders who, following an appeal by Pope Urban II, came from Europe to recover the Holy Land from the infidels. In July 1099, after a five-week siege, the knights of the First Crusade and their rabble army captured Jerusalem, massacring most of the city's non-Christian inhabitants. Barricaded in their synagogues, the Jews defended their quarter, only to be burned to death or sold into slavery.
Ottoman Rule (1517-1917)
Following the Ottoman conquest in 1517, the Land was divided into four districts, attached administratively to the province of Damascus and ruled from Istanbul. At the outset of the Ottoman era, some 1,000 Jewish families lived in the country, mainly in Jerusalem, Nablus (Shechem), Hebron, Gaza, Safed (Tzfat) and the villages of Galilee. The community was comprised of descendants of Jews who had always lived in the Land, as well as immigrants from North Africa and Europe.
The 19th century saw medieval backwardness gradually give way to the first signs of progress, with various Western powers jockeying for position, often through missionary activities. British, French, and American scholars launched studies of biblical archeology; Britain, France, Russia, Austria, and the United States opened consulates in Jerusalem. Steamships began to ply regular routes to and from Europe; postal and telegraphic connections were installed; the first road connecting Jerusalem and Jaffa was built. The Land's rebirth as a crossroads for commerce of three continents was accelerated by the opening of the Suez Canal.
Consequently, the situation of the country's Jews slowly improved, and their numbers increased substantially. By mid-century, overcrowded conditions within the walled city of Jerusalem motivated the Jews to build the first neighborhood outside the walls (1860) and, in the next quarter century, to add seven more, forming the nucleus of the new city. By 1870, Jerusalem had an overall Jewish majority. Land for farming was purchased throughout the country; new rural settlements were established; and the Hebrew language, long restricted to liturgy and literature, was revived.
British Rule (1918-1948)
In July 1922, the League of Nations entrusted Great Britain with the Mandate for Palestine (the name by which the country was then known). Recognizing the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine, Great Britain was called upon to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine-Eretz Israel (Land of Israel). Two months later, in September 1922, the Council of the League of Nations and Great Britain decided that the provisions for setting up a Jewish national home would not apply to the area east of the Jordan River, which constituted three fourths of the territory included in the Mandate and eventually became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Arab Opposition and British Restrictions
The Jewish national revival and the community's efforts to rebuild the country were strongly opposed by Arab nationalists. Their resentment erupted in periods of intense violence (1920, 1921, 1929, 1936-39), when unprovoked attacks were launched against the Jewish population, including the Hebron Massacre of 1929, as well as the harassment of Jewish transport, and the burning of fields and forests. Attempts to reach a dialogue with the Arabs, undertaken early in the Zionist endeavor, were ultimately unsuccessful, polarizing Zionism and Arab nationalism into a potentially explosive situation.Recognizing the opposing aims of the two national movements, the British recommended (1937) dividing the country into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, to be linked by an economic union. The Jewish leadership accepted the idea of partition and empowered the Jewish Agency to negotiate with the British government in an effort to reformulate various aspects of the proposal. The Arabs were uncompromisingly against any partition plan.
The Road to Independence
Britain's inability to reconcile the conflicting demands of the Jewish and Arab communities led the British government to request that the 'Question of Palestine' be placed on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly (April 1947). As a result, a special committee was constituted to draft proposals concerning the country's future. On 29 November 1947, the Assembly voted to adopt the committee's recommendation to partition the land into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. The Jewish community accepted the plan; the Arabs rejected it.
The State of Israel is born
On 14 May 1948, Israel proclaimed its independence. Less than 24 hours later, the regular armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded the country, forcing Israel to defend the sovereignty it had regained in its ancestral homeland.In what became known as Israel's War of Independence, the newly formed, poorly equipped Israel Defense Forces (IDF) repulsed the invaders in fierce intermittent fighting, which lasted some 15 months and claimed over 6,000 Israeli lives (nearly one percent of the country's Jewish population at the time).During the first months of 1949, direct negotiations were conducted under UN auspices between Israel and each of the invading countries (except Iraq, which refused to negotiate with Israel), resulting in armistice agreements which reflected the situation at the end of the fighting.Accordingly, the Coastal Plain, Galilee and the entire Negev were within Israel's sovereignty, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) came under Jordanian rule, the Gaza Strip came under Egyptian administration, and the city of Jerusalem was divided, with Jordan controlling the eastern part, including the Old City, and Israel the western sector.
1956 Sinai Campaign
The years of state-building were overshadowed by serious security problems. The 1949 armistice agreements had not only failed to pave the way to permanent peace, but were also constantly violated.
In contradiction to the UN Security Council Resolution of 1 September 1951, Israeli and Israel-bound shipping was prevented from passing through the Suez Canal; the blockade of the Straits of Tiran was tightened; incursions into Israel of terrorist squads from neighboring Arab countries for murder and sabotage occurred with increasing frequency; and the Sinai peninsula was gradually converted into a huge Egyptian military base.
Upon the signing of a tripartite military alliance by Egypt, Syria and Jordan (October 1956), the imminent threat to Israel's existence was intensified. In the course of an eight-day campaign, the IDF captured the Gaza Strip and the entire Sinai Peninsula, halting 10 miles (16 km.) east of the Suez Canal.
A United Nations decision to station a UN Emergency Force (UNEF) along the Egypt-Israel border and Egyptian assurances of free navigation in the Gulf of Eilat led Israel to agree to withdraw in stages (November 1956 - March 1957) from the areas taken a few weeks earlier. Consequently, the Straits of Tiran were opened, enabling the development of trade with Asian and East African countries, as well as oil imports from the Persian Gulf.
1967 Six-Day War
Hopes for another decade of relative tranquility were dashed with the escalation of Arab terrorist raids across the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, persistent Syrian artillery bombardment of agricultural settlements in northern Galilee, and massive military build-ups by the neighboring Arab states. When Egypt again moved large numbers of troops into the Sinai desert (May 1967), ordered the UN peacekeeping forces (deployed since 1957) out of the area, reimposed the blockade of the Straits of Tiran, and entered into a military alliance with Jordan, Israel found itself faced by hostile Arab armies on all fronts.
As Israel's neighbors prepared to destroy the Jewish state, Israel invoked its inherent right of self-defense, launching a preemptive strike (5 June 1967) against Egypt in the South, followed by a counterattack against Jordan in the East and the routing of Syrian forces entrenched on the Golan Heights in the North.
At the end of six days of fighting, previous cease-fire lines were replaced by new ones, with Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Sinai peninsula, and the Golan Heights under Israel's control. As a result, the northern villages were freed from 19 years of recurrent Syrian shelling; the passage of Israeli and Israel-bound shipping through the Straits of Tiran was ensured; and Jerusalem, which had been divided under Israeli and Jordanian rule since 1949, was reunified under Israel's authority.
From War to War
After the war, Israel's diplomatic challenge was to translate its military gains into a permanent peace based on UN Security Council Resolution 242, which called for acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of every state in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.
However, the Arab position, as formulated at the Khartoum Summit (August 1967) called for no peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, and no recognition of Israel. In September 1968, Egypt initiated a 'war of attrition,' with sporadic, static actions along the banks of the Suez Canal, which escalated into full-scale, localized fighting, causing heavy casualties on both sides. Hostilities ended in 1970, when Egypt and Israel accepted a renewed cease-fire along the Suez Canal.
1973 Yom Kippur War
Three years of relative calm along the borders were shattered on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), the holiest day of the Jewish year, when Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated surprise assault against Israel (6 October 1973), with the Egyptian Army crossing the Suez Canal and Syrian troops penetrating the Golan Heights.
During the next three weeks, the Israel Defense Forces turned the tide of battle and repulsed the attackers, crossing the Suez Canal into Egypt and advancing to within 20 miles (32 km.) of the Syrian capital, Damascus. Two years of difficult negotiations between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Syria resulted in disengagement agreements, according to which Israel withdrew from parts of the territories captured during the war.
TERRORISM
Arab and Palestinian terrorism against Israel existed for decades prior to the establishment of the State of Israel and since then. Thousands of terrorist attacks which resulted in the death and injury of Israeli civilians occurred during the two decades preceding the 1967 Six Day War (which led to Israel's presence in the territories). The establishment of the PLO in 1964 put it at the forefront of this terrorist campaign.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the various terrorist organizations under the PLO launched numerous attacks inside Israel and abroad. One of the most notorious attacks was the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
In spite of the Palestinian commitment made in 1993 to renounce terrorism, thus providing the basis for the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, terrorist attacks nonetheless continued, and strongly intensified since September 2000, resulting in the death of more than a thousand Israeli civilians and the wounding of many thousands more....
My thoughts.
Having established the historical fact of Israel having always been the home of the Jews, let us assume for the moment that the Palestinians had some legitimate claim to the land. Given that premise then the United States and all it's citizenry should concede all the land we took back to the Native Americans and leave. We should also then not so much as flinch if the Mexican government shells us and attempts to shove us out of lands that they once had in the south west. If we are going to tell Israel what they should do with land that is rightfully theirs then we should follow suit and do the same here.
We also need to understand that anyone living in Israel, Jew, Arab, Christian, whom ever has the right to be an Israeli citizen. They can serve in the military and belong to the government and have the kind of freedom that people in other Arab and Muslim nations only dream about.
What the Palestinians and in fact the entire Arab world wants is nothing more then the annihilation of the Jewish people and control of all of Israel.
If you are a Christian or a Jew, then you should recognize the fact that the land belongs to the Jews and was given to them by God. Long after every other nation on the earth has crumbled and fallen into historical insignificance Israel and the Jewish people will still be here because they are Gods chosen. These are the facts.
If your not religious at all then I would simply ask you to look at the historical records, go and search the internet and look for the truth that your not getting here in the US.
I stand with Israel and I oppose a two state solution, when the simplest thing would be for the Palestinians to stop trying to kill the Jewish people and become law abiding citizens of Israel. They could be the ones to actually show the rest of the Arab nations what democracy and freedom is really about. Who knows how much more that would accomplish instead of all the hate and violence.
It amazes me that a people, as small in number as the Jews are such a hated group of people. I think the entire population is something like 14 million worldwide and yet for such a small group they are hated beyond all measure. A friend once suggested to me that it was because of the time they wandered in the desert fighting people or because they took over the land of Canaan. Others have suggested that it's because they killed Jesus. Neither of these explanations really make any sense though.
Jews have been in Israel for 4,000 years, they conquered the various nations that were there thousands of years before this current batch of hatred ever began. The only people after that that they had a running war with was the a nation of people known as the Philistines. This again is a nation of people who no longer exists ( this is where the name Palestine came from via the Romans) but it had nothing to do with Israel, it had to do with other more powerful nations that ran them all over such as the Romans or earlier the Persians and Babylonians. So if the argument is because of something that happened thousands of years ago, then why are we not trying to kill off Germans or Japanese or Russians etc. for all their destructive ways during the early half of the 20th century? That at least is recent history. Shouldn't we then deny them their rightful homeland and try to kill them all? Those nations did more then just take land that was theirs, they took entire nations and killed millions, and yet we as a whole have forgiven and let the past be the past. But not so for the Jewish people who's conquering days ended thousands of years ago.
It can't be that the killed Jesus, though for thousands of years that had been Christianities excuse, because most Arabs and Palestinians are Muslim. While they may see Jesus as a martyred prophet, they don't see him as god and, in fact, given the opportunity, those radicals would kill off Christians as well.
So really there isn't a legitimate reason for the hatred.
So what is the historical record then?
In this historical account I am skipping all of the OT references to the Jewish people simply because many of you who read this would not except it as historically accurate, though personally I do, and instead have focused on various historical references that any one can find if they are willing to take the time to look. What I have compiled here is only a partial list of all the historical references . One note, I don't site all my sources simply because it would take to long and this is a blog not a book, but I take no credit for any of this except for taking the time to actually research.
So starting with King Cyrus of the Persian empire:
Following a decree by the Persian King Cyrus, conqueror of the Babylonian empire (538 BCE), some 50,000 Jews set out on the first return to the Land of Israel, led by Zerubbabel, a descendant of the House of David. Less than a century later, the second return was led by Ezra the Scribe. Over the next four centuries, the Jews knew varying degrees of self-rule under Persian (538-333 BCE) and later Hellenistic (Ptolemaic and Seleucid) overlordship (332-142 BCE).
Hasmonean Dynasty (142-63 BCE)
First led by Mattathias of the priestly Hasmonean family and then by his son Judah the Maccabee, the Jews subsequently entered Jerusalem and purified the Temple (164 BCE), events commemorated each year by the festival of Hannuka.
Following further Hasmonean victories (147 BCE), the Seleucids restored autonomy to Judea, as the Land of Israel was now called, and, with the collapse of the Seleucid kingdom (129 BCE), Jewish independence was achieved. Under the Hasmonean dynasty, which lasted about 80 years, the kingdom regained boundaries not far short of Solomon’s realm, political consolidation under Jewish rule was attained and Jewish life flourished.
Roman Rule (63 BCE-313 CE)
When the Romans replaced the Seleucids as the great power in the region, they granted the Hasmonean king, Hyrcanus II, had limited authority under the Roman governor of Damascus. The Jews were hostile to the new regime, and the following years witnessed frequent insurrections. A last attempt to restore the former glory of the Hasmonean dynasty was made by Mattathias Antigonus, whose defeat and death brought Hasmonean rule to an end (40 BCE), and the Land became a province of the Roman Empire.
In 37 BCE Herod, a son-in-law of Hyrcanus II, was appointed King of Judea by the Romans. Granted almost unlimited autonomy in the country’s internal affairs, he became one of the most powerful monarchs in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. A great admirer of Greco-Roman culture, Herod launched a massive construction program, which included the cities of Caesarea and Sebaste and the fortresses at Herodium and Masada. He also remodeled the Temple into one of the most magnificent buildings of its time. But despite his many achievements, Herod failed to win the trust and support of his Jewish subjects....
The total destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple was catastrophic for the Jewish people. According to the contemporary historian Josephus Flavius, hundreds of thousands of Jews perished in the siege of Jerusalem and elsewhere in the country, and many thousands more were sold into slavery.....
Although the Temple had been destroyed and Jerusalem burned to the ground, the Jews and Judaism survived the encounter with Rome. The supreme legislative and judicial body, the Sanhedrin (successor of the Knesset Hagedolah) was reconvened in Yavneh (70 CE), and later in Tiberias...
Without the unifying framework of a state and the Temple, the small remaining Jewish community gradually recovered, reinforced from time to time by returning exiles. Institutional and communal life was renewed, priests were replaced by rabbis and the synagogue became the focus of the Jewish communities, as evidenced by remnants of synagogues found at Capernaum, Korazin, Bar’am, Gamla, and elsewhere. Halakhah (Jewish religious law) served as the common bond among the Jews and was passed on from generation to generation.
Byzantine Rule (313-636)
By the end of the 4th century, following Emperor Constantine's adoption of Christianity (313) and the founding of the Byzantine Empire, the Land of Israel had become a predominantly Christian country. Churches were built on Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Galilee, and monasteries were established in many parts of the country.
Jews were deprived of their former relative autonomy, as well as of their right to hold public positions, and were forbidden to enter Jerusalem except on one day of the year (Tisha B'av - ninth of Av) to mourn the destruction of the Temple....
Arab Rule (636-1099)
The Arab conquest of the Land came four years after the death of Muhammad (632) and lasted more than four centuries, with caliphs ruling first from Damascus, then from Baghdad and Egypt. At the outset, Jewish settlement in Jerusalem resumed, and the Jewish community was granted the customary status of dhimmi (protected non-Muslims), which safeguarded their lives, property, and freedom of worship, in return for payment of special poll and land taxes....
The Crusaders (1099-1291)
For the next 200 years, the country was dominated by the Crusaders who, following an appeal by Pope Urban II, came from Europe to recover the Holy Land from the infidels. In July 1099, after a five-week siege, the knights of the First Crusade and their rabble army captured Jerusalem, massacring most of the city's non-Christian inhabitants. Barricaded in their synagogues, the Jews defended their quarter, only to be burned to death or sold into slavery.
Ottoman Rule (1517-1917)
Following the Ottoman conquest in 1517, the Land was divided into four districts, attached administratively to the province of Damascus and ruled from Istanbul. At the outset of the Ottoman era, some 1,000 Jewish families lived in the country, mainly in Jerusalem, Nablus (Shechem), Hebron, Gaza, Safed (Tzfat) and the villages of Galilee. The community was comprised of descendants of Jews who had always lived in the Land, as well as immigrants from North Africa and Europe.
The 19th century saw medieval backwardness gradually give way to the first signs of progress, with various Western powers jockeying for position, often through missionary activities. British, French, and American scholars launched studies of biblical archeology; Britain, France, Russia, Austria, and the United States opened consulates in Jerusalem. Steamships began to ply regular routes to and from Europe; postal and telegraphic connections were installed; the first road connecting Jerusalem and Jaffa was built. The Land's rebirth as a crossroads for commerce of three continents was accelerated by the opening of the Suez Canal.
Consequently, the situation of the country's Jews slowly improved, and their numbers increased substantially. By mid-century, overcrowded conditions within the walled city of Jerusalem motivated the Jews to build the first neighborhood outside the walls (1860) and, in the next quarter century, to add seven more, forming the nucleus of the new city. By 1870, Jerusalem had an overall Jewish majority. Land for farming was purchased throughout the country; new rural settlements were established; and the Hebrew language, long restricted to liturgy and literature, was revived.
British Rule (1918-1948)
In July 1922, the League of Nations entrusted Great Britain with the Mandate for Palestine (the name by which the country was then known). Recognizing the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine, Great Britain was called upon to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine-Eretz Israel (Land of Israel). Two months later, in September 1922, the Council of the League of Nations and Great Britain decided that the provisions for setting up a Jewish national home would not apply to the area east of the Jordan River, which constituted three fourths of the territory included in the Mandate and eventually became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Arab Opposition and British Restrictions
The Jewish national revival and the community's efforts to rebuild the country were strongly opposed by Arab nationalists. Their resentment erupted in periods of intense violence (1920, 1921, 1929, 1936-39), when unprovoked attacks were launched against the Jewish population, including the Hebron Massacre of 1929, as well as the harassment of Jewish transport, and the burning of fields and forests. Attempts to reach a dialogue with the Arabs, undertaken early in the Zionist endeavor, were ultimately unsuccessful, polarizing Zionism and Arab nationalism into a potentially explosive situation.Recognizing the opposing aims of the two national movements, the British recommended (1937) dividing the country into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, to be linked by an economic union. The Jewish leadership accepted the idea of partition and empowered the Jewish Agency to negotiate with the British government in an effort to reformulate various aspects of the proposal. The Arabs were uncompromisingly against any partition plan.
The Road to Independence
Britain's inability to reconcile the conflicting demands of the Jewish and Arab communities led the British government to request that the 'Question of Palestine' be placed on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly (April 1947). As a result, a special committee was constituted to draft proposals concerning the country's future. On 29 November 1947, the Assembly voted to adopt the committee's recommendation to partition the land into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. The Jewish community accepted the plan; the Arabs rejected it.
The State of Israel is born
On 14 May 1948, Israel proclaimed its independence. Less than 24 hours later, the regular armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded the country, forcing Israel to defend the sovereignty it had regained in its ancestral homeland.In what became known as Israel's War of Independence, the newly formed, poorly equipped Israel Defense Forces (IDF) repulsed the invaders in fierce intermittent fighting, which lasted some 15 months and claimed over 6,000 Israeli lives (nearly one percent of the country's Jewish population at the time).During the first months of 1949, direct negotiations were conducted under UN auspices between Israel and each of the invading countries (except Iraq, which refused to negotiate with Israel), resulting in armistice agreements which reflected the situation at the end of the fighting.Accordingly, the Coastal Plain, Galilee and the entire Negev were within Israel's sovereignty, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) came under Jordanian rule, the Gaza Strip came under Egyptian administration, and the city of Jerusalem was divided, with Jordan controlling the eastern part, including the Old City, and Israel the western sector.
1956 Sinai Campaign
The years of state-building were overshadowed by serious security problems. The 1949 armistice agreements had not only failed to pave the way to permanent peace, but were also constantly violated.
In contradiction to the UN Security Council Resolution of 1 September 1951, Israeli and Israel-bound shipping was prevented from passing through the Suez Canal; the blockade of the Straits of Tiran was tightened; incursions into Israel of terrorist squads from neighboring Arab countries for murder and sabotage occurred with increasing frequency; and the Sinai peninsula was gradually converted into a huge Egyptian military base.
Upon the signing of a tripartite military alliance by Egypt, Syria and Jordan (October 1956), the imminent threat to Israel's existence was intensified. In the course of an eight-day campaign, the IDF captured the Gaza Strip and the entire Sinai Peninsula, halting 10 miles (16 km.) east of the Suez Canal.
A United Nations decision to station a UN Emergency Force (UNEF) along the Egypt-Israel border and Egyptian assurances of free navigation in the Gulf of Eilat led Israel to agree to withdraw in stages (November 1956 - March 1957) from the areas taken a few weeks earlier. Consequently, the Straits of Tiran were opened, enabling the development of trade with Asian and East African countries, as well as oil imports from the Persian Gulf.
1967 Six-Day War
Hopes for another decade of relative tranquility were dashed with the escalation of Arab terrorist raids across the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, persistent Syrian artillery bombardment of agricultural settlements in northern Galilee, and massive military build-ups by the neighboring Arab states. When Egypt again moved large numbers of troops into the Sinai desert (May 1967), ordered the UN peacekeeping forces (deployed since 1957) out of the area, reimposed the blockade of the Straits of Tiran, and entered into a military alliance with Jordan, Israel found itself faced by hostile Arab armies on all fronts.
As Israel's neighbors prepared to destroy the Jewish state, Israel invoked its inherent right of self-defense, launching a preemptive strike (5 June 1967) against Egypt in the South, followed by a counterattack against Jordan in the East and the routing of Syrian forces entrenched on the Golan Heights in the North.
At the end of six days of fighting, previous cease-fire lines were replaced by new ones, with Judea, Samaria, Gaza, the Sinai peninsula, and the Golan Heights under Israel's control. As a result, the northern villages were freed from 19 years of recurrent Syrian shelling; the passage of Israeli and Israel-bound shipping through the Straits of Tiran was ensured; and Jerusalem, which had been divided under Israeli and Jordanian rule since 1949, was reunified under Israel's authority.
From War to War
After the war, Israel's diplomatic challenge was to translate its military gains into a permanent peace based on UN Security Council Resolution 242, which called for acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of every state in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.
However, the Arab position, as formulated at the Khartoum Summit (August 1967) called for no peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, and no recognition of Israel. In September 1968, Egypt initiated a 'war of attrition,' with sporadic, static actions along the banks of the Suez Canal, which escalated into full-scale, localized fighting, causing heavy casualties on both sides. Hostilities ended in 1970, when Egypt and Israel accepted a renewed cease-fire along the Suez Canal.
1973 Yom Kippur War
Three years of relative calm along the borders were shattered on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), the holiest day of the Jewish year, when Egypt and Syria launched a coordinated surprise assault against Israel (6 October 1973), with the Egyptian Army crossing the Suez Canal and Syrian troops penetrating the Golan Heights.
During the next three weeks, the Israel Defense Forces turned the tide of battle and repulsed the attackers, crossing the Suez Canal into Egypt and advancing to within 20 miles (32 km.) of the Syrian capital, Damascus. Two years of difficult negotiations between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Syria resulted in disengagement agreements, according to which Israel withdrew from parts of the territories captured during the war.
TERRORISM
Arab and Palestinian terrorism against Israel existed for decades prior to the establishment of the State of Israel and since then. Thousands of terrorist attacks which resulted in the death and injury of Israeli civilians occurred during the two decades preceding the 1967 Six Day War (which led to Israel's presence in the territories). The establishment of the PLO in 1964 put it at the forefront of this terrorist campaign.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the various terrorist organizations under the PLO launched numerous attacks inside Israel and abroad. One of the most notorious attacks was the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
In spite of the Palestinian commitment made in 1993 to renounce terrorism, thus providing the basis for the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, terrorist attacks nonetheless continued, and strongly intensified since September 2000, resulting in the death of more than a thousand Israeli civilians and the wounding of many thousands more....
My thoughts.
Having established the historical fact of Israel having always been the home of the Jews, let us assume for the moment that the Palestinians had some legitimate claim to the land. Given that premise then the United States and all it's citizenry should concede all the land we took back to the Native Americans and leave. We should also then not so much as flinch if the Mexican government shells us and attempts to shove us out of lands that they once had in the south west. If we are going to tell Israel what they should do with land that is rightfully theirs then we should follow suit and do the same here.
We also need to understand that anyone living in Israel, Jew, Arab, Christian, whom ever has the right to be an Israeli citizen. They can serve in the military and belong to the government and have the kind of freedom that people in other Arab and Muslim nations only dream about.
What the Palestinians and in fact the entire Arab world wants is nothing more then the annihilation of the Jewish people and control of all of Israel.
If you are a Christian or a Jew, then you should recognize the fact that the land belongs to the Jews and was given to them by God. Long after every other nation on the earth has crumbled and fallen into historical insignificance Israel and the Jewish people will still be here because they are Gods chosen. These are the facts.
If your not religious at all then I would simply ask you to look at the historical records, go and search the internet and look for the truth that your not getting here in the US.
I stand with Israel and I oppose a two state solution, when the simplest thing would be for the Palestinians to stop trying to kill the Jewish people and become law abiding citizens of Israel. They could be the ones to actually show the rest of the Arab nations what democracy and freedom is really about. Who knows how much more that would accomplish instead of all the hate and violence.
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