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.