toto2 said:
when I srael was fouded in 1948(I think) ( following many , many years of interventions in the regions by occidental countries) , the inhabitant of the place , the palestinians where shown the door ( I am oversimplifying here). The jewish people , mostly from europe arrived and took the place of palestinians who had been there for generations. There are thousands of palestinians living in refugee camps in many surrounding countries. Even the childreen and grand childreens of the refugges from 1948 are still living in camps because the the host coutrys refuse to grand citizenship to these people , even after all these years.
Israel is the promised land for the jews , and the third most holy pace for muslims ( Mohamet flew to the sky on his horse from the mount of the rock , wich is where the jewish temple destroyed by invaders used to be and where today , they go to pray at the whaling ( spelling ?) wall.
Israel enjoys a lot of support from occidental coutries , partly because of a sentiment of guilt from these coutry regarding the holocost. There are more jewish people outside of »Israel than in the country it self . In fact there more jewish people in the USA than in Israel.
The muslim countries use the palestianian cause as an excuse for there long hatred of jewish people, but do very little to help the palestinians. The palestinians leaders have alway been quite corrupt as well , and refused many arrangement offerd by the Israelies and the world community.
what you're saying here is only partiually accurate.
prior to 1948 theree was no such thing as a "Palestinian".
although there has ALWAYS been a Jewish presence in Israel, the predominant population in the region in the 19th Century was Arab, but the land was controlled by the Ottoman Empire -- modern day Turkey. the Ottomans fought o the side of Germany in World War I, and lost their territory to the British.
Jewish immigration from Europe began in the late 19th century, under the Ottomans. the Arab population was NOT "shown the door. rather, he Jewish immigrants purchased land and built communities, and lived side by side with the Arab populytion.
the Balfour Declaration of 1917 -- the British promised that when they vacated the territory they'd turn power over o the Jews. unfortunately they made the same promises to the Arabs.
clashes between the two populations escalated in the 1930's. the British tried to stem the tide of Jewish immigration, (which was increasing as a result of Nazi anti-Semitism and the atrocities comitted by them) and unsuccessfully tried to rule the region and control the violence, but were unable to do so. essentially they "gave up" and dumped the problem on the UN.
the UN basically went ith the "facts on the ground" and proposed a two state solution. areas where the populaion was predominantly Jewish would be Israel and areas where the ppulation was predominantly Arab nould be palestine. the Jews accepted the two-state solution, the Arabs did not.
in the 1948 war Egypt seiized Gaza and Jordan seized the West bank. funny how they never sought to set up a state called Palestine from 1948 until they lost those territories to Israel in 1967.
funny how what was rejected in 1948 is what's being sought in 2006.
as for the refugees...
during the 1948 war, the Egyptians and Jordananians urged the civilian population to leave their homes, with the promise that they could return after the Jews were thrown into the sea. a considerable portion of the population followed this advice. many others fled because it was too dangerous to stay. and yes, some Arabs were "evacuated' by Jewish military forces.
many others did stay within the territoritory that became Israel. the current population of Israel is 6 million, of which 5 million are Jewish, and the predominant minority group in Israel proper is Arab.
so why are there still refugees almost 60 years later? the residents are political pawns. useful tools in the war against Israel. the rest of the Arab world, with all its riches, has done nothing for the refugee population, and instead gives the refugees empty promises that they will return to their homes whe Israel is destroyed. they have been betrayed time and time again by their leaders, most recently by Arafat in 2000.
meanwhile, in Israel...Jewish refugees form various Arab countries have been absorbed into the population and have become productive citizens. the number of Jews forced by political pressure, economics, harasment, etc. to abandon hoes in Iraq, Iran, yemen, Morocco, and other Muslim countries is roughly equivalent to the number of Arabs displaced in 1948.
Israel has not always made smart decision in handling the palestinians. but the Arab world is as much to blame for heir situation.
