Quote:
Originally posted by debaser
But don't forget that all of the nice letters in the world doesn't change the fact that in 1922 there were about 84,000 jews in Palestine. By 1942 there were 484,000.
Why were they all moving there?
Because Palestine had been declared the Jewish homeland by the First Zionist Congress (1897). If I was a gentile living there I would feel a bit nervous about my future, wouldn't you?
Fast forward to 1947, UN181, and the partition of Palestine:
Jews make up 30% of the population, and own only 6% of the land (most being city dwellers). They are granted 55% of the land in the partition.
I might have hard feelings about that, too.
Fast forward to 2003:
Israel, in the one of the greatest security blunders of all times, has ghettoized Palestinians into highly concentrated population centers, where, since they have no jobs (or economy for that matter), they breed (will be a majority of the population in Israel by the year 2020), simmer with hatred, and build bombs.
Who knows, maybe if Israel represses them a bit more, they will stop hating Israel. I always find that if you beat someone enough they eventually start liking you... 
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Thanks for the post man. What everyone needs to realize here is that the Palestinians do not seem themselves as terroists, but as Freedom fighters. They do not view Israel as a State but as a terroist organization.
Here in the west this is hard for us to understand because the targets of the Palestinians are civilians. But think this through. Can Palestine fight the Israeli army? Israel = Gunships, Tanks, F-16s, M16s. Palestine = Bombs, a handfull of AK47s, rocks, sticks, and stones. Fair fight?? I am not trying in any way to justify or defend Palestinian tactics, but put yourself in their place. What would you do if you wanted to fight against Israeli oppression? And be honest with yourself. Both sides need to stop the fighting, but Israel as a STATE needs to act civilized and follow rules of law rather than use their supierior military equipment to rain terror down on the Palestinians.
As for The Dude's original post, sure Israel could take out a few of its neighbors, but this would be a very short lived victory. If Israel were to attack its weaker neighboring Arab states I would be very surprised if the Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan did not come too their aid. Any one of these countries could, to quote a Fox reporter when discribing the first few hours of the US lead invasion of Iraq, "Lay the Smackdown" on Israel. Israel may have a few nukes laying around, but so does Pakistan, and so will Iran in by the end of 2005. Turkey has one of the best trained and best armoured militaries in the Middle East, having been supported and supplied by NATO for the past 50 years, they were considered the last line of defense against a USSR lead invasion of the middle east, and they were prepaired to hold the line.
Also, and just for the fun of it, don't think that Israel would massacre the Palestinians?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/mid...st/1458169.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ma/1381328.stm
http://www.indictsharon.net/
Kind of funny that this is the guy who is now running the government.