“which is slowly ethnic cleansing the holylands of the original owners since the major ethnic cleansing operation in 1948″
their original owners?! The majority of Palestinians emigrated to the region because the early Zionists had come to what is now Israel and were rebuilding the land, and they came to partake of the economic benefits. During wwII britain encouraged more palestinians to come and had strict limits on the number of Jews they let in – leading ot their perishing in nazi europe – b/c the brits had not yet decided whether they wanted a jewish state. The palestinian presence is a direct result of british emigration policy in this time.
You may have noticed that there was no such thing as a palestinian people before 48. The Palestinians do not speak a distinct language, they do not have a distinct culture other than the terrorist culture that developed over the decades since israel’s existence, they do not have distinct foods – and they did not have a land or any identity as a nation – because they were just arabs who landed up the region, the majority coming for the economic development the jews introduced. There was no palestinian national movement under the ottamans, and not much of one under the brits either. They could live under the Turks, you see, but they could not live under the evil Jews. To be fair, the majority of the population would probably have accepted israel’s presence, but their leadership and their fellow arabs encouraged them to flee and told them they’d win a war against israel. They lost the war, the lost in 67, they lost in 73. These wars were NOT the result of an indigenous population rising up against the newcomers, but rather a majority of the arab population in palestine had moved there to benefit from the econmy the jews created. But under whose rule they simply cannot live, since it is not as beneficent as the ottoman rule.
Incidentally, israeli arabs are doing better on just about every measure you can think of – longevity, education levels, infant mortality, etc etc – than muslims in enlightened europe are currently doing. Imagine if they’d all just agreed to accept israel how well they’d be doing.
Oh and by the way. You know about Palestinians claim to Jersulaem? When the Muslims controlled the region, Jerusalem was a backwater. Their political and cultural center was in RAmallah. Jerusalem was not a cultureal center, not a political center, just a backwater with a mosque. Jerusalem is only of any significance in Islam because Islam recognizes the prior Judeo-Xian claim to Jm. They never wanted Jersualem as a capital or center. But you know what happened They discovered that Jm is very important to the Jews. Now they cannot have a state without it. Who cares that when muslims actually had control over the area, jm was a backwater? Suddently Jm is just as important to Muslims as it is to Jews and Xians.
