I have yet to meet or speak to a person (even over the internets) who can give me any kind of rationale for Israeli occupation.

uhhhh, rationale?? Hmm. Perhaps cause' ethnic feuds are so rational in and of themselves..

thank you, choggie, for more blinding insight.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

Wow, wants out of the queue.

I swear I've heard that music before. Not the vocals, but the actual music. Possibly from Atmosphere.

Well spotted FancyL - Atmosphere use the same loop on one of their tracks

http://www.factsandlogic.org/

What are the facts?

The state of Israel was legally created out of the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. The area was desolate – desert and swamp – with some small towns and a few inhabitants, many of them nomads. The inhabitants, if they thought about it at all, considered themselves Syrians. The legitimacy of Israel arises from the Balfour Declaration issued by the British, who were given the mandate over the area by the League of Nations. Jews have lived in the country since Biblical times. The Arabs from the surrounding areas were lured to “Palestine” by the industry and prosperity that the Jews brought to the region. Envy, hatred, and religious fanaticism turned the Arabs against the Jews. In bloody outrages, horrible massacres, killings and rapes, the Arabs tried to dislodge the Jews, but were unable to do so.

In 1947, the British, having tired of the trouble and the bloodshed, resigned their mandate. That same year, the United Nations mandated partitioning of the territory. The Jews, though disappointed, accepted the partition. The Arabs rejected it out of hand and launched war against Israel. The armies of five Arab countries invaded the nascent state. Following the exhortations of the invaders, the Arab residents got out of the way hoping to return after victory was attained. They could then reclaim their property and that of the Jews, all of whom would have been killed or would have fled. That and that alone is the source of the Arab “refugee problem.”

Had the Arabs accepted the UN partition plan, there would now have been a state of “Palestine” for the last 58 years. They might have attained a similar level of prosperity, advancement, and development as Israel, which, small though it is, is today in almost every regard one of the world’s most advanced countries.

END WEBSITE

Op-ed: "Palestinians'" greatest fear would be the elimination of Israel, since they would then be forced to face their own failings.

quantumushroom - your understanding of history is deeply flawed and based more on propoganda than facts. Unfortunately for a long time the myth of Israel's creation that you advocate was accepted as historical truth in Israel and the rest of the world.

Thankfully the age of myth is passing. Non-Zionist Jews such as Elmer Berger, Alfred Lilienthal, and Norman Finkelstein have already published well-documented refutations of the official version of Israel's history.

More importantly, the standard myths about Israel's creation have started to be challenged by Israeli Jews — a younger generation of historians with impeccable credentials as Zionists, patriotic Israelis and scholars.

For example, Benny Morris was among the first of the younger Israeli scholars to receive widespread notice when he refuted Ben-Gurion's long-accepted assertion that the Palestinian refugees of 1947-48 left Palestine at the instruction of Arab leaders. In 'The Birth of the Palestine Refugee Problem', published in 1988, Morris concluded that Arab leaders had not urged the local population to leave but that the exodus was mainly the result of attacks by the official Jewish army, the Haganah, and the Irgun, a terrorist organisation headed by Menachem Begin that had carried out assassinations and bombings against both the British and the Palestinians during the British mandate.

Similarly Ilan Pappé, associate professor of Middle East history at the University of Haifa, emphasizes in 'In The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1947-51' the importance of Plan D in the creation of Israel. Plan Dalet, or Plan D, was adopted by the Israeli leadership to impliment their intention to expel the Palestinians from as much territory as possible and by whatever means necessary. From April 1, 1948 to the end of the war, Pappé writes, "Jewish operations were guided by the desire to occupy the greatest possible portion of Palestine." Pappé also writes that the Jewish army formally adopted the plan in early 1948 after Arabs protested a U.N. partition proposal that allocated to the Palestinians only 38 percent of mandatory Palestine although they made up more than 65 percent of the population.

Israel's apologists blame the Palestinians' misfortune on their opposition to partition, and especially to a Jewish state. If the Arabs chose to fight rather than share, then Israel would also fight—and take enough territory to insure its future security. But Pappé describes a more complex situation, in which blame is shared several ways - including a significant degree of blame for the Israeli leadership and armed forces who pursued what Pappé calls the "uprooting, expulsion, and pauperization of the Palestinians, with the clear purpose of taking firm control over Western Palestine."

Another song by DAM - "Born Here" - in Arabic/Hebrew with English subtitles:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIo6lyP9tTE

*dead

This published video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by mauz15.

rasch187 has fixed this video's dead embed code - no Power Points awarded because rasch187's points are already fully charged.