rpg,

Dismissing the region as "primitive" shows a shallowness of perception on your part. Both the Jewish and Arab people possess ancient cultures and have much to share with the world.
Just in case you haven't noticed, those nations seen as more enterprising and progressive seem to be just as adept at carnage and bloodshed when it suits their agendas.

And from another OLO contributer:

"Israel wants to live in peace (wouldn't any sane people). They offered this to the people living in the area known as palestine in '60? Syria/Jordan/Egypt told them to stay as they would 'kick Israel into the sea'. 6 day war - they lost. The refugee camps were born, the above countries wouldn't accept them. U.N. (I think) paid $'s to Arrafat for every inhabitant of camps. Gaza, most were employed in Israel. No jobs now because Hamas keeps lobbing shells into Israel, from Lebanon before that!"

Somehow, I just can't help being extremely sceptical of the whole Palestinian cause.

poirot.. grasping for straws, it's so comical to see you desperately trying to find traction, stop the word games mate and look at what you're doing.

dear rpg,

I usually try and avoid slanging matches on OLO - and, as much as I'm beginning to warm to the prospect of sparring with you and the redoubtable Constance, I can't see that we are going to make any further progress.
So I s'pose that makes you the winner - congratulations!

Dear Constance,

How remiss of me not to acknowledge your extremely creative epithet in the guise of "Hamas Nazi" - Charmed, I'm sure.
Apart from that, I presume you have nothing to offer that springs from your own cognitive powers....just as well your name isn't "substance", because you don't appear to have any.

# To Gazzaboy

A Jew is a person who considers himself to be Jewish.

There are about 16 million people in the world who consider themselves Jewish. About 6.2 million currently live in Israel. They have come there from over 100 countries. They continue to come and settle in Israel from all parts of the world particularly when the Jew haters start to persecute them for no other reason than they are Jews. Russia is an example of the gross persecution of Jews that drove one million Jews to seek refuge in Israel in the 1980's. Persecution of Jews in Arab countries forced them to leave and settle in Israel following the 1948 War of Independence. Britain's restrictions on Jews entering Palestine between 1939-1945 resulted in hundreds of thousands of European Jews not being saved from their Nazi persecutors.

For what it is worth you can blame their Jewish ancestors for the Old Testament and the Ten Commandments and also the notion of one Supreme Being. You can thank the present generation for mobile phones,lap top computers,electric cars and a host of medical cures.

Jews also established the only sovereign State for the last 2500 years called Eretz Yisrael (until the creation of Israel in 1948). Its name was changed to Palestina by the Romans in an attempt to blot out any trace of Jewish existence after the Romans conquered the Jews and drove most of them into exile 2000 years ago.

Despite subsequent conquests and occupation by such diverse groups as the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Crusaders, the Mamlukes and the Ottomans the Jews always prayed three times a day to be ingathered to their bilblical and ancestral homeland from the far places of the world to which they had been scattered by these occupiers.

Their prayers were answered when the 51 Nations comprising the League of Nations unanimously agreed to the Jews reconstituting the Jewish national Home in Palestine in 1920 as part of a division of the conquered Ottoman territories that saw 99.999% being given to the Arabs and 0.001% being given to the Jews