How many people like you have started out the same way, supporting and respecting the Jewish peoples, as they were then, only to find that through the onset of criminal minds in successive Israeli governments, like the current Netanyahu cabal together with the weakness of the USA in their use of the UN as a platform for a manipulated veto activity through the influence of both money and media, such people changed from Jews to Zionists.

There are literally millions like you, Marty.

We all admire the sacrifices you must have made to be as well informed as you are, to devote time to teaching children in Gaza to overcome the Israel designed lack of facilities for education , agriculture and a decent standard of living and then to see the imported bullyboys, masquerading as 'settlers' run riot through killings and sabotage under the approving eye of the Israeli police.

Everyone would agree with you when you say that “Israel, by and large, wants the Palestinians to disappear and are therefore deliberately colonising the West Bank …” all with the approval of the US, controlled as it is by Zionist thinking and compromised politicians, thick on the ground, weak and puppet-like.

That’s is where the effort must be made, Marty, for while the US still appears to be the #1 power in the world and can veto anything they do not wish to see passed in the UN, that is where the change must come from and it will, when the people wake and realize that they have had their country stolen and that the US, NATO and Australian casualties that fall every day in the Israeli-inspired wars, are based solely on the elimination of any threat to the arrogance and ambitions of ‘Ersetz Israel’.

Fortunately, millions like you, on the internet, bloggers, activists and compassionate peoples everywhere share your interest in justice, the cessation of ethnic cleansing and the removal of apartheid and who also share your wish to remove the yolk of an oppressive army of occupation.

Your words today tell the real honest story. Thank you.

“Israel, by and large, wants the Palestinians to disappear and are therefore deliberately colonising the West Bank"

This doesn't follow logically. You could argue that Israeli settlers are trying to stake a claim over the West Bank by building there, which is true in some cases, but I don't see how exactly it would ever make the Palestinians "disappear".

Plus some of the statistics given are misleading, as is the historical account. The number 400,000 includes small settlements, the three settlement blocs and what are essentially suburbs of Jerusalem. redrawing the border slightly will leave all but 65,000 settlers and any peace agreement will need to do this, the 1948 armistice line is no longer a viable border.

The solution given is also a little dubious and simplistic. Australia and the US "condemning the occupation" would serve little purpose - everyone is already in agreement that the goal is an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, the author is just calling for this to be re-iterated but in a way that would be insulting to Israel and therefore force the Israelis to be more intransigent in order to save face. We saw that exact state of affairs earlier this year, then when Obama came down more on the Palestinian Authority, the peace talks finally started.

There have been two offers for a Palestinian state on the table in the last decade. Want the occupation to end? Abbas needs to accept one of them.

Marty says:

//I had no idea at the time that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were exiled from their land, had lost their homes and would never be allowed to return.//

err... Marty....*helloooo* do you ALSO know nothing about the countless thousands of JEWS who were expelled and persecuted in ARAB lands at this time, never to return?

Why is that major fact IGNORED by "pro palestinian apologists"?

So...having a running start out of the blocks goes Marty.. zooom.. all on a false or unbalanced premise and now he is:

//a volunteer, to stand with others in peaceful protests against the systematic dispossession of the Palestinians by the very people I and others had supported so enthusiastically all those years ago.//

Marty..why don't you join an EXILED JEWS support group and peacefully protest at the ARAB embassies for return rights hmmmm?

Then Marty wanders off into the emotional twighlight zone with:

//I knew that two great religions, Judaism and Christianity, were born there and that Islam had taken root there.//

No Marty.."Islam" did not "take root" there... it came with Armies of Jihadists and IMPERIALISTIC SLAUGHTER! so Hamas can now say:

PART 3, Article II

This is the status [of the land] in Islamic Shari’a, and it is similar to all lands conquered by Islam by force, and made thereby Waqf lands upon their conquest, for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection. This [norm] has prevailed since the commanders of the Muslim armies completed the conquest of Syria and Iraq.

Well there you have it.. and now you SUPPORT the descendants of this brutality ? gimme a break!

The Jews are reversing a crime of history and those NOW feeling the rough end of the justice stick cry foul ? not a chance mate.

Regrettably you viewpoint is based on the following factually false and misleading statements by various Arab propagandists:
1. “The sympathy that the world community had for Jews following the horrors of World War II blinded people to the dispossession of the Palestinians.”
In fact world sympathy for the Jews had been created after World War 1 with the creation of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine in 1920 calling for the “reconstitution of the Jewish National Home” in Palestine
The Arabs have never recognized this unanimous and binding legal declaration by the League and this has been the source of their misfortune ever since.
2.” historians say the Palestinians have inhabited the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea for more than 13 centuries.”
There was no designated group called “Palestinians” until 1964. During the 400 years rule of the Ottoman Empire the population was divided into “Jews”, “Moslems” and “Christians”. This practice continued during the Mandate. The Mandate document itself only referred to “the existing non-Jewish communities”
3. “In 1917 at the time of the Balfour Declaration Palestinians comprised 70 per cent of the population and owned more than 90 per cent of the land.”
The Arabs only owned 8% of the land and the Jews 6%. The rest was state land vested in and forming part of the Ottoman Empire.
4. “One way to do this is to stand with the Palestinians and Israeli activists when homes are being destroyed, when more Jewish settlements are being constructed on Palestinian land”
Homes have been destroyed pursuant to court decisions ruling their construction illegal or as a result of the application of Jordanian laws still applicable in the West Bank.
The land is not “Palestinian land”. Its legal status is “part of the remaining 5% of the territory of the Mandate for Palestine remaining unallocated in accordance with the terms of the Mandate”
Jews are legally entitled to settle anywhere in the West Bank under article 6 of the Mandate and article 80 of the UN Charter.

(to be continued)

Marty - continuing my response

5. “One can understand the Palestinians’ frustration and apprehension for the future when one considers that when the United Nations partitioned Palestine into two states in 1947 the Jewish state received 55 per cent of the land and the Arab Palestinians and Christian Palestinians got 45 per cent of the land”
More than 70% of the 55% offered to the Jews comprised the arid and sparsely populated Negev desert. The 45% offered to the Arabs was mostly the fertile and Arab populated areas. The Arabs rejected the UN offer as they had previously done in 1937 when rejecting the Peel Report recommendations. They could have had what they now demand in 2010 at any time between 1948-1967. Had they been prepared to negotiate and recognize Israel in the five years following the 1967 War the political landscape would have been entirely different. Their refusal to accept less than 100% of the West Bank and Gaza over the last 17 years has seen their position further deteriorate.That is their prerogative but it is a bit late to cry over spilt milk. Their leaders have led them – and apparently well intended persons such as yourself – up the proverbial garden path.
6. “In the ensuing war the Israelis captured even more land, so that at the cease-fire the Jews were in control of three-quarters - leaving just 22 per cent of land for the Palestinians (the West Bank and Gaza).
The Jews only controlled 17%. Jordan controlled 83%, which it unified into one country with the consent of the West Bank Arabs in 1950. Only Great Britain and Pakistan recognized that reunification. The Arabs could have created a separate state out of that 83% at any time between 1948-1967 but did not do so. They were the architects of their own missed opportunities.
7. “The boundary at this time came to be known as the Green Line.”
There was no boundary – only an armistice line that had been in existence following the end of hostilities in 1949.

(to be continued)

Marty - continuing my response

8. “After the war in 1967 the Israeli army conquered all of Mandated Palestine”
78% of Mandated Palestine had been granted independence in 1946 and was not conquered by Israel in 1967. The West Bank and Gaza – conquered by Israel in 1967 – was only 5% of Mandated Palestine.
9.” I hate to write this but I firmly believe that Israel, by and large, wants the Palestinians to disappear and are therefore deliberately colonising the West Bank”
Israel is clearly failing in this “objective” if you look at the increasing West Bank Arab population and improvements in their standard of living. Since 95% of the West Bank Arab population is now under total Palestinian Authority administration your “firm belief” is a load of nonsense and amounts to racial vilification,
10. “Jews are invited to come to live in the West Bank from every country on earth.”
Why does this worry you? Jews have this right legally granted to them under the Mandate and article 80 of the UN Charter. They had done this prior to 1948 before they were driven out of the West Bank by six invading Arab armies.
11. “Settlers live freely without any of the curtailments of the Palestinians”
The Jews live behind barbed wire and stringent security restrictions with their schools and public places all under security guard protection.
12. “I realise that the burden of my account is at odds with the information supplied by the skilled Israeli public relations officers and government ministers.”
You sure have and in doing so have relied on a whole lot of dishonest material given to you by your Arab interlocutors. Pity you didn’t check the veracity of this material before rushing into print.

Hope you find the time to answer my comments.