The tragic predictability of this posting is that the same 4 people revert to slogans. I am a proud Zionist, and don't buy all of David's arguments. Yet, there is no room for intelligent debate when the comments about Israel (read Jews) becomes: You abuse power, everyone else is your victim. You control Australia, the US, the UN. These lines of speaking has a long history. I wonder if the Evan, Rex and Ryans of this world might try talk about the issues, rather than sling mud on the writer and Jews, sorry Israel. Somehow, from your track record, I doubt it. But - Jew hatred doesn't exist either, it is merely manafactured by Jews. By the way, while I am a proud Zionist, I am also a proud supporter of a Palestinian State. Now who paid me to say that one?

"Why do Palestinians look with such envious eyes at Israel? Do you think it might be because of the success Israelis have made of that God-forsaken wasteland".

At what cost?
One could say that Hitler managed a resurgence of a Germany from what it was to a mighty military and economic power. Look at it now.

Again, at what price? Is that price acceptable to you, Danielle?

In your mind, the end obviously justifies the means. Your God-forsaken wasteland came about by scheming, murder, ethnic cleansing the marketing campaign of anti-Semitism, the holocaust guilt trips promoted daily and now out of steam, fortunately, and not to be ignored, the multi billions of US aid for sixty years which Israel took willingly, still doing so in 2011. No credit there. Blind Freddy could make a country with that kind of largesse.

These hateful energies by Israel, if they had been applied in a humane way, could have transformed that part of the world into a peaceful environment and a shining example to the world.

Is Israel interested? Hardly. The likes of Netanyahu, Leibeman and like-minded hate specialists have one thing in mind and that is Eretz Israel, the grand plan for an expanded Israel, their only objective, shown in clear terms over the past sixty years. If they need to continue to murder thousands of Palestinians, let’s just call it collateral damage, Israeli-style. Is that acceptable?

Truth is facing the facts and in the past sixty years, the crimes of Israel are second to nothing in history. Anyone who gets any satisfaction or pleasure or tries to justify those activities in any way, is no better than Ariel Sharon of Sabra / Shatila fame, just one of many in the image of Stalin and Hitler.

RexW - Do you extend this must energy on any other topic? We are proud of you for reading about Sabra and Shatilla. Why do you not expend any energy thrusting hate at the Lebanese Christians, whose actual armies did the massacre? Or are you convinced that they are yet another proxy for that extraodinary controlling force plaguing your world - Israel (Jews). What will you do when your hate mongering slogans are finished? So Jews (sorry Israel, sorry Zionists) are the new Hitler - Jews are the most immoral (Sorry Israel, Sorry Zionist). One must wonder why you, and Rex and the usual supporters, consistently ignore the points raised, and revert only to generalisations that fulfil your own simplisitic hate mongering. Maybe all black people are stupid, or Christians like you are all moral? Persistent over-generalisations and prejudice stereotypes are as empty as the minds who spout them - even when they are about Jews, sorry Israel, I forget, only Zionists!

Danielle,

Well, those links really don't provide any ethical basis to the Zionist enterprise, which was morally bankrupt from its inception. Apologists for Israel readily assume the moral high ground and argue from there, I, and other commenters on this thread, won't concede that point.

I have to agree with rexw's comments in regard to your "wasteland" references, you're presenting a version of the colonialist "terra nullius" justification. "See how Israel has developed the area", in contrast to the 'natives' who have forfeited their claim to Palestine because they were lazy.

The idea that the present position of the Palestinians, is totally caused by their intransigence is a self-serving myth promoted by Israel. The 'elimination' of the 'natives' from the area was always on the agenda for at least some of the original Zionists..see my reference "The Arabs".

To mac

You state:

"Why shouldn't the Palestinians have rejected the original UN Plan, should they have accepted the Zionist invasion as a fait accompli and submitted quietly(and disappeared) What collective moral failing on the part of the Palestinians does that initial rejection demonstrate-- shouldn't the inhabitants of a region resist the invader?"

My response:

The decision of the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab League to reject the UN Partition Plan was a fatal error of judgement since they now supposedly want to go back to that proposal 64 years later as if nothing had changed since then.

Had they in your words "submitted quietly" they would not have "disappeared". They would have had their state in an area far greater than they seek now, the wars in 1948,1956,1967,1967-1970,1973,1978,1982,2006 and 2008 and the intifadas in 1987-1993 and 2000-2005 would not have occurred, the refugee camps and UNWRA would be unknown, hundreds of thousands of people killed or wounded on both sides would have been spared, and the horror of the Holocaust would have been greatly diminished.

Classifying the Jews as "invaders" - when they were returning to their biblical and ancestral homeland pursuant to the unanimous approval of the 51 countries comprising the League of Nations - is an outrageous assertion.

Sure the Arabs have never accepted the League of Nations decision as confirmed in article 80 of the UN Charter.

They are entitled to ignore international law if they choose. But they do so - and have done so - at great cost.

You further state:

"I certainly don't blame the Jews for the tragedy, the real culprits were the mandarins of the UK and French Foreign Offices."

My response:

Those mandarins were the ones who gave the Arabs 99.999% of the conquered Ottoman Empire territory captured during World War I and determined that the remaining 0.001% would be set aside for reconstitution of the Jewish National Home.

Culprits? - hardly.

Attempting to restore justice after 400 years of Ottoman occupation and domination? - certainly.

The Arabs unfortunately don't see it that way. Neither do you apparently.

David Singer,

"Classifying the Jews as "invaders" - when they were returning to their biblical and ancestral homeland pursuant to the unanimous approval of the 51 countries comprising the League of Nations - is an outrageous assertion."

No it isn't. We all have, only one, 'ancestral homeland', Africa.
Appeals to a particular sacred text as justification for the invasion of Palestine is chauvinistic drivel. Human history is a record of migration,settlement and further migration,the notion that, I for example, have a 'right' to return to my 'ancestral homelands' in Western Europe, Eastern Anatolia or north of the Black Sea is absurd, Jews have no special perogative to 'return'. The only people with a right of return are the Palestinians displaced by the Zionist invasion.

(1)As to the decisions of the League,it was a colonial era and the 'Jewish Homeland' was just another colony.

(2)Re 'international law', Israel has a history of ignoring UN resolutions, with of course, US connivance.

"Had they in your words "submitted quietly" they would not have "disappeared". They would have had their state...... hundreds of thousands of people killed or wounded on both sides would have been spared, and the horror of the Holocaust would have been greatly diminished."

You're attempting to place all the blame for that tragedy on the Palestinians and exonerate Israel.

As to Israel's bountiful good faith, why are the settlements expanding?
Is the Zionist project still not finished?

"Those mandarins were the ones who gave the Arabs 99.999% of the conquered Ottoman Empire territory captured during World War I and determined that the remaining 0.001% would be set aside for reconstitution of the Jewish National Home."

Irrelevant and tendentious statistics, we all know that the quality of land is the critical factor.

The implication here is, since the Palestinians are 'Arabs',they could all move out of their homeland and live with other Arabs, they're all the same really. Or perhaps they could move into the Negev,Gaza,the West Bank and the Arava valley, the poorest land in the area.

Israel doesn't have the moral high ground.