Gerald,
The reason Israel has no credibility in the world today is that its historical reaction to any overture of peace by the Palestinians (most recently the attempt by Hamas and Fatah to conform to Prime Minister Olmert’s insistence that Hamas recognize the state of Israel before the financial and physical siege of the occupied territories is lifted) has been to provoke the Palestinians (by murdering innocent Palestinian civilians) into an irrational act that Israel can then use as an excuse to invade the occupied territories and not negotiate with Palestinian representative. Prime Minister Olmert after all has just been trying to sell a unilateral 'peace treaty' negotiated with itself to the USA and Europe with limited effect. Israel should remember the old adage that if you fool someone once shame on you if you fool someone twice shame on them the world has witnessed Israel’s tactics to peace so many times it is no longer fooled by their rhetoric

...is that it's consumed and sickened you and your fellow Zionists and that until you get rid of all that displaced anger and self-deception, until you see the sheer pointlessness of reinventing Hitler again and again and again, until you realise that exclusive ethnic tribalism and tribal ghettos are not the way, until you remove your jackboot from the necks of people whose only crime is that they had the misfortune to be born in the land that you arrogantly claim is yours and yours alone, you will never know peace.

Strewth,
Thank you for your rounding off. It is obvious even to Blind Fredy that the insipid pro-Israeli lobby is alive and well in Australia and though it is sometimes like banging your head against a brick wall attempting to overcome their misinformation and outright propaganda it is necessary that one never gives up trying.

Keiith

Sorry but the Palestinians were not actually the original inhabitants of Palestine. There are Jews in Israel today who can make a reasonable case that they are descendants of the ancient Israelites.

Also, Israel became home to thousands of Jews from Alexandria, Iraq, Yemen, Iran etc. who were dispossesed by Arab leaders. The numbers of Jews displaced in this way probably equals the numbers of Arabs displaced from Israel. These Jewish communities were in many cases established long before the Arabs arrived in these countries.

Further more the early Jewish settlements in Israel (18th and 19th centuries) were started by people legally moving within the Otoman Empire (a Musim leadership) and purchasing the lands which they occupied.

Whatever you say about Israel the ordinary Arab people who remained in the state of Israel have an equal vote in the goverment and enjoy vastly better living standards than the ordinary folks in Arab lands.

This is not Zionist propoganda it is history.

Interesting point Logic.

I don't agree the Palestinians were not the 'Original Inhabitants' of Palestine.
Crucially your argument will fail with the claim by Palestinians to a similar lineage to the original Israelites. I do believe the Palestinians can show similar traditional links to that tribe of Israelites. Who was it Abraham who was the father of the Jews and his brother(?) was the father of the Arabs? I'm vague but I'm sure someone with a better grasp of the relevant history can enlighten us.

But I think your argument largely defeated with more modern analogies. Ask the question: Who owns Australia? The original Inhabitants or those who have purchased and owned land in Australia over the past couple of hundred years? How would the land owning white Aussie react if he was pushed off 'his' land, marginalised, suppressed and exploited?

Another argument: My ancestors occupied large tracts of coastal Munster. They were dispossed by English migrants. Have I the right to push them out and reclaim my traditional heritage?

I think not.

One other point. While some Israeli's can probably prove links to the original Israelites, many cannot. Take for example the many Jews escaping from Russia and it's territories who claim Jewish heritage. History shows clearly none can claim any ancestral link with the original inhabitants.

But talk to me also about the current land grabbing 'settlements'?

logic: Who were the original inhabitants of Palestine? Are you in a position to say? Where's your evidence? And tell me why it even matters. How does the fact that Jewish Arabs (uprooted by the Zionist movement to move onto & into Palestinian lands and homes stolen by Israel following the expulsion of the Palestinian refugees in 48-9) ended up in Israel improper have any bearing whatsoever on whether Palestine should be taken from the people who were living there before the Zionists arrived? 18th century Jewish settlements? Please explain. As for the Palestinian Arabs who managed to avoid being ethnically cleansed by Zionist forces in 48-49, please show chapter and verse, as opposed to mere assertion, in just what ways they are better off than non-Palestinian Arabs who didn't receive the suggested social and economic benefits of Israeli ethnic cleansing.