You need to look at things a little deeper than that. Read a bit of what Steven Rogers writes over on the Foreign Affairs Discussion Group for a taste of what I mean by "deeper":
Message 18313489
Message 18315562
Message 18315568
You say: "By all rights, the West Bank and Gaza belong to Israel. The Palestinians are squatters from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, etc. If they want peace on "their land", they should go home."
Here are a few excerpts from the links above:
Re: Jews had an historical homeland
They did not. They drove others out when they occupied that land, and they were in turn driven out by others, who were in turn driven out by others, etc. The Jewish claim is no stronger than that of the descendents of any of the other groups that at one time or another occupied that piece of land, and it was certainly weaker than that of the actual occupants. The Jewish claim is based not on history but on religion, and as such seems much more compelling to those within the Judeo-Christian tradition than to those outside it.
Re: They should go home
If a group of Native Americans showed up on your doorstep and told you that since this is the only place they have, and you have relations in Europe who will probably take you in, why don’t you just bugger off to Europe and give their homeland back to them, how would you feel about it? Noting, of course, that the Native American’s historical claim to America is one hell of a lot stronger than the Jewish claim to Palestine. |
