Originally Posted by chrisg967

Wrong. According to Wikipedia:
In 1920 at the Conference of Sanremo, Italy, the League of Nations mandate over Palestine was assigned to Britain. This territory at this time included all of what would later become the State of Israel, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, a part of the Golan Heights, and the Kingdom of Jordan. The majority of the approximately 750,000 people in this multi-ethnic region were Arabic-speaking Muslims, including a Bedouin population (estimated at 103,331 at the time of the 1922 census [2] and concentrated in the Beersheba area and the region south and east of it), as well as Jews (who comprised some 11% of the total) and smaller groups of Druze, Syrians, Sudanese, Circassians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Hejazi Arabs.
Source: Palestine (mandate) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to the Palestine Center:
Land Acquisition: Despite their contention that Palestine was a land without people, Zionists discovered that Palestinian land was not uninhabited nor was it readily available. Palestine was densely populated and intensively cultivated. Moreover, the land tenure and ownership system was complex. Available land was expensive and became more so with the rising demand of a population growing as a result of both natural increase in-migration. With the establishment of the Palestine Mandate, Zionist hopes that state land—perceived as vast and potentially accessible—would serve as a basis for land acquisition also turned out to be unrealistic. From the data, it is possible to discern three periods of land acquisition by Zionists and Jews. While Jews in 1922 owned 3 percent of the land of Palestine, the additional land purchased by 1947 raised the total owned by the immigrant Jews to 7 percent of the whole area of the country. The British Mandate government classified Palestinian land as good, medium, and poor. After the general armistice of the 1948 war, Israel had captured over 77 percent of Palestine and more than 95 percent of the “good” soil. The newly sovereign state of Israel also expropriated 80 percent of privately owned Palestinian land and confiscated at least 40 percent of properties held by Palestinian Arabs who remained on the land and became citizens. The total losses of Palestinians are estimated at a staggering 7.43 billion Palestinian pounds (equal then to the British pound).
Source: Palestine Center - 1920-1947: The British Mandate Period

I suggest attempting to understand the situation by learning more about it, and also by listening to all sides.

I personally find the situation between Palestine and Israel to have some similarities to the one between American settlers and Native Americans. And we all know how that turned out...

Originally Posted by JayD

Im not going to bother posting the countless web sites that refute this crap. I'll just say, if you think it was as simple as all this, you've been deceived

Originally Posted by chrisg967

Nope, I don't think it's simple. Far from it. And the only "side" I am on is the side of humanity.

Originally Posted by alias

The Pals have had numerous opportunities for a nation only to say no. When you have a group like Hamas who says it will never recognize Israel, then who are the ones prolonging this and keeping the violence going? The answer is obvious.

Just for clarification, when you have young people who are civilians strapping on bombs and then purposely blowing themselves up in crowds of civilians, that is terrorism. I don't care what your politics are. Reacting to that in self defense is not.

Another point just for clarification.......when Israel became a nation, all the neighbors attacked. Do you know who got the most land after that battle. It sure wasn't Israel. It was Jordon and Egypt.

Originally Posted by nuttyjoe

Good replies from all 3 of you. I think all of us would like to see all the violence in the Middle East stopped; and only through the acceptance of the idea of peaceful co-existence can it start. it's time for everybody to start making an effort on that premise; instead of wasting our time and intellect on placing blame. Now; the hard part will be making politicians from all sides to understand this!