This is the tragedy of the situation...Palestinian people made to suffer because of their violent, hate-filled Hamas overlords.  Hamas has no interest in peace, all they want are dead Jews, and the interests of the Palestinian people mean nothing to them--which is obviously why they shoot from among and hide behind their children.

Oh, and less we forget factual history, why did Israel "occupy" these territories to begin with in 1967?  Very simple, they were attacked from all sides in 1948, 1956 and were about to be again in 1967 by enemies committed to their destruction.  So they kicked butt in 6 days, and took land from people using it to attack them repeatedly.  Sorry, that doesn't quite qualify as "occupation" in my book.  It sounds like survival to me.  The whole Palestinian/Hamas lie is pitiful, and the suckers in the media, in the UN and in a lot of Europe just eat it up.  Israel has had enough--good for them, and good riddance to Hamas!

Wars are started by those who profit from the manufacture of weapons - munitions factories are not built to make "one time" bullets and bombs - they only profit when there wares are used. As usual its the innocent civiians who pay the price for their greed.

inshallah

Why do you not inform the ignorent American public of the Root causes of the middle east conflict?
It started in 1920/30/&40 WHEN THE Jewish zoinist were terests with a price on there heads.The 1948 Creation of Israel at the expense of the Paiistinian people because the the Jewish Holocast of these inocent people.No american Presendent or Jewish contolled Congress ever gave a damn about the plight of the Palistine people in 60years. It is a disgrace and if the little fat man called Sharron tokk over my farm like he did Mr Arafat it would be a blood bath.
It 1948 we should have created The State of Israel in the state of New York and let make settlements in South Carolina. What do you think about those appels
I am very disturbed about our nation going along with Jewish Genoicide with Gaza and the US doing nothing to stop it. If they want the FREEDOM FIGHTERS of HAMAS , the lets stop the jews from steeling land from thr the west bank.If we do not come with a solution which the US started in 1948 we will have a 1000 year war . My solution is to visted the UN resolution of 1948 and split the entire reion into 2 haves and give both STATEHOOD.

It is frightful to see children, women young men die encircled in a place of no exit It is slaughter. Raised in Europe, traumatized by the hollocaust, see the same people do same the nazi did to them is horent.Israel borders are defined by the UN West bank is an occupied zone rightly all theirs. Loving you both thorn my heart apart. we are all brothers and sisters of one andangered planet the next generations must live in peace all over the world. enough of war. and killing.    

Why don't the Palestinians rise up, take their country back from Hamas and make peace with Isreal. I believe that the Isrealites offered them that, didn't they?? Something is missing here---

Unfortunately everyday regular people are directly affected by all of this . It is particularly sad that ISMS   like Zionism, Fascism, Communism, Fanaticism, and I guess Hamas-ism, Hezabollah-ism, extremist Hinduism, extremist Christianity, etc.

People are people and most people are reasonable . They just want to be warm at night , have food to feed, a decent job, clean water, and be able to walk the streets without being robbed or killed. They also want the privacy to believe in whatever religion they want and support whatever political party they want.

The problem comes when some ISM makes claims that penetrate the well being of someone's inner sanctum. The bombing of Southern Israel is an example. The theft of Palestineans's homes and land is another example.

No solution will come about until an overall reasonable solution is completed. This means sharing and it does not seem that say 20 % of Israelis and 20 % of Palestineans are interested to accept the following deal

Jerusalem- both parties SHARE the city

Withdrawal to 1950 borders

No army in Palestine , only a police militia. Similar to Costa Rica

Common respect for all people and their particular beliefs- religious, economic, cultural, music , sports, etc

Walls to separate the borders until the time comes Israel feels that walls are unnecessary so they can feel safe.

I may be asking for the moon but this conflict will just grow and get worse until this is accomplished. Fanatics like Taliban and AL QAEDA feed off this and fanatics like ZIONIST SETTLERS feed off of the rockets and their beliefs.

In the meantime the rest of the world snd the 80% of reasonable people must endure the actions of fanatics and religious zealots who hold us hostage. It would be nice to put all these 20 % fanatics in GITMO and have them share space but the island is not large enough. It would be nice to ship them all to the moon ,  but this is impractical. So in the meantime we suffer

G-d willing, Peace will return some day, hopefully soon, and friendships can flower once again.

If the Israeli government and Hamas would just go away, most of the Palestinians and Israelis would get along just great.

Gaza children skinny  --  Israel leaders fat, arrogant and rich
__
Today on the news we saw a dozen Israel leaders up on stage looking so well nourished and elegant in their expensive suits.  Also we saw more then a dozen skinny kids in Gaza huddled together in fear, some with tears flowing, some shivering with no shoes and light shirts, and all looking like they had not a decent meal in years.  
__
And so, is the purpose of this world to bless with riches those fat and arrogant, or to prove the harm in kids being terrorized by a half century of dictatorship and poverty?    

There is no other solution but a two states living side by side in peace, security & prosperity. Palestinians & Israelis are destined to co-exist as neighbords, both deserve peace & security.

What a sad state of affairs.

All hail religion! Killing people in the name of the Gods since 10,000 bce

This is a very well written article. I wish both sides were forced to read this. I think the time has come that the whole wrold look back at how things were. Perhaps in our greed to grow and become powerful we lost sight in how good we had it.

Friends?????  Checkpoints, house demolitions, land confiscations, illegal imprisonments, daily harassment by IDF soldiers, destruction of Palestinian olive trees.  Who needs friends like these?  

Israel must defend its citizens

It despicable to read and hear how Israeli authorities not only fail to defend its citizens, but hinder its citizens from defending themselves and assist the enemies of Israel (Arabs) provoke and attack Israeli Jewish citizens.
Any one who assist Arabs or other people in attacking Israeli citizens and Jewish people should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, with no mercy.
It is our duty to defend our fellow Jews wherever they are.
We as Jews have been persecuted throughout history. It is a shameful and despicable action and behavior to help Arabs attack Jews.
The reason for our troubles is because we as Jews forget our responsibility to each other.
We must be unified in the face of adversity; only as a unified and a cohesive force we will be able to stand against our enemies.
We must respect each other no matter what background or religious affiliation.
We are all the children of G-D.
The current action in Gaza is long overdue
Jay Draiman

Israel is a good friend of United States we saw
how many isrealy solders went to Iraq to help
thier american fiends. People please do not be
naev we are being used by the zionests this is thier
politics.They are fiends of ours because we have
money and we are very stuped and naev.

Mr. Fletcher,
Thanks for the history lesson, but I am not mourning Palestinian-Israeli relationships lost; alas I am mourning Palestinian children lives lost.

I regret Fletcher's decision to base his narrative starting with the 1967 Israeli occupation of Gaza, without mention of the preceding decades of terror and war from Gaza that plagued Israel and set the stage for change in 1967.  I also regret Fletcher's word choices that paint particularly Israelis in the most brutal light:  "break their bones", "anger and lust for revenge", "fury"; Fletcher neglected to lavish matching emotive descriptions in this story on the jihadist rocket terror groups Gazans democratically chose by a landslide to represent them in their peace negotiations with Israel (knowing full well that the groups reject the idea of peaceful coexistence and are bent on destroying the Jewish state)--NBC chose to pair the story with a photo of a crying, unarmed Arab (rather than one of the Hamas rocket launching fanatics Israel is vanquishing or of a crying, unarmed Israeli rocket victim).  As a consequence of the arbitrary timeline, unbalanced language and one-sided imagery in this piece, it is tilted against Israel and sympathetic to Gazans.  As such, I regret NBC's choice to produce and disseminate it.

I am an Independant thinker of FACTS. Fact: Jews for the most part only had tribal sections of that land before USA and England kicked out Palistines to make Isreal after WW 2...right?
I saw Isreal kicking out old and crippled Palistines from their homes just to house their fat greedy people that did not need that home. The human rights violation Isreal has done makes China to Tibet look kind. What do you expect when people have to fight just to get food allowed in. You do not report the truth. A recent comment by John Stewart that even he says Isreal is wrong and is violating those Palistines rights and the responce from the crowd and viwers says that most Americans see that Isreal drove them to defend and fight for their land .I am ashamed of our countrty. I travel and no longer call myself an American, because news shows like yours report only one view.
Hey...a real nasty fact.... we asked for 9/11 , the greedy money rapers of our nation & world got it, right? But also many innocent people got hurt because obviously that group wasn't being listened to., but the world jumps thru fire for Isreal when they are clearly in wrong.... and America was too dumb to see why 9/11 happen and goes out and creats more future 9/11's by Iraq and ignoring that we too once were a rebel fledgling nation that was kicking people out of their home.

MTV has more reality than your news ..except Oberman & Maddows who did confront the truth and horrah for them and thank you for those 2 shows, Chris Mathews is getting better but I wonder if its sincere or because he wants to run for congress.
So if Isreal thinks its OK to claim much more land then they even lived on or had long long ago ....so does that mean the Native Indians can take America from us...the Romans..err Italians can take 1/2 of Europe ? Makes USA look very ugly to support unjustice, but that seems to have been Bushwackers mandate...loss of our freedom and face in world....doing a great job starting ww 3 getting all the ugly Americans worked up in a war that will certainly drag us into

This is, perhaps, the first piece of commentary that shows a glimpse of the real situation on the ground in southern Israel and Gaza. The problem is getting people to recognize who started the hostilities, and how they behave when their chosen enemy starts to fight back. It never had to be this way. But some people choose violence, and then cry foul when it comes back to bite them on the nose. I too, used to have Palestinian friends. They cannot admit to that now for fear of their lives. If it were to become known that they had friends who are Jewish and Israeli, they would be killed by Hammas.

Left alone, people solve their differenes. In my homeland have a saying, " who bring news, carry back news." " Howdy marrow break no bones. In the US, they say, "Divide and conquor". Disgruntled Government officials who crave for power, only concern is to make people miserable.
as immature children behave, so do they. Their excuse is, I am in charge". Thank heavens, truth prevails.
Thank you for presenting this article. Love Prevails.  

Left alone, people solve their differences. In my homeland have a saying, " who bring news, carry back news." " Howdy marrow break no bones. In the US, they say, "Divide and conquor". Disgruntled Government officials who crave for power, only concern is to make people miserable.
as immature children behave, so do they. Their excuse is, I am in charge". Thank heavens, truth prevails.
Thank you for presenting this article. Love Prevails.  

Interesting.  You forgot to mention how it was that Israel came to "occupy" Gaza in 1967 in the first place. You present it as if it was a random act of the Israeli government.  Seems to me there was a war in 1967, Israel was fighting for it's life.....There is a bit more to the story isn't there??

It's simplifying it too much by saying "those were the days before the peace process."  It's probable that the division and animosity would have occurred anyway.  Reglious fundamentalism is what poisoned the well in the Middle East.  It began with the revolution in Iran and continued to grow from there.  Without it reasonable people may have been able to talk reasonably with one another (as Sadat did with Begin).

This was nice to read. Nobody loves occupiers even if they are Israealis. Israeal occupied Gaza for more than 3 decades and left it very poor in all aspects.
The Europian occupier had the decency of modernising the countries they occupied. Israealis do not share this decency.

SHAME to the US for supporting right-wing Zionist's. Palestinians and Isreali's need much less government and more time together. What Isreal is doing now will forever stand in the memory of Palestinians and all humanitarians the world round. US out of the Middle East now!

Brave and truthful words Fletcher! Who´s to blame? The Ashkenaze non semitic tribe that invaded the region and grew stronger by the day, its greed,disdain of human rights and international law and especially the sadistio cruelty upon Palestinians, only seen during the barbaric invasions and during the holocaust.I remeber too how semitic tribes lived well together, my family had Jewish friends living in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, all over the Middle East. I wonder why they have lost their voice in this Israel of intolerance, xenophobia and arrogance. The Israel   seems to have no past, no present and no future.

I want to respond to your piece by quoting you.

Quote 1: "When Israel occupied Gaza in 1967, the relationship between Israelis and Gazans became one of occupier and occupied." Yes, blame the "occupation" of Gaza in 1967 on Israel, as if we're not students of history. Israel just decided one day to occupy the land of the hapless Palestinians. THere was no prior provocation or attack from hostile Arab countries.

Another quote: "After Israel evacuated all the settlers three years ago, when Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza, the border clanged shut; it was opened only periodically to allow groups of Palestinian workers in, depending on Israeli needs." So, in your opinion, Israel remained the (at least) passive aggressor despite having unilaterally pulled out of Gaza. There were no strategic security interests for the Israeli state, nor did their intelligence learn of the arms smuggling aided by Iran.

Yours is yet another biased opinion piece blaming Israel for everything wrong with the Middle East. With the western press firmly burying its head in the sand, the stage is being set for the destruction of western civilization. It's only a matter of time...

Here is my take on the situation. does Hamas warn the people around them that they need to leave so Israel won't kill them. No I think they care even less for their own than Israel does. They have a total disregaurd for life. Israel is a saint compared to hamas who deliberately gets it's own people killed.

What is Israel is doing is worse than what the Hollocaust did to the jews. Till when are we going to stand still watching Israel committing massacre and genocide.  

Justice has to prevail and Israel should get punished for committing war crimes and atrocities to innocent women, children, and men who had done nothing even though they have been robbed of their land and their livelihood.  Wake up America!!!!

Ahhh,precious life.just like yours and mine.

innocence lost in fire and rubble.
childhood like yours like mine.
do we bleed any different
do we breath any different
do we believe(in life) any different...

but still we have a right to live
right to prosper and peace
we people from broken homes
we also deserve some respect,some life
we expect a better tommorow too

thats why we all believe world should give us some justice.not just american or israeli version, but a true one.
afterall history will not give isreal any better status then nazis.

i'm sure there will still be some sheep among wolves.some humans among isrealis and mosad.they need to look alittle further than their nose tip.

And we just have to dig a little deeper.i'm sure world can still find some respect and honour for life in isreal.sucking life from americans(money) and palestinians(lives) at the same time.its not easy but they have managed to do it for decades.

It has always been my belief that Palestinian/Is
raeli co-existance could easily be achieved if
the West Bank would be confederated with Jordan
and the same thing for Gaza with Egypt.  This
makes sense to me!

A good piece recognizing the fact that not all parties on both sides feel the venom of the extremists, Hamas and Likud.  It's only a matter of time when you occupy someone they will fight back.  It's human nature and everyone yearns to be free, too bad the Israeli's never realized this fact.  How many more children will the Israeli's have to kill before they feel safe?  Problem is, this unilateral, pre-emptive violence will never work.  Did Britian attack Northern Ireland with the air force, navy, and army during the IRA's violent campaign?  

Terror begets terrorists.

This article does not give the reason for the 1967 Israeli occupation of Gaza.  By not giving that, Fletcher's account leaves the impression that the Gazans are innocent of any wrongdoing, and thus puts a big slant against the Israelis.  I would like to see a more complete rendition on these "news" stories.  And don't tell us that you didn't have room to tell the rest of the story!

How sad..  I don't see this happening ever again after the most recent destruction. It would require more forgiveness than mere mortals can produce. I am nowhere near the conflict and have lost no one, yet I cannot bring myself to forgive, so how can they?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34138097@N02/

Please check out these photos and see how Israel is killing innocent men, women and children.  They targeted a school!!

The Israeli victims of these ceaseless Hamas rocket
attacks feel the same way that the Palestinian victims
of Israel's retaliation do - neither can engage in a
normal life because they are both unsure of when and
where the next rocket or bomb will fall.

Palestinian muslims crime history

In 1920s-30s, Palestinian Muslims committed massacre of Jews in Jewish land of Palestine murdering thousands of children and civilians.  The murder was organized by the founder and supreme leader of the Arab Higher Committee, Haj Amin al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, and supported by British Administration of Palestine.  The massacre was, in reality, the Holocaust committed by Palestinian Arabs in compliance with Islamic Koran which demand killing Christians and Jews.

Haj Amin was close friend of Hitler.  In 1941, Haj Amin came to Berlin and visited Hitler.  He brought the Holocaust idea to Hitler.  In 1943, Amin organized Bosnian Muslim battalions in Croatia comprising some twenty thousand men.  The battalions were put in Waffen-SS units, fought Yugoslav partisans in Bosnia; thousands of Serbs, Roma ('Gypsies') and Jews hunted down by Haj Amin's SS troops were killed by those same troops, or they were sent to the Islamic death camp Jasenovac.  After the WWII, the International tribunal declared Haj Amin was crime criminal; however, he escaped prosecution, fled to Egypt and then Palestine where he organized Fatah.  After his death in 1974, Arafat, who was Haj Amin lieutenant, became Fatah commander.  He organized PLO.  PLO and Fatah committed numerous murders around the world killing American and European Christian and Jews.
The 1960s
--December 26, 1968 --two Palestinian gunmen traveled from Beirut to Athens, and attacked an El Al jet and killed one. On December 28,1968, Israel troops landed in Beirut, Lebanon and destroyed 13 civilian aircraft at Beirut International Airport.
The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, a United States Senator and brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, took place shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968. He was killed following celebrations of his successful campaign in the Californian primary elections while seeking the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. The perpetrator was a twenty-four year old Palestinian immigrant named Sirhan Sirhan.
The 1970s
--May 8, 1970: Three Palestinian gunmen crossed the Lebanese border into the agricultural community of Avivim and ambushed the local school bus, killing nine children and three adults, and wounding 19 other children.
--September 4, 1972: Munich Olympic's Massacre--Members of "Black September," a PLO offshoot, attacked the Israeli Olympic team in their dormitory at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games in Germany. As a result of the hostage-taking and the bungled attempt by the Germans to rescue the prisoners, eleven Israeli athletes and one German policman were killed. This attack prompted Israel to launch "Operation Wrath of God" and "Operation Spring of Youth." See below for details.
--Beginning in the Fall of 1972: Israel's launched "Operation Wrath of God" to track down and kill members of the PLO involved in the Munich attack. This operation continued for several years and resulted in the assassinations of several members of the PLO around the world.
--March 1, 1973: Eight members of Black September took over the Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum, Sudan. Among the hostages were two American diplomats, Ambassador Cleo Noel, and Deputy Ambassador George Curtis Moore. Both Americans and Belgian diplomat, Guy Eid were killed.
-- April 11, 1974: three guerillas of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), infiltrated the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Shmona from Lebanon, killing eighteen residents of an apartment building, including nine children. The attackers died in battle with Israeli troops.
--May 15, 1974: Fighters of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) entered the Israeli border town of Ma'alot from Lebanon, killed five adults and seizing hostages in a school building. All of the attackers died in battle with Israeli forces, but not before they killed 21 of the school's students.
--June 27-July 4, 1976: "Operation Entebbe": On June 27, an Air France flight from Tel Aviv was hijacked by four terrorists, two from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — External Operations (PFLP-EO) and two from the German terrorst group, "Revolutionäre Zellen." The plane eventually ended up at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, which was then ruled by dictator Idi Amin. Amin was friendly to the Palestinian cause, and aided the terrorists. Once on the ground, three more Palestininans joined the hijackers. Demands were made for the release of prisoners held by Israel.
Israel responded with a commando raid on the night of July3/July 4. Around 100 Israeli troops in four military transport planes landed at night and rescued the hostages. As a result of the rescue operation,100 of the 103 hostages were freed. Three hostages died. One Israeli soldier died, while 45 Ugandan soldiers were killed eleven Ugandan Army Air Force fighter planes were destroyed on the ground to prevent them from following the Israeli air planes carrying the rescued hostages and the troops.
--March 5,1975: A force of eight PLO fighters sailed from to Tel Aviv by sea from Lebanon. Once inside Israel, they entered the Savoy Hotel, and took dozens of hostages. In the ensuing battle for the hotel, seven of the eight Palestinians and three Israeli troops died, while eight civilians were killed and 19 wounded.
-- March 11, 1978: Eight Fatah guerillas entered Israel from Lebanon. After killing an American tourist on the beach, the guerillas hijacked a bus on the coastal road near Haifa. In the ensuing bus chase and battle, six Palestinian guerillas and 35 of the passengers died. Seventy-One civilians were wounded. Israel's response to this "Coastal Road Massacre" was to launch a full-scale invasion of South Lebanon in order to root out the PLO forces based there.
The 1980s
July 27, 1980: Attack on Jewish school in Antwerp, Belgium by terrorists associated with the Palestinian Abu Nidal.
July 27, 1980: Abu Nidal claimed responsibility for the murder of an Israeli commercial attachee in Brussels, Belgium.
May 1, 1981: Assassination of Heinz Nittel in Vienna, Austria by Abu Nidal's forces. Nittel was President of the Austrian-Israeli Friendship Association.
June 3, 1982: Attempted assassination in London of Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov. Israel accused the PLO of the attack, and the Argov attack was one of the incidents which provoked the Israeli invasion of Lebanon on June 6, 1982 called "Operation Peace in Galilee. Argov survived the attack, but was permanently disabled.
September 25, 1985: Three Israeli civilians were killed on their yacht off the coast of Larnaca, Cyprus by commandoes of al-Fatah's elite "Force 17."
-Oct. 7, 1985: The hijacking of the passenger cruise ship Achille Lauro. Members of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), led by Abu Abbas, killed Jewish American tourist Leon Klinghoffer. After several days, the hijackers agreed to a deal in which they would release the ship in return for a flight to Tunisia. The Egyptian airliner carrying the hijackers was intercepted by U.S. Navy fighter planes on Oct. 10 and forced it to land at a military base in Italy, where the terrorists were arrested by Italian authorities.
-December 27, 1985: Rome/Vienna Airport Attacks--Abu Nidal's Fatah - the Revolutionary Council (FRC) staged two attacks in Europe which killed 18 civilians and wounded 140. The terrorists attacked passengers at airports in Rome and Vienna. The FRC claimed these attacks were in response to the October 1st Israeli air raid on Tunis.
September 6 1986 - Istanbul, Turkey
Abu Nidal organization attacks the Neveh Shalom synagogue, killing 22 people.
August 1988 - Haifa: 25 wounded in a grenade attack at the Haifa mall.
July 6 1989 - Tel Aviv: 14 killed when a terrorist steered a bus into a ravine off the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway.
The 2000s
In 2002, 5,301 terrorist attacks were perpetrated against Israeli targets, in which 451 Israeli were murdered.
In 2003, 3,838 terrorist attacks were perpetrated against Israeli targets, in which 213 Israelis were murdered.
In 2005, 2,990 terrorist attacks were perpetrated against Israeli targets.
From 2000 to 2004, Hamas was responsible for killing nearly 400 Israelis and wounding more than 2,000 in 425 attacks, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
From 2001 through 2008, Hamas launched more than 5,000 Qassam rockets and 2,500 mortar attacks against Israeli targets.
According to CNN, Hamas uses civilian infrastructure, including schools, houses, kindergarten facilities, hospitals, for storing and launching rockets and other ammunition, placing training camps inside populated areas in violation of Geneva Convention and international law.
The above is only a minuscule part of Palestinian muslims criminal and murderous history; however, it is more than enough to conclude that:
Islamofascist organizations, PLO, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front of Liberation of Palestine, Fatah etc., must be totally exterminated to last member; other Palestinian muslims must be kicked out of Israel land of Palestine back to the countries of their origin.

Mark Bernadiner, PH.D.
Texas

    Palestine is a Geographical Area, Not a Nationality
January 6, 2008

The Arabs invented a special national entity in the 1960s (rather than a geographic delineation) called the Palestinians, specifically for political gain. They brand Israelis as invaders and claim the geographic area called Palestine belongs exclusively to the Arabs.

The word Palestine is not even Arabic. It is a word coined by the Romans around 135 CE from the name of a seagoing Aegean people who settled on the coast of Canaan in antiquity – the Philistines. The name was chosen to replace Judea, as a sign that Jewish sovereignty had been eradicated following the Jewish Revolts against Rome.

In the course of time, the Latin name Philistia was further bastardized into Palistina or Palestine. During the next 2,000 years, Palestine was never an independent state belonging to any people, nor did a Palestinian people, distinct from other Arabs, appear during 1,300 years of Muslim hegemony in Palestine under Arab and Ottoman rule.

Palestine was and is solely a geographic name. Therefore, it is not surprising that in modern times the name ‘Palestine’ or ‘Palestinian’ was applied as an adjective to all inhabitants of the geographical area between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River – Palestine Jews and Palestine Arabs alike. In fact, until the 1960s, most Arabs in Palestine preferred to identify themselves merely as part of the great Arab nation or citizens of “southern Syria.”

The term ‘Palestinian’ as a noun was usurped and co-opted by the Arabs in the 1960s as a tactic initiated by Yasser Arafat to brand Jews as intruders on someone else’s turf. He presents Arab residents of Israel and the Territories as indigenous inhabitants since time immemorial. This fabrication of peoplehood allowed Palestinian Arabs to gain parity with the Jewish people as a nation deserving of an independent state.

In a March 1977 interview in the Dutch newspaper Trouw, Zahir Muhsein, a member of the PLO executive committee, admitted:

“Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism.”

Historically, Before the Arabs Fabricated the Palestinian People as an Exclusively Arab Phenomenon, No Such Group Existed

Countless official British Mandate-vintage documents speak of ‘the Jews’ and ‘the Arabs’ of Palestine – not ‘Jews and Palestinians.’

Ironically, before local Jews began calling themselves Israelis in 1948 (the name ‘Israel’ was chosen for the newly-established Jewish state), the term ‘Palestine’ applied almost exclusively to Jews and the institutions founded by new Jewish immigrants in the first half of the 20th century, before independence. Some examples include:

·          The Jerusalem Post, founded in 1932, was called the Palestine Post until 1948.

·          Bank Leumi L’Israel was called the “Anglo-Palestine Bank, a Jewish Company.”

·          The Jewish Agency – an arm of the Zionist movement engaged in Jewish settlement since 1929 – was called the Jewish Agency for Palestine.

·          The house organ of American Zionism in the 1930s was called New Palestine.

·          Today’s Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1936 by German Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany, was called the “Palestine Symphony Orchestra, composed of some 70 Palestinian Jews.”

·          The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) was established in 1939 as a merger of the United Palestine Appeal and the fundraising arm of the Joint Distribution Committee.

If you watch the blockbuster 1960 hit movie “Exodus,” based on the novel by Leon Uris, you will see how recent this appellation is. The hero, a native-born Jewish pioneer called Ari ben Canaan, talks of his love for Palestine.

Encouraged by their success at historical revisionism and brainwashing the world with the ‘Big Lie’ of a Palestinian people, Palestinian Arabs have more recently begun to claim they are the descendants of the Philistines and even the Stone Age Canaanites. Based on that myth, they can claim to have been ‘victimized’ twice by the Jews: in the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites and by the Israelis in modern times – a total fabrication.  Archeologists explain that the Philistines were a Mediterranean people who settled along the coast of Canaan in 1100 BCE. They have no connection to the Arab nation, a desert people who emerged from the Arabian Peninsula.

As if that myth were not enough, Arafat has also claimed “Palestinian Arabs are descendants of the Jebusites” displaced when King David conquered Jerusalem. Arafat has also argued that “Abraham was an Iraqi.” One Christmas Eve, Arafat declared that “Jesus was a Palestinian,” a preposterous claim that echoes the words of Hanan Ashrawi, a Christian Arab, who in an interview during the 1991 Madrid Conference said: “Jesus Christ was born in my country, in my land,” claiming she was “the descendant of the first Christians” – disciples who spread the gospel around Bethlehem some 600 years before the Arab conquest. If her claim were true, it would be tantamount to confessing that she is a Jew!

Contradictions abound, Palestinian Arab leaders claim to be descended from the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Jebusites and the first Christians. They also co-opt Jesus and ignore his Jewishness, at the same time claiming the Jews never were a people and never built the Holy Temples in Jerusalem.

There has Never Been a Sovereign Arab State in Palestine

The artificiality of a Palestinian identity is reflected in the attitudes and actions of neighboring Arabs nations who never established a Palestinian state. It also is expressed in the utterances and loyalties of so-called Palestinians.

Only twice in Jerusalem’s history has it served as a national capital. The first time was as the capital of the two Jewish Commonwealths during the First and Second Temple periods, as described in the Bible, reinforced by archaeological evidence and numerous ancient documents. The second time is in modern times as the capital of the State of Israel. It has never served as an Arab capital for the simple reason that there has never been a Palestinian Arab state.

The rhetoric by Arab leaders on behalf of the Palestinians rings hollow, for the Arabs in neighboring lands, who control 99.9 percent of the Middle East land, have never recognized a Palestinian entity. They have always considered Palestine and its inhabitants part of the great ‘Arab nation,’ historically and politically as an integral part of Greater Syria – Suriyya al-Kubra – a designation that covered both sides of the Jordan River. In the 1950s, Jordan simply annexed the West Bank, since its population was viewed as brethren of the Jordanians. Jordan’s official narrative of “Jordanian state-building” attests to this fact:

“Jordanian identity underlies the significant and fundamental common denominator that makes it inclusive of Palestinian identity, particularly in view of the shared historic social and political development of the people on both sides of the Jordan.... The Jordan government, in view of the historical and political relationship with the West Bank … granted all Palestinian refugees on its territory full citizenship rights while protecting and upholding their political rights as Palestinians (Right of Return or compensation).”

The Arabs never established a Palestinian state when the UN offered a partition plan in 1947 to establish “an Arab and a Jewish state” (not a Palestinian state, it should be noted). Nor did the Arabs recognize or establish a Palestinian state during the two decades prior to the Six-Day War when the West Bank was under Jordanian control and the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian control; nor did the Palestinians clamor for autonomy or independence during those years under Jordanian and Egyptian rule.

Well before the 1967 decision to create a new Arab people called ‘Palestinians,’ when the word ‘Palestinian’ was associated with Jewish endeavors, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, a local Arab leader, testified in 1937 before a British investigative body – the Peel Commission - saying: “There is no such country ! Palestine is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries, part of Syria.”

In a 1946 appearance before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, also acting as an investigative body, the Arab historian Philip Hitti stated: “There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not.” According to investigative journalist Joan Peters, who spent seven years researching the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine (From Time Immemorial, 2001) the one identity that was never considered by local inhabitants prior to the 1967 war was ‘Arab Palestinian.’

Eli E. Hertz

I am happy the offensive is going successfully. All of Islam should be taught this lesson. The more bodies of helpless muslims the better. Just as they target innocent civilians in places all around the world and most recently in India, these dogs should also pay with their blood

Yeah!!  I am so encouraged to hear that bit of personal friendship history. Hopefully, that history will repeat itself.
I am an American with many blessings and can only imagine the horrific situation so many are forced to
live in. I am deeply saddened by the feelings so many have toward the US. Believe me, if I could win the lotto I would give everyone suffering, a safe warm home, an adequate income,a full pantry; and if I had the power----schools and churches of their choice. As you know we rescue and bail out everyone....Seriously,
if people were not basically more "good", than evil, we would be one giant prison.....Viva la Friendships!!

Probably the best, non-biased article I've ever read on the Isreal/Palistine issue.  

Indifference or silence of good people....
is worse than evil ways of the villains.

Why didn't you cry and help create a better Palestine for those people; your so called friends who were poorer and of whom you enjoyed their cheap foods and used them and closed the door on them when they demanded the same rights and opportunities as you.

Serves you right... remember and suffer your mistakes.
Several Palestinians said  would have accept Israeli rule if they really had given them true opportunities and equal access and made Israel a true plural state instead Jewish priority one. Palestinian politicians are corrupt as hell and the ones who aren't corrupt are Hamas.  

Some mistakes are real sob.

The palestinians land,properties and feilds since 1948 and uptil now are losing everything. Once upon a time they had farms,housing and animals, they were very content people and working hard to make a good life. Thank you America for its false democracy and its inhumane humanity, the palestinians must die in order for the jews to live. The Jews are modern people
and nonpredjecious, they can come to palestine through
Europe, America, Africa, Russia, from all-over while the palestinians, the natives, can be put in jail, killed, take their homes, even you can take their babies and nursing them as a son or a slave, call it as you wish. Justice today with military power is like Darwanian theory. America is adopted the Darwanian theory.

Please people please....all I see is the faces of the children, and mothers who have lost children.  Have they no right to a future?  What are you fighting for, really?  If Mother nature decides to take the very thing you consider to be worth warring over, then neither side will have a say, now will you?  Can't you see the bigger picture?

We as a race of people cannot continue on this path.  Our time grows short on this earth due to our actions.  Think of this: If there is truly one God, and he is watching mankind, do you think at this point he is growing or has grown weary of all this chaos, death and suffering being inflicted in the name oe of....?  How much more do you think from man he will stand?  Especially in his eyesight, its the little ones you are hurting, with no forethought or with such disregard.

I may sound naive, and I know the media can distort an outlook, but there is no distrotion of the pain I see, on the faces of the very real people who are caught in the middle of all of this.

Wilmington, NC  YOU REALLY NEED TO UNDERSTAND HISTORY AND WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON OVER THERE. SHAME IS THAT PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE MAKING UNFOUNDED COMMENTS....ISRAEL IS HAVING ROCKET ATTACKS ON A DAILY BASIS........YOU MIGHT WANT TO EXPERIENCE THAT BEFORE YOU SAY THINGS.

Hamas and Hezbollah receive a lot of money from other countries and is spent on weapons to kill Israelis.  All they care about is destroying Israel.  Gazans, on the other hand are very poor and terrorized by Hamas, also.  They cannot fight back.  They want peace as much as the Israelis.  If the International Community (where are you, United Nations????) doesn't do something about the terror groups and those financially supporting them, this will never stop.  

I'm a little disappointed to see that it seems to be mostly Americans blogging here, I was hoping to get a better understanding from those involved. What exactly is it that would satisfy Hammas, short of wiping Israel off the face of the planet, which is NOT an option. I mean I think Israel is probabely clear they wont be able to settle Gaza, and they've cleared out, which is what I thought Hammas was after. Can't blame Israel for defending themselves, Hammas started this latest spat of bombings. What is it they hope to accomplish by this?

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