Israel@ here's a thought

bearing in mind that it's the middle of the night and I'm probably going a little senile.

K as it stands Israel is in control of the Jews who claim to have owned it before and are in there ignoring Palestinian beliefs etc... despite the Palestinians being there before them.

Now the land that is Israel used to be under British rule. Do you think if Tony Blair woke up tomorrow morning and decided to take it back Sharon and co would put their hands up and say fair enough since it's what we've did to the Palestinians?

don't think so.

and before someone says but it's religious land. 1: i dont believe in religion technically 2: fighting over somethign no one knows the truth about is idiotic and 3: the exact same would stand if you substitute Britain with a religion who once "owned" the land and want it back.

I'm not certain this is what happened, but I think the land called Palestine was taken off Britain's hands by the UN, who gave it to the Jews. The Jews were already there, they hadn't waited for a declaration of sovereignty, they just moved there. So what I think happened is the UN gave control of Palestine to the Jewish people who were already living there.

So no, I don't think Sharon would give his "country" back to Britain.

Adrian

Problem is that the Jews were there first. 'Palestine' comes from people that have emmigrated from Egypt etc.. to this land, at a time when Jews have been driven out. The name Palestine is the name given to the area by the Romans. Apparently, but that was from a pro- Jewish source.

According to a pro-Jewish book I read (I think it was called Exodus, and I'm not refering to the Bible chapter ), the Jews moved to Palestine (which I don't think was a "country" in the literal sense) and lived in amongst the Arabs for a while. The Arabs were there first, or at least that's how the book tells the story.

Adrian

As I said Mike. there were people there long before the Jews and im talking Millenia ago. Still doubt they'd pack up and **** off without a fight.

I think this summary clarifies the history a bit better. It seems quite neutral.

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0107652.html

History
Palestine, considered a holy land by Jews, Muslims, and Christians, and homeland of the modern state of Israel, was known as Canaan to the ancient Hebrews. Palestine's name derives from the Philistines, a people who occupied the southern coastal part of the country in the 12th century B.C.

A Hebrew kingdom established in 1000 B.C. was later split into the kingdoms of Judah and Israel; they were subsequently invaded by Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Persians, Romans, and Alexander the Great of Macedonia. By A.D. 135, few Jews were left in Palestine; most lived in the scattered and tenacious communities of the Diaspora. Palestine became a center of Christian pilgrimage after the emperor Constantine converted to that faith. The Arabs took Palestine from the Byzantine empire in 634–640. Interrupted only by Christian Crusaders, Muslims ruled Palestine until the 20th century. During World War I, British forces defeated the Turks in Palestine and governed the area under a League of Nations mandate from 1923.

As part of the 19th-century Zionist movement, Jews had begun settling in Palestine as early as 1820. This effort to establish a Jewish homeland received British approval in the Balfour Declaration of 1917. During the 1930s, Jews persecuted by the Hitler regime poured into Palestine. The postwar acknowledgment of the Holocaust—Hitler's genocide of 6 million Jews—increased international interest in and sympathy for the cause of Zionism. However, Arabs in Palestine and surrounding countries bitterly opposed prewar and postwar proposals to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish sectors. The British mandate to govern Palestine ended after the war, and, in 1947, the UN voted to partition Palestine. When the British officially withdrew on May 14, 1948, the Jewish National Council proclaimed the State of Israel.

U.S. recognition came within hours. The next day, Arab forces from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded the new nation. By the cease-fire on Jan. 7, 1949, Israel had increased its original territory by 50%, taking western Galilee, a broad corridor through central Palestine to Jerusalem, and part of modern Jerusalem. Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion became Israel's first president and prime minister. The new government was admitted to the UN on May 11, 1949.

The next clash with Arab neighbors came when Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956 and barred Israeli shipping. Coordinating with an Anglo-French force, Israeli troops seized the Gaza Strip and drove through the Sinai to the east bank of the Suez Canal, but withdrew under U.S. and UN pressure. In the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel made simultaneous air attacks against Syrian, Jordanian, and Egyptian air bases, totally defeating the Arabs. Expanding its territory by 200%, Israel at the cease-fire held the Golan Heights, the West Bank of the Jordan River, Jerusalem's Old City, and all of the Sinai and the east bank of the Suez Canal.

In the face of Israeli reluctance even to discuss the return of occupied territories, the fourth Arab-Israeli War erupted on Oct. 6, 1973, with a surprise Egyptian and Syrian assault on the Jewish high holy day of Yom Kippur. Initial Arab gains were reversed when a cease-fire took effect two weeks later, but Israel suffered heavy losses.

A dramatic breakthrough in the tortuous history of Mideast peace efforts occurred on Nov. 9, 1977, when Egypt's president Anwar Sadat declared his willingness to talk peace. Prime Minister Menachem Begin, on Nov. 15, extended an invitation to the Egyptian leader to address the Knesset in Jerusalem. Sadat's arrival in Israel four days later raised worldwide hopes, but a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel was long in coming. On March 14, 1979, the Knesset approved a final peace treaty, and 12 days later, Begin and Sadat signed the document, together with President Jimmy Carter, in a White House ceremony. Israel began its withdrawal from the Sinai, which it had annexed from Egypt, on May 25.

Although Israel withdrew its last settlers from the Sinai in April 1982, the fragile Mideast peace was shattered on June 9, 1982, by a massive Israeli assault on southern Lebanon, where the Palestinian Liberation Organization was entrenched. The PLO had long plagued Israelis with terrorist actions. Israel destroyed PLO strongholds in Tyre and Sidon and reached the suburbs of Beirut on June 10. A U.S.-mediated accord between Lebanon and Israel, signed on May 17, 1983, provided for Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. Israel eventually withdrew its troops from the Beirut area but kept them in southern Lebanon, where occasional skirmishes would continue. Lebanon, under pressure from Syria, canceled the accord in March 1984.

nice article mike. would have been good if it came right up to the present day but i still think paritioning off land to religion based sectorsis idiocy in the highest and whats going on in israel isn't far shy of the apartheid in South Africa IMO.

It is one big mess!! - If u follow the link, it brings the story up to nearly present day.

will do later on mate. got to go for a shower in a minute.

It is indeed one big mess and I'm embarrassed that Britain has played a part in creating it and even though people don't like the idea, the only real way anything is ever goign to solve it is if the whole place is flattened cause lets face it, the 2 fools running the israel and Palestine aren't goign to sit down and be civil and ntelligent anytime soon.