Bob Ackley -> Bob Klahn wrote:
 BA> Replying to a message of Bob Klahn to All:

 BK>>  Israel took land from a country that had no right to it?

It should be noted here that the people who lived in what the Ottoman Turks
called Syria (what we call today "the Middle East") were the
equivalent of American Share croppers. They didn't own the land they lived
on. All of the land was owned by pashas living in the more settled cities
of Europe like Istanbul. There was no modern restructured in Syria at that
time. Beginning in the early 19th century Jews from Russia, Poland and
other eastern European countries bought land in Eretz Ysrael from these
pashas. No land was stolen from so called false "palestinians" it
is impossible to take something from someone who didn't own it and
especially when it has been bought from those who actually *DID* own it.

 BA> There was no national government in Palestine in 1948.  The area had
 BA> not been autonomous for over a century as it had been part of the Ottoman

Far more than a century. Here's a timeline for the Ottoman Empire

http://tinyurl.com/2ksjx

 BA> Empire.  After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire following WW I the area
 BA> was administered by Britain.  While the Israelis *formed* a nation

England administered part of the former lands, those parts which today are
called Israel and Jordan. The other parts were administered by France.

 BA> there, there
 BA> had been no independent nation there for several centuries.

 BK>> And how does that give them any rights?

 BA> Israelis and Arabs living peacefully in Israel have rights.  The Israeli
 BA> governments (and FTM all governments) have powers.  It's an organized
 BA> government that exercises control over the area, that's all that's
 BA> required.

There are Arabic members of the Knesset, there are Arab run schools that
are 100% funded by the Israeli government. It bears repeating that Arab
Israeli citizens have the highest standard of living and the most freedom
than any other Arab living in any other Arab country.

Have I mentioned how pleasant it is to read someone who actually knows
something about the history of the Middle East and doesn't just spout false
propaganda spread by the media?

-- 
L'Chaim,
Mimi

fcpnmimi(at)cox.net

http://www.myspace.com/fcpnmimi

"Anti-Zionism = Anti-Semitism"
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
". . . You declare, my friend, that you do not hate the Jews, you are
merely 'anti-Zionist.' And I say, let the truth ring forth from the high
mountain tops, let it echo through the valleys of God's green earth: When
people criticize Zionism, they mean Jews--this is God's own truth.
Antisemitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, has been
and remains a blot on the soul of mankind. In this we are in full
agreement. So know also this: anti-Zionist is inherently antisemitic, and
ever will be so..."

Golda Meir once said, "There will never be peace until the
Palestinians love their children more than they hate us."

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