http://www.independent.co.uk/news/fisk/robert-fisk-so-just-where-does-the-madness-end-829936.html And you wonder why George Bush and Condoleeza Rice have made no progress in the Middle East?
"The truth is that it is a source of shame that the United States continues to give unfettered permission to Israel to steal Palestinian land." This sort of rewrite of history is enough to gag a maggot. History began even before the UN approved the creation of Israel in 1948, at which time there was no such thing as a Palestinian. "If the Arabs lay down their arms, there will be no more killing. If the Jews lay down their arms, there will be no more Israel." -- Benjamin Netanyahu. That's been true for some sixty years, now, by my reading/watching the news since 1948... 'Rat
That's odd. Who on earth were the inhabitants of the British-mandated territory called Palestine in 1920? Or in the area of the Ottoman Empire known as Palestine? What is your point? That the Palestinians did not exist, or that the state of Israel was not carved out of Palestine, or that it is not still appropriating parts of Palestine in violation of UN resolutions?
Think of 1944 who's land? think of now? A compromise can be reached but it takes two. I still say Arafat had 95% of what he wanted and should have made the deal.
Not that easy when that 5% included Al Aqsa. He could have made concessions almost anywhere else. 'Rat: Don't be mislead by Israeli nationalists - like nationalists anywhere, their job is to rewrite history... And when you say 'news' I hope you don't mean cnn.
"A land without people, for a people without land" - there are still people who believe such nonsense, as 'Rat continues to show every time he posts on this subject. Expect the Mark Twain quote any minute now. Skunk, I guarantee this is pointless debate. Facts don't change the minds of people who have swallowed a propaganda line for decades. God, the Fisk article is depressing.
I don't have much hope of changing the mind of our representative from Terlingua, but this kind of counterview needs airing as an antidote to the parallel universe peddled by Bush, Blair and Rice.
To be honest if there are still people who believe this sort of stuff, on both sides or any conflict then there is no hope of a solution.
Oh, of course we have. No argument there. It's just that his observation has nothing whatever to do with whether Palestinians did or did not exist before 1948, which appears to be Desert Rat's contention.
I was responding to your question "Who on earth were the inhabitants of the British-mandated territory called Palestine in 1920?" so my response was both relevant and accurate. Are you really unaware that the British had promised the Arabs an independent unified Arab state to be be carved out of the Ottoman Empire after WW1?? Alas, this promise was made at the same time that the British and the French were secretly making plans to split the area between themselves which is what they did instead of fulfilling the promises to the Arabs.......so treachery and lies; and we're all suffering the results today.
My question was to 'Rat, who was claiming that there was "no such thing as a Palestinian" before 1948, and the answer was self-evidently "the Palestinians". No, I am fully aware of T E Lawrence's promises to the Arabs, and of the shameful Sykes-Picot Agreement which followed.