Palestine Should be Free, the Israeli Foundation and Occupation are Unjust

To begin with, I would like to say the following. I am not anti-Semitic. Nor do I call for destruction of the Israeli people, nor a democratic government they may hold. I am not a Muslim, nor advocate Islamic fundamentalism or religion generally. I do not agree with many tactics used now or in the past by Palestinian groups and their allies. I have every sympathy with the Jewish victims of the Holocaust and their desire for a homeland to escape persecution. However, I believe that Israel as established was unjust, along with the continued occupation of Palestinian territory. Separate, democratic entities representing both peoples must exist, with the right to defend themselves. Settlement building must cease, along with targeting civilians by Palestinian groups, both of which inflame conflict, along with other actions on both sides. I base this upon several contentions: Although understanding and sympathizing with the plight of Jewish people, their persecution does not give any right to reclaim land they were expelled from over a thousand years ago. Settling would be one thing, if no residents were expelled. However, this was and is not the case. There were settlers who coexisted in peace, true, but this was not what Zionism advocated. From the beginning, Zionists wished to expel the Palestinians and reclaim all the historic Israeli territory. I fully realize the Zionists were not the only people to blame for this situation. First, the British Empire in the Balfour Declaration had promised the Jews a homeland, while also promising the Palestinians independence. After the League of Nations gave the British Mandatory Palestine (that included the modern country of Jordan) they did not follow either promise. Jewish immigration then rapidly increased with the 1920s and 30s, along with rebellion against the British government. I fully realize the Jews were attacked by Palestinians in this era and before. However, that does not in any way justify the goal of taking over all Palestine. Jewish groups used tactics which in later decades were condemned as terrorism when Palestinians did this. From the beginning, it the goal was to retake all Palestine: Vladimir (Ze'ev) Dubnow, one of the Biluim wrote to his brother, the historian Simon Dubnow, in October 1882: "The ultimate goal ... is, in time, to take over the Land of Israel and to restore to the Jews the political independence they have been deprived of for these two thousand years .... The Jews will yet arise and, arms in hand (if need be), declare that they are the masters of their ancient homeland." (Dubnow himself shortly afterward returned to Russia.)[11] Ben-Yehuda, who settled in Jerusalem in September 1881, wrote in July 1882 to Peretz Smolenskin in Vienna: "The thing we must do now is to become as strong as we can, to conquer the country, covertly, bit by bit ... We will not set up committees so that the Arabs will know what we are after, we shall act like silent spies, we shall buy, buy, buy."[12] In October 1882 Ben-Yehuda and Yehiel Michael Pines, who had arrived in Palestine in 1878, wrote to Rashi Pin, in Vilna: "We have made it a rule not to say too much, except to those ... we trust ... the goal is to revive our nation on its land ... if only we succeed in increasing our numbers here until we are the majority [Emphasis in original] .... There are now only five hundred [thousand] Arabs, who are not very strong, and from whom we shall easily take away the country if only we do it through stratagems [and] without drawing upon us their hostility before we become the strong and populous ones."[13] Later this was openly stated: In 1938, David Ben-Gurion made it clear that his support for the establishment of the Jewish state in part of Palestine was only as an intermediary stage. Note how he uses the phrase "Eretz Yisrael" or "Land of Israel" in reference to the Biblical Map, he wrote: "[I am] satisfied with part of the country, but on the basis of the assumption that after we build up a strong force following the establishment of the state--we will abolish the partition of the country and we will expand to the whole Land of Israel." (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 107, One Palestine Complete, p. 403) On July 8, 1947, Chaim Weizmann described how the average stateless Jew felt like to UNSCOP (UN Special Committee On Palestine) as follows: "We ask today: 'What are the Poles? What are the French? What are the Swiss?' When that is asked, everyone points to a country, to certain institution, to parliamentary institution, and the man in the street will know exactly what it is. He has a passport. If you ask what is a Jew is -- well, he is a man who has to offer a long explanation for his existence, and any person who has to offer an explanation as to what he is, is always suspect--- and from suspicion there is only one step to hatred or contempt." (Israel: A History, p. 147) This explanation eloquently articulates how the average dispossessed, ethnically cleansed, and occupied Palestinian feels. Since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a conflict in which both sides have some justice on their side (as once put by Ze'ev Jabotinsky and Chaim Weizmann), the Zionists propagandists resorted to extreme measures to demonize the Palestinian people. In their quest to demonize the Palestinian people, the Bible & the Holocaust have been cited to achieve the following: To obscure facts and to deflect the core issues of the conflict To gain a world wide sympathy for the Zionist enterprise. Chief among these propaganda (or demonizing) tactics is the cite al-Hajj Amin al-Husseini's collaboration with the Nazis during WW II, while obscuring the fact that the Stern Terror Gang (once lead by Yitzhak Shamir) collaborated with the Nazis against the British Mandate during the same period (Israel: A History, p. 111-112). It is worth pointing out, also, that the Irgun (once led by Menachem Begin) attacked the British war machine and terrorized Palestinians while the Holocaust was in progress in Europe's concentration camps. Such facts are often hidden and purposely suppressed in most Jewish communities around the world, and for fairness sake, they must be debated. Briefly, the Zionist enterprise will use all possible means to achieve its goals, including the exploitation of the Holocaust to portray Palestinians as Nazis, citing the Bible to paint the "Jewish state" as a divine prophecy, and above all using Hollywood's resources to demonize Arabs and Muslims. Ironically, the Bible was never cited nor exploited to mobilize the world Jewish community to "redeem Eretz Yisrael" during the Crusades' genocide! (The above is taken http://www.palestineremembered.com...) After World War 2, the United Nations decided to partition Palestine, then with an 80% Palestinian majority covering that which is now Israel and present Occupied Territories. With the Declaration of Independence by Israel, an immediate revolt by Palestinians occurred, along with invasion of Arab states. Most Palestinians fled, driven by fears of massacres such as Deir Yassin and or told by their leaders to escape for their safety. Following the wars since, the West Bank was occupied. Since then, all West Bank Palestinians have been refused Israeli citizenship while unification with family living in Israel proper held up (finally criminalized in 2002). Meanwhile, Jewish settlers in the West Bank are full citizens and can move as they please. I realize this had to do with terrorism, but that was caused by the past injustice. The Constitution of Israel formally codifies it as a Jewish state, while Israel has no laws against religious or ethnic discrimination. As for the peace deals, so far all have been the same-a powerless government with no ability to defend itself, restrict access, or control its airspace, water supply. What is needed will obviously be compromise and separate entities for both.