   >>I'm surprised that you don't consider the acquisition of land by
   >>the Jews from arabs, for the purpose of establishing an exclusive
   >>state, as a hostile action leading to war.


Could you please tell me what was the ethnic composition of 
Israel right after it was formed. 



No one in his right mind would sell his freedom and dignity.
Palestinians are no exception. Perhaps you heard about
anti-trust in the business world.

Since we are debating the legality of a commercial
transaction, we must use the laws governing the guidelines
and ethics of such transactions. Basic ANTI-TRUST law says
that, while you can purchase IBM stocks for the purpose of
investing, you can not acquire a large number of those
shares with the intent or controlling IBM. You can do so
only if you make your intentions CLEAR apriori . Clearly,
the Jews who purchased properties from palastenians had some
designs, they were not buying a dwelling or a real estate.
They were establishing a bridgehead for the European Jews.

The palastenians sold their properties to the Jews in the
old tradition of arab hospitality. Being a multi-ethnic /
multi-religious society, accepting the jews as neighbours
was no different, just another religion. Plus they paid fair
market value, etc... They did not know they were victims of
an international conspiracy. (I'm not a conspiracy theorist
myself, but this one is hard to dismiss).




Again Adam, the devil is in the details. I don't want to get
on a tangent here but its the same reasonning that says its
OK to return 100 deportes and leave the rest. Because 100 is
a nice number that you can devide by 10, 100 and besides, it
has an integer square root.



Do you actually believe this? My experience tells me that
every palestinian I knew still keeps the key to his home, in
Palestine. Besides they often refer to their exodus as an
escape from hell (so to speak). I know none that agrees with
you. Did you sample their opinions? I know you don't care,
just being rethorical.




Don't get me wrong. I beleive that Israel is democratic
within the constraints of one dominant ethnic group (Jews).
Israel probably had a few options after 1948: ethnic
cleansing Serbian style, and deserve the wrath of the
international community, or make the best out of a no win
condition: show the world how good Israel is towards the
'bad' arabs. Personaly, I've never heard anything about the
arab community in Isreal. Except that they're there.  So
yes, they're there. But as a community with history and
roots, its dead.






I stand corrected. I meant that the jewish culture was not
predominant in Palestine in recent history. I have no
problem with Jerusalem having a jewish character if it were
predominantly Jewish. So there. what to make of the rest
Palestine?



-- 
Sam Zbib                                         Bell-Northern Research
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