Is Israel's expansion of settlements fair to the Palestinian people?

Question

You hear in the news the phrase “Israel’s expansion of settlements”. But, what does that really means?

Israel was granted statehood and international recognition in 1948. This means that this country can legally have an army and bare arms. So, Israel use this power to take land for development; hence, Expansion of Settlements”.

The Palestinians do not have statehood or international recognitions. Therefore, if they bare arms and create an army to protect their land and homes, they are called terrorists.

This inequality is the root of the conflict in the Middle East. Countries that oppose Israel must accept Israel statehood in any negotiations with Israel or America. Meanwhile, there is no pressure on Israel to discontinue taking lands from the unrepresentative Palestinians.

What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

I agree with you wholeheartedly.

The situation won't change however, because there are powerful politcal figures within US who are looking for war in the region and the sooner the better.

Why? because they believe some warped, literal interpretation of Revelations in the New Testament.

It's claimed that these christian extremists wield significant power within the US, it certainly appears that they influence the US policy on Israel. I can't think of any other reason why the world's greatest democracy would facilitate ethnic cleansing on this scale.

Check it out. It seems Islam doesn't have an exclusive on the nutcases. http://www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/C/can_you_believe_it/debates/doomsday.html

Be afraid, be very afraid.

By the way take no notice of the anti semitic claims, many Jews are outraged at the actions of the Israeli government.

Some people really haven't got a clue have they? Athor whatever your name is, you are aware that there are christian palestinians I assume?

Answer 2

No it is not fair. Palestine existed before the modern nationof Israel was given to the Jewish people to be a Jweish homeland. This is because the British government, had promised the Palestinian people autonomy ( They had been under Turkish occupation for hundreds of years, ) in return for the Palestinians assistance in fighting the Turks, who were allied with Germany in WWI. soon afterwards, Lord Balfour, and others in Parliament promised that a Jewish state would be founded in the land known as Palestine,
Eventually Israel was established and all non-Jewish people were expelled from the country. in the 1950, Israel initiated several wars with neighboring countrys, with the end result being the occupation of the West Bank of the Jordan river. The immediatley started building Kibbutzes (a Kibbutz is a settlement camp) in the West Band. Under Isralei constitutional law, one the settlements are annexed to Israel, they can never allow non-Israeli people to benefit from that property. So the settlements are always located where the springs are, so that by law the indigenous Palestinian people were not allowed to have water.
search for the writings by Daoud Kuttab, a Palestinian journalist. I knew several members of his family, including his father, George.

Answer 3

Israel was legally created out of the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. The area was desolate – desert and swamp – with some small towns and a few inhabitants, many of them nomads.
The inhabitants, if they thought about it at all, considered themselves Syrians. T
he legitimacy of Israel arises from the Balfour Declaration issued by the British, who were given the mandate over the area by the League of Nations. Jews have lived in the country since Biblical times. The Arabs from the surrounding areas were lured to “Palestine” by the industry and prosperity that the Jews brought to the region. Envy, hatred, and religious fanaticism turned the Arabs against the Jews. In bloody outrages, horrible massacres, killings and rapes, the Arabs tried to dislodge the Jews, but were unable to do so.

In 1947, the British, having tired of the trouble and the bloodshed, resigned their mandate. That same year, the United Nations mandated partitioning of the territory. The Jews, though disappointed, accepted the partition. The Arabs rejected it out of hand and launched war against Israel. The armies of five Arab countries invaded the nascent state. Following the exhortations of the invaders, the Arab residents got out of the way hoping to return after victory was attained. They could then reclaim their property and that of the Jews, all of whom would have been killed or would have fled. That and that alone is the source of the Arab “refugee problem.”

Had the Arabs accepted the UN partition plan, there would now have been a state of “Palestine” for the last 58 years. They might have attained a similar level of prosperity, advancement, and development as Israel, which, small though it is, is today in almost every regard one of the world’s most advanced countries.

They might even had deserved the right to be called "palestinian".

Answer 4

Your facts are biased and incomplete. When was the last time Israel "took lands?" Israel took Gaza, the Golan Heights and the West Bank AFTER their Arab neighbors declared war on them and attacked them in 1948 (and many times thereafter). Historically, any country that wins a war with an aggressor has taken territory to create a buffer zone or DMZ such as the land that Israel took to insulate them from the Arabs who are looking to kill them.

Under international pressure, they gave the Golan Heights back to Syria over a decade ago and Gaza would be sovereign land for the Palestinians if they were able to behave like civil people and refrain from attacking their neighbor (Israel).

The Palestinians did not begin their violence against Israel as a response to Israeli aggression. They used to be in Lebanon and fueled the civil war there until the Lebanese chased them out. None of the neighboring host nations (Syria, Jordan or Egypt) were willing to take in the Palestinian refugees (why is that?), so they were forced to encroach on Israeli sovereignty. If the Palestinians were capable of behaving like a civilized people in the first place, they would have their own land and they would live in peace.

You ought to read up on your history before spewing the antisemitic propoganda that the media is feeding you.

Answer 5

you make two very good points and point, or suggest, a third point
1. Israel IS an autonomous state
2. The group called Palestinians is not
3. Fairness

I will deal with #2 first.

2. The so-called Palestinians, as a group, did not even exist, and had no support from their Arab 'brothers' prior to the nation of Israel's existence. With so much unused land in the Middle East, land under Islamic control, there is no reasonable excuse for the 'Palestinians' to not have their own area that would not conflict with Israel.
1. As Israel IS, in fact, an autonomous nation, it is wrong for the Arab world to constantly aim for its destruction, using the excuse of the palestinian plight, when they could fix the problem (as stated above) peacefully

3. see the above two statements

Many people refuse to accept biblical teachings when they are 100% accurate concerning what has happened and the things told that will happen, either have, are or, in the near future, will happen (of course, that is the point of contention, but every time, the Bible has shown itself to be accurate in predicting what will happen over there)
Does there exist a pre Israeli claim on that land?
YES! I will not deny that. What I will deny is that the insistence that certain borders and political units remain, while the acceptance of the revolutionary, violent and unjust changes occur on other fronts.
War is never going away. No border is safe from change! and no government is secure from overthrow.

Israel won the land and became a homeland for Jews. That is the real contention, no matter how it is repainted. The Muslim nations want all JEWS to die! and the arguement would be the same if the jews had won a piece of land in south Africa, or northern Europe!

The 'Palestinians' are just another group of Arabs. Arabs far outnumber Israelis. The supposed oppression of the 'Palestinians' is not real, but another ploy of the Arab world to try to bring Israel to annihilation

As for history, If there is no God, then there is no Jew, as the Hebrew nation was just another son of the Arab people who separated himself unto God (Yahwey, Johova, but NOT allah!).
So if there is a God, and Abrahm served him and did become a new people, then the Israelites have the only valid claim upon that land, as God told Abraham (God changed his name from Abrahm) to take a very long walk and that he would give to him all the land, wherever his foot walked.
Israel has problems that can NEVER be solved by human intervention because Israel was told to not make any treaty with any of the inhabitants of the promised land, but they did, and God told them that they will have troubles with this people forever!
God was sick of the evil and sin of the Arabs and their worship of false gods, and he wanted the nation of Israel to utterly destroy them, even their livestock, so that there would be NO rememberance of progeny to carry on. But israel sinned and failed to do so.

Does the Arab nation have any claim to land there?
I do not see how, as they are not even supposed to exist any longer.

Answer 6

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism."

-PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein, 1977

Answer 7

Israel has tried in good faith to negotiate settlement of the Palestinians only to have it backfire in their face. The radical Islamists refuse to recognize Israel and to respect their sovereignty. Israel has every right to defend themselves and if the Palestinians are unable to compromise and to halt terrorism they need to be removed from the land God has given the Jews.

Answer 8

Yes. the Arab states that have not taken these refugees in are being unfair to them. The "palestinians" are the last refugees to WWII, and those who want Israel to disappear use these poor people as a tool to beat Israel with.

Jews have historical ties to the land going back millennia. Nomadic peoples do not have such ties. Jews were expelled from all other countries in the area in 1948. Maybe it's time to complete the task and have the neighboring countries take these refugees in.

The UN set up a partition in 1948. The Arab states rejected it, and attacked instead. They lost.

I say, give israel its rightful, Biblical boundaries. Arabs have 22 other countries in the area to choose from.

Answer 9

Was the occupation of America fair to the native Americans?

No, but might makes right in the Western philosophy. If you can overpower or kill all opposition, then you are good. Anyone who does not agree that you are right, dies.

That is the missing element in evolution; the survival of those most willing to kill off the competition.

Answer 10

The “Palestinians” back in 1948 should have put up and decided to work within the Israeli government. They now would outnumber the Israelis and could do whatever they wanted legally. They were to shortsighted to see the end game. Now they just want to play the victim game.

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it. - George Bernard Shaw