Take it easy my friend. I suspect that she is an amateur.

EWIGE BLUMENKRAFT!

Cheers and Shalom!

/i would change my digs

Many reasoned and serious commentators (who don't take the time to post on Salon) would say that the real reason for the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is to secure a sizeable proportion of the watershed of the River Jordan, so as to ensure a viable water supply in the coming times of water shortage (very similar to the reasons behind the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Darfur, which seems to have now slipped of the media radar). The stated Zionist cause of settling the "promised land" is little more than a convenient cover story. The late Robin Cook, the British Foreign Secretary who made a principled (and prescient) stand against the invasion of Iraq before apparently dying of a heart attack while out hill-walking, stated in a speech shortly before his death, that the coming century would see a massive increase in conflicts worldwide as a result of states attempting to secure dwindling water supplies on a warming planet.

Set fire to anything yet?

he was well-equipped to detect the expansionist aims of the small numbers of Jews in Palestine almost 90 years ago. In the last few decades, with the unquestioning support of the USA, Lord Curzon's idea that Israel (not even a State at that time) was motivated by aggrandisement far beyond the arid lands of the settlements. This is the point Curzon made:

"Now, as regards the facts, they are these. First, Palestine has been conquered by the British, with only very insignificant aid from small French and Italian contingents, and it is now being administered by the British. The Zionist declaration of our Government has been followed by a very considerable immigration of Jews. One of the difficulties of the situation arises from the fact that the Zionists have taken full advantage - and are disposed to take even fuller advantage - of the opportunity which was then offered to them. You have only to read, as probably most of us do, their periodical 'Palestine', and, indeed, their pronouncements in the papers, to see that their programme is expanding from day to day. They now talk about a Jewish State. The Arab portion of the population is well-nigh forgotten and is to be ignored. They not only claim the boundaries of the old Palestine, but they claim to spread across the Jordan into the rich countries lying to the east, and, indeed, there seems to be very small limit to the aspirations which they now form. The Zionist programme, and the energy with which it is being carried out, have not unnaturally had the consequence of arousing the keen suspicions of the Arabs. By 'the Arabs' I do not merely mean Feisal and his followers at Damascus, but the so-called Arabs who inhabit the country. There seems, from the telegrams we receive, to be growing up an increasing friction between the two communities, a feeling by the Arabs that we are really behind the Zionists and not behind the Arabs, and altogether a situation which is becoming rather critical ."

Great points all, cabdriver.

The more accurate analogy would be:

Fleeing centuries of religious persecution and outright genocide, a small group of undocumented immigrants arrived in North America, and settled in various swampy, deserty, uncultivated areas the size of New Jersey. Greatly outnumbered, the immigrants were tolerated by the local peoples.

Over time, as the numbers of the illegal immigrants grew, the local peoples became intolerant of the immigrants, who differed culturally and religiously from the them, and began to hunt down and kill the undocumented immigrants.

Eventually, the locals threatened the British with massive violence if the immigration was not stopped, and so the British did their best to stop it.

After numerous wars, in which all the tribes of the continent tried to wipe out the immigrants but failed, one by one the tribes negotiated and made their peace with the immigrants, and even sent their ambassadors to the immigrants' capital.

The local tribe, however, did not accept the presence of the immigrants at all. They vowed to wipe out the undocumented immigrants. But eventually, they split, and formed two groups; one intransigent, the other willing to find a way to live with the "illegals."

There, that's much better.

the real reason for the Israeli occupation of the West Bank is to secure a sizeable proportion of the watershed of the River Jordan

Actually, if you read the history very carefully, you'll see that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank had something to do with something called the Six Day War.

I suspect that she is an amateur

The most dangerous kind, no?

EWIGE BLUMENKRAFT!

WTF is that?

Maybe I shouldn't read these so early in the AM before my sense of humour has kicked in, but I really hope that revisionist history you just posted was some sort of ironic joke.

Jonathan,

If you are, as your name suggests, currently resident in Tel Aviv, would you care to comment on my earlier post regarding the seemingly intractable nature of the conflict? Surely there are many Israelis who realise that there is going to be no successful way of bombing Hamas into oblivion, and the only way to resolve this once and for all is to arrive at peace solution that undercuts the reasons for Hamas' support?

As the dominant power in the ongoing confrontation, and the only one which can decisively move to break the deadlock (because lets face it, Hamas aren't going to go away if we ask them nicely, or if we rain bombs on their heads), why does Israel persist in this deadly cycle of retaliating to Hamas' insistent provocations? Are hundreds of innocent Palestinians being killed and maimed purely because its an election year in Israel?

C'mon. Who are you trying to kid? The Six day war ended over 40 years ago, and after signing a peace deal with Jordan in 1994, it's highly unlikely that Israel is going to face another assault on its territory from that direction.

The real reason Israel is hanging onto as much of the West Bank as it can is not ideological, its because the land is worth too much to hand over to the Palestinians in one viable block.

I was hoping you'd be able to discuss the issues here without resorting to such fallacious arguments, and perpetuating the myth that Israel is a poor weak lamb simply defending itself against the wicked wolves that surround it. We all know that Israel is by far the most powerful military player in the region, and has little to fear from any of its neighbours.