Speaking as an Israeli, I have been very reluctant to add my 2 shekels, but I wanted to jet give a more rational view of the thing. A more reasonable argument is really to see it as two teams competing in a game, and you have a few bullies trying to change the way the game works, and then you get the neighbors taking sides, and everyone loves an underdog...
In the USA, when the Americans and the French were competing for the SE area, they started a game of "who can settle the most amount of land first". Eventually the French conceded. Other countries have done the same. Some with more force than others.
At an early point, Jews were buying land up until it became a capital offence by the Arab leadership. Some still do it at their own peril, although their leadership may declare it as an invalid sale nevertheless, and then it goes into the courts. There are also areas that nobody wanted to live in initially, and they are often referred to as uncontested areas. Those uncontested areas, such as the swamps that were full of mosquitos contaminated with malaria, settlers came in and cleaned it up and made it habitable. Arabs, seeing what was going on also started land grabbing of what was once undesirable as well, by puting up empty shacks on some land as a place holder, and Jews put up caravans (cheap version of a mobile home that goes nowhere) on hilltops. Jews were having lots of babies, and Arabs with multiple wives weren't standing still either.
And then the WWII came and everything changed. Primarily because of a few evil leaders decided to take advantage of the situation and so they worked with the Nazis. That never helps keep good relations.
Lots of stuff in between made it all worse in certain segments. And then the decision to give the Arabs what is now called the "Trans-Jordan" area occurred. The Palestinians tried to move in, the Jordanians killed tens of thousands, while the world said nothing, and Jordan took it.
So now you got a group of Palestinian Arabs with no place to go demanding their rightful land. So another line is drawn. A green one.
At that point, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, and other nations eject all of it's Jews, steal their property, and penniless Arab-Jews arrive to settle, while the world said nothing about the theft of their homelands.
In short, at that time, the nations of the world really didn't care about the Jews, the Arabs, or what the French President called a "shitty little county".
You then end up with two groups vying for superiority. And when the other Arab nations attacked, the internal ones joined them. And when the Jews stuck back and won, and the internal ones who fought agaisnt them tried to come back, they were told "Um, no, it doesn't work that way", and so Israel maintained the area that they attacked based on their survival, and extended their boundries. ("Aw, c'mon, we thought you were going to all die! No hard feelings, eh? We have a right to return!")
Now, at this point, you have a two groups, each one citing their own proofs why they deserve to be there. You have Arabs who become Israelis, join the congress, and work hard, earn a good living, and send their kids to school so they can also have a decent life. You also have Arabs who see that as betrayal, and want their own country, and even burn Israeli-Arab polling stations.
Unfortunately, the Palestinians have been pawns, and have corrupt leadership. When Arafat (an Egyptian) died, so did the hundreds of millions he had taked from the world and had put away outside of the country. The current leadership, Abbas, and his sons each have magnificent mansions, while an infrastructure has yet to have been fully developed. And you get angry people, and it must be because of the Jews that life sucks, while the Israelis have built water systems, technology centers, streets, schools, hospitals, and the things that a civiliized society would expect.
Put all of that aside, and let's get back to the game, and ignore the bullies and the neighborhood that is taking sides and rooting for the underdog, who is an underdog because the manager of the team.
Where I live, there was a housing freeze. The Arab neighborhood next to us was horribly affected because we hired them to do most of the work! Now, why you might ask why would Arabs help Jews build settlements? Because this entire argument of "stopping settlement building" is all a scam. You see, eventually a line will be drown and eveyone will agree on it (well, a majority, anyhow), and anyone left on the wrong side will either have to start paying takes to their new residence (if an Arab finds homself on the Israeli side), or he will have to move and anything there is now forfeit (if an Israeli finds himself on the Palestinian side). So the Arabs, the ones who want to work for a living, are delighted about building homes and having work, because they not only get money, but there is a possibility that they will get to take those very homes for themselves someday in the future.
Where I live, Jews and Arabs shop together, live next to each other, and since many of their villiages don't have emergency centers, they can come to ours if it is the nearest one. I am not saying that there isn't stress. Once, a radical who had a brother who live next to us decided to blow up the emergency medical center that we shared on a border. After that, we moved it inside our town, and one needs to be checked before we let him enter.
Assholes ruin stuff.
So long as the game plays itself out, eventually a line will be drawn. But when you have bullies on any side demanding everything, then the game of colonialism becomes something different. Israel did a test. It gave up Gaza a few years back. The Jews who lived there lost almost everything, were not recompensed, and any reminder of a Jewish presence was wiped out. And Hamas kicked out Fatah, made it their base of operations, and Abbas became a persona-non-grata, forbidden to go there. And the result was that Hamas could fire missiles more readily into the country. (Now we know where the millions of dollars has gone to. This was not cheap technology, everall).
That kind of giveaway will probably not happen again. It will have to be something different. I leave that to the political process, and so we continue to settle and have kids and hire palestinians to do the building, and I will still call Machmoud to rebuild my patio, for the time being, since he did a decent job on our trellis.
It could be possible for the Palestinians to have a much strong voice in the government of Israel, but Fatah will not permit it. When it is time for Israeli elections, there are about 10 Arab parties. But Fatah typically threatens the Israeli Arabs who might vote, intimidates them not to vote, and many of their voting stations will either burn down, or their ballot boxes will end up being destroyed by Fatah forced who believe that voting is like "giving into the man". What they don't realize is that by "being the man" they can have a stronger voice, but the bullies are hurting the game.
Personally, I want to see a line made, so I can figure out where I want to build our next home (with grandchildren, we are running out of room and there's a nice hilltop that I have my eye on, but only if I can be sure it will be on the right side of the line), this living with uncertainty isn't useful. Suspending building won't help a thing, it will make it worse because the Arabs won't have work, and they will end up being impoverished, while their leaders still collect millions every month. Pissed off people doesn't help things.
It's just a game.
In the USA, when the Americans and the French were competing for the SE area, they started a game of "who can settle the most amount of land first". Eventually the French conceded. Other countries have done the same. Some with more force than others.
At an early point, Jews were buying land up until it became a capital offence by the Arab leadership. Some still do it at their own peril, although their leadership may declare it as an invalid sale nevertheless, and then it goes into the courts. There are also areas that nobody wanted to live in initially, and they are often referred to as uncontested areas. Those uncontested areas, such as the swamps that were full of mosquitos contaminated with malaria, settlers came in and cleaned it up and made it habitable. Arabs, seeing what was going on also started land grabbing of what was once undesirable as well, by puting up empty shacks on some land as a place holder, and Jews put up caravans (cheap version of a mobile home that goes nowhere) on hilltops. Jews were having lots of babies, and Arabs with multiple wives weren't standing still either.
And then the WWII came and everything changed. Primarily because of a few evil leaders decided to take advantage of the situation and so they worked with the Nazis. That never helps keep good relations.
Lots of stuff in between made it all worse in certain segments. And then the decision to give the Arabs what is now called the "Trans-Jordan" area occurred. The Palestinians tried to move in, the Jordanians killed tens of thousands, while the world said nothing, and Jordan took it.
So now you got a group of Palestinian Arabs with no place to go demanding their rightful land. So another line is drawn. A green one.
At that point, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, and other nations eject all of it's Jews, steal their property, and penniless Arab-Jews arrive to settle, while the world said nothing about the theft of their homelands.
In short, at that time, the nations of the world really didn't care about the Jews, the Arabs, or what the French President called a "shitty little county".
You then end up with two groups vying for superiority. And when the other Arab nations attacked, the internal ones joined them. And when the Jews stuck back and won, and the internal ones who fought agaisnt them tried to come back, they were told "Um, no, it doesn't work that way", and so Israel maintained the area that they attacked based on their survival, and extended their boundries. ("Aw, c'mon, we thought you were going to all die! No hard feelings, eh? We have a right to return!")
Now, at this point, you have a two groups, each one citing their own proofs why they deserve to be there. You have Arabs who become Israelis, join the congress, and work hard, earn a good living, and send their kids to school so they can also have a decent life. You also have Arabs who see that as betrayal, and want their own country, and even burn Israeli-Arab polling stations.
Unfortunately, the Palestinians have been pawns, and have corrupt leadership. When Arafat (an Egyptian) died, so did the hundreds of millions he had taked from the world and had put away outside of the country. The current leadership, Abbas, and his sons each have magnificent mansions, while an infrastructure has yet to have been fully developed. And you get angry people, and it must be because of the Jews that life sucks, while the Israelis have built water systems, technology centers, streets, schools, hospitals, and the things that a civiliized society would expect.
Put all of that aside, and let's get back to the game, and ignore the bullies and the neighborhood that is taking sides and rooting for the underdog, who is an underdog because the manager of the team.
Where I live, there was a housing freeze. The Arab neighborhood next to us was horribly affected because we hired them to do most of the work! Now, why you might ask why would Arabs help Jews build settlements? Because this entire argument of "stopping settlement building" is all a scam. You see, eventually a line will be drown and eveyone will agree on it (well, a majority, anyhow), and anyone left on the wrong side will either have to start paying takes to their new residence (if an Arab finds homself on the Israeli side), or he will have to move and anything there is now forfeit (if an Israeli finds himself on the Palestinian side). So the Arabs, the ones who want to work for a living, are delighted about building homes and having work, because they not only get money, but there is a possibility that they will get to take those very homes for themselves someday in the future.
Where I live, Jews and Arabs shop together, live next to each other, and since many of their villiages don't have emergency centers, they can come to ours if it is the nearest one. I am not saying that there isn't stress. Once, a radical who had a brother who live next to us decided to blow up the emergency medical center that we shared on a border. After that, we moved it inside our town, and one needs to be checked before we let him enter.
Assholes ruin stuff.
So long as the game plays itself out, eventually a line will be drawn. But when you have bullies on any side demanding everything, then the game of colonialism becomes something different. Israel did a test. It gave up Gaza a few years back. The Jews who lived there lost almost everything, were not recompensed, and any reminder of a Jewish presence was wiped out. And Hamas kicked out Fatah, made it their base of operations, and Abbas became a persona-non-grata, forbidden to go there. And the result was that Hamas could fire missiles more readily into the country. (Now we know where the millions of dollars has gone to. This was not cheap technology, everall).
That kind of giveaway will probably not happen again. It will have to be something different. I leave that to the political process, and so we continue to settle and have kids and hire palestinians to do the building, and I will still call Machmoud to rebuild my patio, for the time being, since he did a decent job on our trellis.
It could be possible for the Palestinians to have a much strong voice in the government of Israel, but Fatah will not permit it. When it is time for Israeli elections, there are about 10 Arab parties. But Fatah typically threatens the Israeli Arabs who might vote, intimidates them not to vote, and many of their voting stations will either burn down, or their ballot boxes will end up being destroyed by Fatah forced who believe that voting is like "giving into the man". What they don't realize is that by "being the man" they can have a stronger voice, but the bullies are hurting the game.
Personally, I want to see a line made, so I can figure out where I want to build our next home (with grandchildren, we are running out of room and there's a nice hilltop that I have my eye on, but only if I can be sure it will be on the right side of the line), this living with uncertainty isn't useful. Suspending building won't help a thing, it will make it worse because the Arabs won't have work, and they will end up being impoverished, while their leaders still collect millions every month. Pissed off people doesn't help things.
It's just a game.
“I've done everything the Bible says — even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff!"— Ned Flanders
