After World War II, the United Nations led mostly by the United States decided that the Jews that had been so badly treated by Nazi Germany should be given the chance to return to the Holy Land and what is now know as the country of Israel was taken and given to the Jews. Much of the Arab world at that time did not have the political or military power to prevent this from happening. Keep in mind that after the war, the only country that didn't have to rebuild anything was the United States so trying to stand up to that kind of military might was pointless. The arrangement seemed to go okay at first with the expected opposition but it was believed that people of all faiths that considered this the Holy Land would eventually get along in peace.

Eventually the Egyptians, a mostly Muslim country, decided that having the Jews there was intolerable but Israel with it's well trained U.S. supplied and U.S. backed military emerged the victor. Since then, there have been numerous attempts by Muslim extremist and even non-Muslim Arabs to displace the Jewish population in the Middle East. The Palestinians have been in constant conflict with the Israelis because of the land that was taken away from them. To make things more difficult, the Israelis have continued to expand their boarders further and further into Palestinian territory. It is no wonder why the Arabs are irritated by the situation. This has lead to desperate actions such as suicide bombing and other terrorist methods to convince the Israelis to leave.

On numerous occasions, there have been peace treaties signed between Israel an Palestine but it never lasts and frequently it is because of the actions of the Israelis. In fact, the last peace treaty was going well until the Israelis decided to attack a Palestinian building it believed to house enemies of Israel. For as long as I can remember, the Palestinians have complained about Israeli settlers stealing their land and terrorizing them with beatings and other oppression. And for as long as I can remember, we, the United States, have backed Israel and have had nothing but trouble as a result! In fact every time we involve ourselves further in the happening in the Middle East, the more hostilities we encounter from Muslim extremist. I thin it is safe to say the most Middle Easterners are less than happy with the United States because of our presence in their countries and especially because of our backing of Israel.

I finally concluded that it is Israel that is in the wrong in most of these conflicts and that we, the United States, are wrong for supporting Israel. Additionally, since most of the power of Israel is derived from the military support they get from us, we should be able to force them to play nice. Something like, "If you can't play nice, then we can't play with you!". In fact, it is the U.S. that is most likely to be able to stop the hostilities in the Middle East be forcing the Israelis to sign a treaty that would give back most of the Palestinian land, prevent future expansion of Israel without a monetary arrangement with the lawful landowners, and eliminate aggression on the part of both sides. Not only would the U.S. have to force Israel to do this, it would have to hold them accountable.

Since that isn't going to happen and nobody wants to believe that Israel is in the wrong, a new program has provided 100 brand new video cameras to the Palestinian people to record their daily observations of how the Israeli military and settles treat them. So far, two soldiers have been arrested for brutalizing a prisoner and three settlers arrested for beating local farmers in their field seemingly for no reason but to terrorize them. I hope this new campaign will help the Palestinian people to demonstrate to the World just how bad their conditions are and how wrong the Israelis are!

vujsa

Just a note:
I do not believe that terrorist tactics such as bombing public places or using suicide bombers should ever be employed. People should stand up for what is right and protect what is theirs but violence should be a last resort and when used should follow the internationally accepted guidlines for appropriate behavior during war.

I am an arabian, lebanese in particular. If anyone wonders why we don't accept israel it isn't because we are muslim-extrimests or because we are terrorists. The people who came to israel don't have to right to do so. They believe that the land is their holy land? That isn't an excuse. They were treated badly by Nazis and what so ever i know that, but that does not give them permision to take over a country because they believe someone with the same religiousity as theirs used to live there 3,000 years ago. If i believed that muslims used to live in country X 1,000 years ago. Would you support me in kicking half of the population of X and taking over most of its resources. If you believe a country is your holy land, don't take it by force , work and save up enough money to buy a land and house their, wouldn't that be good in your religion any way?. Its funny, the west supported israel in taking over palestine because they were treated badly and because they believe people with same religiousity and possible no blood relation used to live their 3,000 years ago, and they call palestineans terrorists because they want to free the land that belonged to their grandfathers and fathers 60 years ago, + they want to bring back 4 million palestinean refugees. Which side of the story makes more sense?. The palestineans tend to be violent (missile attacks, suicidal attacks...) yeh well that happens when your land is taken and no one in the world knows or cares about it. Regarding the targetting civilian issue, we don't see the israeli's as civilians because of the kicking 4 milion palestineans out of their houses part.

If you want arabs and muslims to accept israel as a country, israel must accept the palestineans as equals and give them their rights back, meaning their lands, and they should allow the palestinean refugees to return.

I hope i didn't offend anyone in my post.