The West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem are disputed not occupied.
Regardless of which term one chooses, there is no question the squatters are living on land which is owned by individual Palestinians not by them. There is no dispute of that fact. Israel’s Supreme Court says the lands are occupied, in fact under belligerent occupation.
The Golan Heights is occupied territory.
Syria offered peace in return for the Golan and Israel refused. There is no dispute of that fact either.
The Jewish people have a right to self-determination.
Not at the expense of the right of Palestinians to self-determination. Since when do religions have political rights?
Since when do “peoples” have political rights?
When did the Jews of the world elect Israel to represent them all?
Jews have a right to live anywhere they choose.
What makes you think Jews are special? Not on land owned by others unless with their permission. The unspoken assumption is Jews have this right, Gentiles do not.
God gave the land to the Jews.
I would expect to find no other claim in books written by Jews. No place in the Bible does it say these Jews and this Israel.
The settlers are redeeming the land of Israel.
Redeeming is a code word for stealing. ‘Settlers’ is a code word for ‘squatters’. As they are stealing, the squatters are criminals. Even by the Bible, Israel was destroyed for the sins of Solomon. What man may act against the will of God?
Even by the Bible, Judea was given to Iraq for the sins of the Jews. What man may act against the will of God?
America treated the Indians no better than Israel treats the Palestinians.
It is good to see Jews are honest enough to admit they are committing genocide.
Israel conquered the land in the 1967 war.
Conquest gives military jurisdiction over land. It does not give ownership of the land. The government does not own the land. The last country to claim that was Nazi Germany. Governments do not gain ownership by conquest. In fact Nazi Germany claimed it was regaining ownership of the land. If they had said redeeming the land would it have been permitted? Israel’s settlement policy was declared a hanging offense at Nuremberg.
Israel abjured the acquisition of land by conquest when it joined the UN and subjected itself to war crime charges thereby.
The UN gave Palestine to the Jews.
The land was not the UN’s to give. The UN General Assembly under its power to approve mutually agreed borders approved the partition agreement. There was no mutual agreement. The land was not theirs to give.
Comparing Israel to Nazi Germany is anti-Semitic.
If the shoe fits, wear it. Then stop repeating Nazi crimes.
It is all too complex to deal with in simple terms.
So stop using simple terms to defend Israel.
Criticizing Zionism is anti-Semitic propaganda.
If Zionism were Judaism, anti-Semitism would be a moral imperative. Zionism is a secular, political movement. It has nothing to do with Judaism or anti-Semitism. Even Albert Einstein condemned Zionism.
Zionism has the most to gain from anti-Semitism.
Palestinians are acting out of irrational hatred.
If Zionists had declared their Israel in New York City they would have been driven into the Hudson River. Americans would have done exactly as Palestinians are doing had that happened.
The Palestinians are terrorists.
Under international law, all peoples have a right to resist military occupation by any means available. If they are terrorists then so were the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising during WWII.
If they are terrorists then so were the founders of Israel.
Palestinians have never acknowledged the right of Israel to exist.
Israelis have never acknowledged the right of Palestine to exist. Israel has never acknowledged the borders given to it by the UN in 1948.
Israel is willing to trade land for peace.
The land is not Israel’s to give. Israel can have either land or peace, not both.
Total land for total peace.
We came to live in peace.
Only a child could not have foreseen the conflict. To hear Jews talk you would think they expected a welcome wagon.
Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.
Sort of makes one lose faith in democracy doesn’t it? Arafat was elected. His election was certified as honest by Jimmy Carter. What more does it take?
Lebanon is a democracy and has been since 1943 five years longer than Israel.
The US says Egypt is a democracy. Iran is more democratic than Egypt. Democracy is on the march in Iraq. Yemen is a democracy. Turkey is a democracy.
Israel is a strategic ally of the US.
Perhaps ally in the common meaning of the word but there is not and has never been a treaty of alliance which is the only legal meaning of the word. The Cold War is over. Whatever utility it had during the Cold War is long gone.
The relationship was tactical at best, never strategic. Israel was a pawn against Russia’s pawns in the Middle East.
Israel is necessary to provide a safe haven for Jews.
Israel is the most dangerous place in the world for Jews to live. Jews who went to live in Israel chose to live in constant danger.
No one has ever forced Jews to live in Israel. The stupid ones have always chosen to live in Israel.
Israel can do no wrong.
That is the first honest thing ever said about Israel.
Israel does not have the death penalty.
Israel murders people because they are suspected of intending to commit acts of resistance to the occupation in the future. While Israel calls them targeted killings and claims to have knowledge of their intentions, not once has it released any conclusive evidence. All evidence against all of them must be released else the charge is murder.
All of Israel’s so called targeted killings are murders.
Israel is a Jewish nation.
By Israel’s own estimate, barely two thirds of its citizens had Jewish ancestors and well under half are Jewish by religion. And this only came about by expelling non-Jews. The US and all Western European nations are more Christian than Israel is Jewish by any measure.
It is not clear what is meant by a “Jewish nation” save as an excuse for discriminatory laws against non-Jews.
Israel is an outpost of enlightened Western values in the Middle East.
Western nations have not declared themselves to be Christian nations as Israel has declared itself a Jewish nation. Institutionalized bigotry is contrary to Western values.
Israel has a right to build in annexed East Jerusalem and the Old City.
No country in the world recognizes that annexation nor the legitimacy of any Israeli construction outside of its 1948 borders including the apartheid wall.
But Jordan annexed them both.
When Jordan annexed the West Bank it was recognized by only one country in the world, Egypt. When Jordan annexed Jerusalem not even Egypt recognized it.
