The Muslims were there first
Jews have been living in Israel for thousands of years, surviving purges, pogroms, ethnic cleansing, and most recently unrelenting war. And a slick propaganda campaign by their enemies designed to delegitimize their existence. I've read the Hamas charter.
If you provoke a war by targeting civilians, you'd better expect to get a damned war.
Damn straight. America would've torn them a new one. Russia would have torn them apart. China would do the Russian thing only much more quietly. The Palestinians are lucky to have an opponent that shows such restraint.
In reality Israel bends over backwards rather than just kicking the whole Muslim population out of their country ...
Ethnic cleansing is something that Muslims do to Jews, not the reverse. There are Muslims, Christians, and other religious minorities living in peace and security in Israel.
Wherever Muslims take over, on the other hand ... well ... here's a list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_Arab_lands(or making war in a method more fitting to the terrorist tactics of their opponents)
The Israelis seem to have resigned themselves to what they call "mowing the grass". The "Russian Solution" isn't something they're ethically prepared to do, so they're left with the option of degrading the Palestinians' warfighting capability, a task which is never-ending.
If the Palestinians increased their threat potential or lethality, say if they developed or imported radiological weapons or started using chemical rounds in their artillery, I'm sure the kid gloves would come off without hesitation.
And the ENTIRE WORLD! would condemn ... the EVUL JOOS! The Palestinians were only using chemical weapons because they were so desperate and oppressed they had no choice! The band, in other words, would play on.
Israel has claim over the "holy land" because they come from there originally
The legitimacy of their claim really comes from their fighting a successful war of independence in the wake of a savage campaign of ethnic cleansing fought against them during the turbulent times between the fall of the Ottoman Empire, WWII, and the fall of the British Empire.
Israel has no less of a right to exist than Jordan or Iraq, and no one has the right to "kick the Jews out" of a place they've been living decades, centuries, or millenia regardless of the nationality controlling the territory.
which is why a number of they key rationalizations for Zionism are dumb
The creation of the State of Israel was made necessary by a ruthless campaign of ethnic cleansing by local Muslims. As victims of an attempted ethnic cleansing the Israelis did the only thing they could to survive.
to a lesser extent since they're mostly the children or even grandchildren of immigrants
So immigrants are second-class citizens with weaker property rights than those whose genealogy extends further? I'm beginning to see where you get your notions about who should be living in Israel. Except there are Jews in Israel who've been there 3000 years who would be driven from their homes should the Palestinians get their way. You seem to conveniently whip out the "firster" argument when it suits you then call it silly and stupid when it doesn't.
The Palestinians didn't [attack Israel].
Technically you're right. The State of Israel didn't exist when the "Palestinians" attacked (they were Transjordanians at the time). They waged a brutal, ruthless campaign of ethnic cleansing against Jews. The creation of the State of Israel was a direct consequence of the savagery of the population we now call "Palestinians". But no, they never attacked Israel, they only provoked its creation.
All the arguments about "who was there first" and your rather atavistic elevation of race above culture in determining social legitimacy is nullified by the War of Independence because of the nature of that war. The Jews, some of them indigenous for 3000 years, some whose ancestors arrived by invitation of the Ottoman Turks, and some more recent arrivals, were fighting for their lives against a savage enemy bent on wiping out "The Jews", whatever their provenance or (as it seems important to you) specific racial composition.
The Jewish population's only choices were to be slaughtered, driven from their homes, or to fight back. They chose the latter option and created the State of Israel so they could survive. The right of the State of Israel to exist is the right of Jews to survive. That fact on the ground was created by the people now known as Palestinians.
They made their bed. They chose their fate. They continue to wage war against Israel as they waged war against "The Jews", as before that they organized a division of the Waffen SS.
You'll pardon me if I don't take their claims of "victimhood" seriously. They could end the war any time they wanted, then, now, or in the future, but instead they war obsessively with "The Jews" like Ahab hunting Moby Dick.
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