"The standard Zionist position is that they showed up in Palestine in the late 19th century to reclaim their ancestral homeland. Jews bought land and started building up the Jewish community there. They were met with increasingly violent opposition from the Palestinian Arabs, presumably stemming from the Arabs' inherent anti-Semitism. The Zionists were then forced to defend themselves and, in one form or another, this same situation continues up to today.
The problem with this explanation is that it is simply not true, as the documentary evidence in this booklet will show. What really happened was that the Zionist movement, from the beginning, looked forward to a practically complete dispossession of the indigenous Arab population so that Israel could be a wholly Jewish state, or as much as was possible. Land bought by the Jewish National Fund was held in the name of the Jewish people and could never be sold or even leased back to Arabs (a situation which continues to the present)."
Thousands of Christians Travel To Israel To Show Support
Christians Must Show Their Undying Support For Israel
I am 100% sure all these folks are good Conservatives.
And that's the salient point. Land BOUGHT. Not stolen. Not given to. Not taken over. BOUGHT.
Since this is an exact analogue of every Muslim Arab country (just reverse "arab" and "Jewish in the lines above), what is your criticism of this approach?
(This ought to be good...)
1. The Jewish National Fund was funded by Jews from around the world to make land available for Jews - the Arabs already had plenty. The amount of land in question was about approx 7% of the total land in Israel.
2. The land was purchased from Arabs and included swamps and the less arable land that the Arabs were happy to get rid of. The Jews got the land and the Arabs got the money. Now the Arabs want the land back after the Jews drained the swamps hundreds dying from Malaria in the process.
3. The Jews payed exorbitant amounts for the land often at 5 to 10 times the amount per acre as good Ohio farmland was fetching at the time.
4. The Israel Supreme Court recently overuled the JNF's regulation restricting lease of its land to Jews. The JNF does not sell land to anyone Jew or Arab. All Arabs now have exactly the same rights under law as do Jews.