The are betraying the people of Sderot and surroundings and failing miserable in all aspect of this war against the terrorists. Never has there been a more golden opportunity to destroy the terrorist but Olmert and Barak are totally mishandling the PR war and the seige. IDF has had significant accomplishments in killing 40 terrorists but this is not enough. The damage to Israel caused by Olmert and Barak is irreparable. DUMP THIS GOVT. NOW AND PUT SOMEONE RESPONSIBLE IN PM POSITION (DICHTER or RIVLIN ARE SOUNDING GOOD RIGHT ABOUT NOW)

During the years of the Palestine Mandate, from 1922 to 1947, large-scale Jewish immigration from abroad, mainly from Eastern Europe took place, the numbers swelling in the 1930s with the notorious Nazi persecution of Jewish populations. Palestinian demands for independence and resistance to Jewish immigration led to a rebellion in 1937, followed by continuing terrorism and violence from the immigrant Jews during and immediately after World War II. Great Britain tried to implement various formulas to bring independence to a land ravaged by violence. In 1947, Great Britain turned the problem over to the United Nations.

The Arabic word Filastin has been used to refer to the region since the earliest medieval Arab geographers adopted the Greek name. The appellative "Filastini" (فلسطيني), also derived from the Latinized Greek term Palaestina (Παλαιστίνη), appears to have been used as in Arabic since as early as the 7th century CE. Similarity is apparent to other Semitic ethnonyms, such as the Ancient Egyptian P-r-s-t, Assyrian Palastu, and the Old Hebrew Pleshet, the latter used in the Bible to refer to land inhabited by the Philistines.

Eretz Israel, for your information, translates EXACTLY into 'The land of Israel'. Hebrew Lesson: Eretz = Land (not 'greater', idiot)

The people who want to destroy Israel should be very scared and afraid now. I heard Ehud Barak is getting ready to put his dress on.

Richard, To read your talkback is like chewing a used chewing gum. We are talking about Gaza 100% of which is in Hamas land. We are talking about the continuous unprovoked attacks by Hamas on innocent civilians. My home Belfast has a big fence that separated us from IRA who killed our women and children in the same way that Hamas, Fatah etc. do. There were suicide bombings of pizza places, buses where women, babies were killed. Israel occupies a SMALL part of the West Bank and on going direct discussions how to create permanent borders and other issues that are very complex. For Hamas Tel-Aviv is a settlement. Are you familiar with their Covenant? The British are guilty of many crimes against Israel and Ireland too many to count. Check the British score before you criticize others.

The Jews have been in Israel in large numbers long before 1922, long before the 7th century and last time I checked they have been there for 5,600 years. That is five thousand six hundred years. That is 56 centuries.

'Filistin' was never the Arabic name for a country or region. The name of the Levant in Arabic is and has always been "Bilad ash-Sham" and was governed from Damascus. For a short period after the Arab conquest of the land from the Byzantines, there was a Jund (military district) of Filistin, which was usually referred to by the name of its administrative capital, Ramle (not Jerusalem). Contrary to your assertions, the name Palaestina comes from the so-called "father of history" Herodotus, and was not named after the Philistines of the Bible, at least not directly. How do I know this? First off, there were no Philistines in the days of Herodotus. Secondly, the name Herodotus only mentions Palestine in the context of informing his readers that, apart from the Phoenicians, the only people in the region that practice circumcision are "the Syrians of Palestine". And who might those be, considering that the Philistines were famous for not being circumcized?

"This much has been publicy conceded in Israel by ranking members of the military establishment who claim that at no time before, during or since the June war has Israel been in any danger of defeat." The same comments were made about the 1948 war, to boost the morale of the fledgling embattled State of Israel. It did not want its residents to panic and flee, but that does not mean that the threat was not real and existential. Confederate General Robert E. Lee always stated his belief that his army was invincible. Indeed, they fought with great spirit and fearlessness even when outnumbered and outgunned. But that does not mean Lee's statements were correct.

no. you are not being truthful. and its annoying. the jew was in that area pre- 1948 but at a minority of about 15 percent. once the jew came in full force after WW2- everything hit the fan. the jew received lots of foreign aid and starting making laws that the PALESTINIANS that had been there first didnt like.

why no mention of the rockets fired on Sderot

I never said they were a majority . 500 people was a large number In Moses time. The 500 could be surrounded by 125,000 but that is not the point I was making. I have no interest in who was in the Middle East with the Jews. Learn to pay close attention to what people are writing. I said large numbers. Think like a lawyer when reading and absorb every word of what people are saying. What you replied to me is just an echo of want you want to believe. That garbage annoys me. Get an education.

The Arab "Revolt" was 1936-1939 and not in 1937, resulted in nearly 5,000 arab deaths - roughly equivalent to 25,000 Palestinians today - mostly at the hand of other Palestinians. Most of the laws that so upset you are from this period. Of course they only are valid in the territories because Israel - unlike Jordan and Egypt - revoked them. There was NO "terrorism" from the "immigrant Jews" during WW2, because they - again unlike the Arabs - sided with the Allies. In fact the leader of the "terrorist" group IZL was killed leading group liberating Iraq from Rashid Ali who had carried out a pro-Nazi coup. One of the results of this coup was the Farhud where over 150 Iraqi Jews were killed and pretty all Iraqi Jews mark this as the beginning of the end of the Jewish presence there, albeit with hindsight. Rashid Ali spent the rest of the war with his fellow pro-Nazi the Mufti of Jerusalem. The immigration of refugees from Nazi persecution was the excuse for the revolt and in response the British halted virtually all immigration to the Mandate and thus cutting off the one of the last escape routes for what would become the victims of the Final Solution. This was done in the hope of appeasing the Arabs - as noted above it didn't work. Britain handed over the Mandate issue to the UN because it was financially bankrupt at the time and was also expecting the UN to bounce it back to the UK. Again - buy a decent history book and stop cutting and pasting from IhateIsraelfordummies.org.

You can make a very poor case that the war against Egypt in 1967 was "one of offence". However NONE of that land is occupied anymore. The West Bank and East Jerusalem was conquered when Jordan attacked Israel. Israel repeatedly asked Jordan to sit out the war and didn't respond to the first attacks by Jordan. King Hussein was lied to by Nasser about what was going on in the South and so decided to get his slice of Israel - this was all recorded in a telephone conversation between the two men. There is absolutely no way you can make a case that the West Bank and East Jerusalem were not conquered in a defensive war. As for claims by Israelis post-1967, they fall into three categories: a) Self-justification, Begin's famous quote was made when he was trying to justify the 1982 which WAS a war of choice. b) Made-up, there is a famous quote from Rabin about how the Egyptians were no threat. Apart from the fact this quote gets the number of divisions Egypt had in the Sinai, it doesn't square with the fact that Rabin was so worried about the situation he had a nervous breakdown - he did recover to lead the country to one of the most clear-cut victories in history. c) Post-1967 and pre-1973 boasting, with a little bit of part b) mixed in. None of the generals pre-June 5th were as confident as they were 6 days later.

1,200 Mongolians living in New york City surrounded by 8 million non Mongolians is still a large number of people (Mongolians). The Jews in proportion are a very small number everywhere except New york and Israel. The American Indians greatly outnumbered our early settlers and you know how that turned out. Life plays out the way it will. Israel is there to stay. Face it . I was trying to explain to the man that Jews were in Israel 5,600 years, he went back to the 7th century. The early Jews were all Arabs and when I go to Israel I still see them. The ones that became Jewish and never left. Its great to see them. I received so much love from Israelis and yes I am a Catholic. Hey, Jesus of Nazareth , maybe we will decide to join the Israelis bring the population up to maybe 50,000,000. The Jews will never worry about us, we are not the idiots that want to hurt them. We will fight with them. That is why I do volunteer work in Israel at the age of 55. Anyone who trys to hurt or insult a Jew in my presence will get his head smashed on the sidewalk.

I can see why you are annoyed. The jew, as you put it (I wonder whether that is the standard American usage for "the Jews" or whether you are translating al-Yahood, hmmm), not only managed to win the war imposed on them in 1948 (that is after the Nazi Mufti of Jerusalem, haj amin el huseini failed to deliver on the promise made to hitler to implement the final solution in Palestine as well. Not only that, but after WWII he was also wanted by J.B. Tito in Yugoslavia for war crimes and had to end his life in exile to boot). Back to the Jews - not only did their fledgling army win the war (paying the bitter price of 1% of its tiny population), they also declared independence and had the nerve to adopt such laws that the "Palestinians" didn't like. I would venture to say that among those laws there would be such that made robbing and murdering innocent Jews by Arabs a punishable offence. Oh, dear me, suddenly Jews were no longer dhimmies to be bullied at will by their Muslim neighbors. Suddenly Jewish life and property gained legal status. Now that's what I call a fatwa worthy insult. Not only that, but to add injury to that insult, I believe that Muslims no longer had the liberty to kill their wives, daughters and perhaps even mothers in the name of "family honor". Yes, I can see clearly what exactly hit the fan and how no self respecting Palestinian could tolerate the new situation.

Jews were around 33% of the population pre-1940, when the UK stopped Jewish immigration. That prohibition carried on until 1948 when Israel became independent THEN the Jews from abroad were able to come - mostly from Arab countries where they had been hugged and kissed for centuries but decided that they were so Zionist - but somehow still needed the Mossad to drive them out - that they decided to give up their homes, demand their governments sieze their assets, fire them from their jobs and got to live in tents for two years. As for "international aid" I am afraid you are confusing us with the Palestinians. We didn't get any aid until the mid-50s from France and Germany and then the US in the late 60s.