Finally a voice of reason. It seemed to me lately that reason is gone from Israelis mind. Al is left is mental retardation regarding their own country. Thanks for the article, Uri.

Residents of the Shomron town of Elon Moreh have accused extreme-left activists of deliberately damaging Arab property in order to create conflict with the Arabs. A resident of the town recently photographed leftists as they damaged a water pipe leading to a nearby Arab village. Elon Moreh residents argue that the leftists were hoping to lead the Arabs to think that their Jewish neighbors were destroying their water supply. The Israeli media reported the story from the Leftists' and Arabs' perspective and refused to correct the story once photographic evidence (see photos here) was produced. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/123824 The Israeli Left's actions and arguments are full of lies. They have twisted historical facts to discredit and deny Jewish ownership of the land. They often bring cameras to Yesha, provoke the Jewish residents and then circulate the film of an angry Jew all over the internet. Or in this case, they deliberately do damage and then blame the Jews, to aggravate Arab hatred against the Jews. What I truly think of those Leftists would be unprintable.

Nice to hear someone in the Knesset being pro-Jewish for a change.

It is again and again appalling to see to what extent an identitary ideology can make its adherents blind to parts of reality not conforming to it and how their sense of criticism goes silent inspite of outrageous injustice committed in its name. Uri Ariel and his cliché of a fully Jewish and at the same time really democratic country, as well as his twisting of the meaning of who is a native of the Holy Land and who is an immigrant, totally contradict reality. One does not have to a leftist to see this, just a sober thinking person, Jewish or not.

it's democratic.

According to http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/d_icerd.htm , to which Israel is a signatory, it is only lawful to distinguish between citizens and foreigners. But Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews, as they are both citizens, must enjoy the same rights. No "synthesis of democracy and Judaism" can sidestep that without dropping "democracy" from the mix.

Instead of wasting so much of your time and ynet space on your article claiming that Dror Etkes was simplistic and lacking historic truth, and ,... I suggest you better tell us for how many generations have you been on this land against the number of generations any Palestinian refugee (in Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan, ..) has been on this same land. There is no rationale (scientific, historic, archeologic, ...) you can use to refute Mr. Etken statements in his article. If Mr. Etkens rationale is simplistic as you claim, what is your un-simplistic rationale to convince a decent minded person that you have more rights to this land than the native Palestinians, who has lived here for generations? In your next articles, rather than attacking people, try to come up with plausible arguments to refute their claims, instead. So again, what are your facts supporting the claims you made? Saing that you are are a 2800 years old refugee from an ancient kingdom that existed on this land back then? There is no way you can prove that other than the superiority of the American weapons you are supplied with.

what revisionist arab history have you read my friend? what have they refused to teach you in those palestinian schools? that judeah and samaria are indeed the jewish kingdoms of david and solomon? there is plenty of archiological evidence to support the 4,000 year jewish presence there as a nation, a kingdom, a people with a coin, a government, a school system, a religious institutional system, laws, regy=ulation, accomplished society with tradition and folklore. where do you find arciological evidence of palestinians ? were they a nation or just arab migrant nomad workers benefitting from jews who developed the land looking for better jobs and health care and education and starting to migrate from syria, lebanon and other arab countries to live near the jews. there was naver a nation nor a country called palestine and it was never ruled by palestinians but by the ottomans, turkey and the british mandate. palestinians were never ever a nation of people with institutions, with a government, with a system of laws and regulations. there is no evidence of this at all in history or arceology. this is what your arabs do not want to tell you. palestinians are jordanians and arabians, not a people! they never owned land anywhere in palestine nor in any other country. some happened to have come from all over arabia to settle in what is now israel. however, if you open any decent and well qualified history book you'll note the jewish presence in palestine as a nation and a country forever. what are you trying to hide from the world underneath your dome of the rock? why are you dismantling jewish archeological artifacts and erasing our jewish history? what are you trying to make dissapear? the proof that you do not own the land and have never been the owners of this land at all. you create history from 1948, but jewish life in jerusalem, judeah and samaria, golan heights, and israel proper is centuries old my friend and this no one can dispute. historically or archives wise. historically you have no leg to stand on. yes, you can demand, but may never be given. jerusalem in kuran not mentioned. in torah mentioned hundreds of times with names of jewish kings, jewish temples, etc... jewish nation with jewish money, trade, life and history. what is palestinian history? sheep herding in palestine? nomadic adventures in palestine? where is your coin? where is your history? just because some of you managed to travel and settle a bit on the israeli soil doesn't make you the owners.

@khalidje: many jewish refugees left Arab countries.Jews allways wealthy? They left big houses and a lot of land. Little piece of land for them, Arabia and Eurabia for you my friend.

Anonymous talkbacker, you are pardoned for distorting the facts, as you must obviously have been systematically brain-washed. Otherwise, how could you ignore 1) that the saga of the great extension of the reign of Solomon has never been substanciated by serious, non-partisan archeological research, 2) that even the Jewish Bible itself attests that the Holy Land was never entirely populated by Jews, 3) that already 2000 years ago Jews among themselves did not speak Hebrew anymore, but Aramaic, 4) that Jews in modern times were driven from Arab / Islamic countries as a reaction to the Zionist entreprise, and 5) that neither millenia-old legends nor the documented small Jewish presence over the centuries do justify any territorial claims at the expense of the native Arab inhabitants?

It is the golden wisdom of Israel's leaders when it comes to human life-sacrifices in wars.

If not discrimination, racism, and finally APARTHEID!!!

1./2. The extention or lack thereof of Solomon's kingdom is irrelavant to Israel's claims to Judea and Samaria That territory belongs to Israel because the Jordanian army and the PLO used that territory to attack Israel in 1967 and Israel siezed it in repelling that attack, therefore the territory is Israeli whether or not it belonged to Jews 4000 years ago. never the less we have historical proof that it belonged to them at least two thousand years ago, since when the Romans conquered the area between the medateranian sea and the Jordan they made it a separate province and called it JUDEA because before their conquest it was controled by JEWS. 3. The reason that Jews did not speak hebrew among themselves (if that's relevant) is because they beleived Hebrew was a sacred language to be used only in communication with God; they did not speak it, but they prayed in it. It was for this same reason that after the expulsion from Judea in 73 A.D. the Jews made new languages for themselves like Yiddish or Odessan Ukranian based on the language of the place they lived for everyday use. But Hebrew remained the language of prayer. When Israel was reformed, the Zionists found that they all spoke different languages, but they had continued to pray in Hebrew over the millenia, so Hebrew was ressurected as the common Jewish language. 4. Yes it's true, so what? The Jews who came to form Israel were overwhelmingly European Ashkenazi. The Jews who lived in Arab countries largely didn't want to leave, they wanted to remain loyal citizens of their adopted homelands and in places like Iran, where they were allowed to stay they have remained loyal. And even the Jews that formed Israel were more than willing to compromise with their Arab neigbors. They were originally promised a territory that included not only modern Israel and the territories but also all of Jordan. The Zionists agreed to give up modern Jordan and half of what was left (even though they had payed the British a ton of money for it) The Jews showed no animosity towards their Islamic neigbors, what reason was there to drive the Jews out of Islamic countries? 5. As you might have guessed from my first point the Romans liked to name regions for the people who inhabited those regions when they discovered them. That's why they called the landmass comprising the combined territory of modern Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman the ARABIAN Peninsula. Because that's where ARABS lived two thousand years ago, and as was noted earlier Jews lived in JUDEA (i.e. modern Israel). P.S. If you're wondering how Arabs came to live in modern Israel, that happened because in the Seventh century A.D. arab armies began pushing out of the ARABIAN peninusla and conquering the lands of the weakened Eastern Roman Empire, which included the province of Palesitine, so renamed by the Romans because after the expulsion of 73 A.D. Jews no longer lived there and it didn't make sense to keep calling it Judea.

80% OF TODAY'S ARABS LIVING IN "PALESTINE" - a name invented by the Romas to erase even the memory of the Jewish Sovereignty over the Land of Israel - ARE THE DIRECT DESCENDANTS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WHO CAME HERE AFTER AND BECAUSE OF THE RENEWED JEWISH PRESENCE IN THIS LAND, which gave them opportunities to work and eat that tey did not have in the surrounding Arab countries where they came from since the late 1800's and ESPECIALLY DURING THE THIRTIES, from the East, while the Brits forbade Jewish immigration which was mainly from the West, from the sea... Even the term "Palestinian" they usurped! JEWS had that term in their Passports! I know a dozen of elderly Jews who still have it! Now they would like to get the land that WAS GIVEN TO US BY G-OD - even according to the Koran - and that we EVEN PAID FOR in the last 150 years EXHORBITANT PRICES?... These people have no religious (they pray towards Mecca and turn their backs to Jerusalem, which is NOT EVEN MENTIONED ONCE IN THE KORAN!), or historical connection with this land! They are Arabs, just like the others, without ANY difference in language, religion and ethnicity from the rest, and who came here ILLEGALLY from Transjordan, Egypt, Sudan, Bosnia, Albania, Arabia, and even Afghanistan... WE JEWS HAVE PRAID THREE TIMES A DAY TOWARDS JERUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE MOUNT FOR OVER THREE THOUSAND YEARS! WE NEVER ABANDONED THE HOPE TO COME BACK HOME. AND THIS IS OUR HOME, NOT THEIRS! It is as if illegal immigrants from the Maghreb would decide that they want the Independent Caliphate of Piedmont and called the Peidmontese "occupiers"!!! Just read some history like Joan Peter's book: "From Time Immemorial" of which you can find some parte here: http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~peters/

The term "Palestinian" is itself a masterful twisting of history. To portray themselves as indigenous, Arab settlers adopted the name of an ancient Mediterranean tribe, the Philistines (“Invaders” in Hebrew), that disappeared out over almost 3000 years ago. The connection between this tribe and modern day Arabs is nil. Romans, in order to conceal their shame and anger with rebellious regions, changed the references to Judea and Samaria by naming them Palestine. 1. Nationhood and Jerusalem - Israel became a nation in the 14th century B.C.E. Two thousand years before the rise of Islam. 2. Since 1272 B.C.E. the Jews have had dominion over the land for up to 1,000 years with a continuous Jewish presence in the land for the past 3,300 years. 3. The only Arab dominion since the Arab invasion and conquest in 635 C.E. lasted no more than 22 years. 4. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem. 5. For over 3,000 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital and Arab leaders did not come to visit. 6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran. 7. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray facing Mecca (often with their backs toward Jerusalem). 8. In 1854, according to a report in the New York Tribune, Jews constituted two-thirds of the population of that holy city. (The source: A journalist on assignment in the Middle East that year for the Tribune. His name was Karl Marx. Yes, that Karl Marx.) 9. In 1867, Mark Twain took a tour of Palestine. This is how he described that land: A desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given over wholly to weeds. A silent, mournful expanse. We never saw a human. 10. In 1882, official Ottoman Turk census figures showed that, in the entire Land of Israel, there were only 141 000 Muslims, both Arab and non-Arab. 11. A travel guide to Palestine and Syria was published in 1906 by Karl Baedeker; The book estimated the total population of Jerusalem at 60,000, of whom 7,000 were Muslims, 13,000 were Christians and 40,000 were Jews. 12. As the Jews came and drained the swamps and made the deserts bloom, Arabs followed. They came for jobs, for prosperity, for freedom. And, they came in large numbers. 13. In 1922, with what was widely acknowledged as the illegal separation of Trans-Jordan, the Jews were forbidden to settle on almost 77% of the Palestine, while Arab settlement went unrestricted and encouraged by British mandatory authority. 14. Prior to the Second World War Mojli Amin, a member of the Arab Defense Committee for Palestine, proposed the idea "that all the Arabs of Palestine will leave and be divided up amongst the neighboring Arab countries. In exchange for this, all the Jews living in Arab countries will leave and come to Palestine."

15. Did you know that Saudi Arabia was not created until 1913, Lebanon until 1920? Iraq did not exist as a nation until 1932, Syria until 1941; the borders of Jordan were established in 1946 and Kuwait in 1961. Any of these nations that would say Israel is only a recent arrival would have to deny their own rights as recent arrivals as well. They did not exist as countries. They were all under the control of the Turks. Over 80% of the original British Mandate land was given to Arabs without population transfer of Arabs from the land designated for Jews. 16. In 1947, the Jewish state huddled on 18% of the original British Mandate land. The Jews accepted it gratefully. The Arabs rejected it with a vengeance and seven Arab states immediately declared war against Israel. 17. In 1948, the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Most of them left in fear of being killed by their own Arab brothers as traitors. 18. Some 850,000 Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab countries, due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms. 19. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is claimed to be around 630,000 (where did they get this number?). Based on population census, estimated number of Arabs who left Israel was around 460,000. They were ordered to leave by Arab leaders at the time. 20. From 1948 till 1967 Arabs made no attempt to create a Palestinian state. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated, 58 synagogues in Jerusalem were destroyed and the Jews and Christians were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths. 21. Arabs began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1964 only, on the initiative of Egyptian-born Yasser Arafat. The idea became popular Arab propaganda tool after Israel re-captured Judea, Samaria and Gaza in the defensive 6-Day War of 1967, 22. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, Arab-Palestinians is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own peoples' lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel. 23. Arab refugees INTENTIONALLY were not absorbed or integrated by the rich Arab oil states that control 99.9 percent of the Middle East landmass. They are kept as virtual prisoners by the Arab power brokers with misplaced hatred for Jews and Western democracy. 24. There is only one Jewish state. There are 60 Muslim countries, including 22 Arab nations.

25. The PLO's Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. 26. Pan-Arabism or the doctrine of Muslim Caliphate declares that all land that used to belong to Muslims must be returned to them. Thus, Spain, for example, must eventually be re-conquered. The Palestine Mandate. In July 1922, the League of Nations entrusted the Great Britain with The Palestine Mandate, recognizing "the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine," Great Britain was called upon to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine - Eretz Israel (Land of Israel). Three months later, in order to obtain full control over Suez canal, the Great Britain made a deal with Hashemite Kingdom, Egypt and France. The trans-Jordan (77% of the Mandate) was given to the king's brother in exchange for the Sinai, which was given to Egypt. Golan Heights (5% of the Palestinian Mandate) was ceded to the French controlled Syrian Mandate. This robbery was legalized immediately by, the puppet of the Great Britain and France - the League of Nations! General Assembly resolution 181, of Nov. 29, 1947: It calls for the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem to be controlled by a "special international regime" to protect its holy places. The Zionist movement seeking to establish a Jewish state accepted the partition, the Arabs rejected it. The resolution was not carried out: After Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, war broke out pitting the embryonic state against surrounding 7 Arab states. Israel gained more land than it would have had under the partition resolution. Neither Israel nor Jordan, which controlled the divided parts of Jerusalem after the war, accepted control of the holy city by an international body. Security Council resolution 242, Nov. 22, 1967: It calls for "withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied" in the 1967 Six Day War and for "respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force." The resolution was not carried out because the Arab side did not recognize Israel, and Israel refused to withdraw. (from Shamrak.com)

with people like Uri Ariel around, we shall soon have to change the Hatikvah to "Juden Juden uber alles"

It's not coincedental that in only 60 years, Israel has been able to achieve on par with Western nations in per capita productivity, scientific and agricultural innovations, medical advances, academic prestige and more, all while absorbing untold millions of Jews and fighitng wars. Why turn it into a clan-driven, donkey-riding populace. This is not a slur. Arabs, even in Jerusalem, actually ride donkeys. There is no comparison. The Jew made Israel a success by reclaiming the land through funds such as the JNF. Why pretend we're all equal. We all have equal potential, and G-d loves us all, but the Arabs are a wreck in every way. Let us have our little sliver of land to succeed in, and they can have all 22 nations in which to fail.

longer than you've been in the Netherlands. Can we assume you'll be voting for the far right in the next election.

or even our arab neighbours then there would be a "palestinian problem". But who cares about history when you can make Nazi comparisons

Most Israelis are Jews, in a democracy they want to have that expressed in the education, public holidays etc. Is Italy not a democracy because it "forces" non-Christians to take Christmas holiday? Or Christianity is taught in schools. What rights do Israeli arabs have that Israeli Jews don't?

decides to put Iranian interests first he will be declared a racist by you?

Remember also that although the UN doesn't like to mention it there is a concept that allows for a democracy to take rights away from its citizens; that concept is called treason, the betrayal of a country by its citizens, and those citizens who commit it lose their rights. Israel has been very lenient with its arabs citizens, and only those like Azmi Bishara who gave military secrets to the enemy in a time of war have had their citizenship revoked, but in fact the refusal to serve the country as the law says all citizens must is grounds for repeal of citizenship. I did not serve in the IDF; I left because I didn't want to do it, but had I stayed I would have been punished for my betrayal of the country's law. Why then are Arabs allowed to live in Israel and not serve in its army; why should Arab citizens of Israel be allowed to enjoy all the benifits of citizenship and residence in Israel without taking on the same responsabilities that Jewish citizens of Israel have?

Thank you for taking the time to explain those facts. Not only gentiles need a little reminding, but I'm afraid some Jews too, including a few secular Israelis.

You people reminder us of facts and history we tend to forget. I hear the arab, palestinian, muslim views repeated ad nauseam, but rarely do I hear the Jews speak out in their own defense. As you people show, they have a defense and a darn good one. All of you that speak so eloquently and have such a good grasp of history should shout your message from the roof tops, hold press conferences and write articles. It would be so refreshing for those of us that are a little light on the facts but are pro-Israel all the way. Thanks for taking the time to reeducate and remind the rest of us what is really going on in this age of disinformation. Sarah

Excuse me but Isrel is the Jewish Sate and therefore the welfare of Jews should come first. I don;t hear anyother country called discriminative or apartheid when they look after the interests of their country first. If the Arabs who live in Israel don;t like it, they can always go back where they came from. There are loads of Muslim countries and lots and lots of room there. They do not need to terrorize Jews.

In a democracy all citizens are equal. In a democracy every citizen can live anywhere he wants in his or her own country. This is what democracy means. If tou don't want democracy, say that yu don;t want democracy, don't hide behind formulations of "synthesis".