Arabs refuse to integrate Arabs, and the Jews are responsible to integrate them now? When 800,000 Jews were dislocated, and forced to move into another Jewish population, what happened? Integration. Peace. Harmony. The State was blessed. When 650,000 Arabs were dislocated into Arab populations at the same time, what happened? 650,000 little green political footballs were created and shoved into cages to breed like rabbits on viagra, spewing hatred and hypocrisy, and only to provide a better camouflage for everyone that simply loves condemnig Israel to pretend moral outrage, but really just love seeing Jews suffer for no other reason than blind ignorance and hatred. Even if it were 6%, (it's not), when someone calls themself a "Palestinian" they are outright stating they have no desire to be Israel. I say free bus passes south for everyone wearing green, white & red.

Dear DM, is your GDP figure from 1990 AD ? How come you are behind in time ? The GDP of Israel for the year 2007 is 164.1 billion US dollars. So, Ynet is correct for stating that 10.2 billion of 164.1 billion US dollars equals 6.2%.

You say :” You will find out that you are the odd one ..” Dear Bill, for the Jewish People to live in Israel and Judea & Samaria -- you say it is odd ?? Which fool has taught you THAT nonsense !! Dear Bill, could you please give the date -- WHEN did Israel and Judea & Samaria become Arab land ? Since when is Israel and Judea & Samaria Arab land ? IF you can come up with the date -- you (i.e. the Germans) will have the right to claim Russia as German land (after all that was the aim of Hitler to annex Russia). UNTIL that time -- you talking is WORTHLESS, has NO value whatsoever !

That Arabs spit at others (i.e. NOT only Jews) tells you something about the level of education, the level of intelligence, the level of civilized behaviour of the one spitting, don’t you think ? To accuse the Jews is like accusing the Professor for the level of intelligence of his students. MEANING : it doesn’t make sense.

Here in the US, we like to see Israel as a vibrant democracy and their citizens as innocent peace-loving victims of hateful Arabs, but all I see here is incredible racism and an utter disregard for facts (Ben Ish actually believes there were more Jewish refugees of Arab states than Palestinian refugees of Israel? There are 6 MILLION Palestinian refugees, not 650,000. I'm absolutely astonished at just how ignorant and cruel some of the commentors are...and to think my tax dollars subsidize their weapons. (More money is given to Israel in a year than all Africa...no wonder they can afford to ignore 20% of their population.)

Seems integration will only cause more problems, why not do the un-simple thing and integrate them entirely out of your "Land"??? and while your at it, why not ship the traitor's in your leadership out with them??? seems so un-simple, my gut feeling is that it would work, however it would be painfull for the all the employers who love the cheap labor of people who actually hate them, do the right thing, I know that the land would flourish, no terrorism, no one to throw rocks at you, no more stupidity from your leadership, no more rockets, seems so un-simple. Ephraim

A lot of the talkbacks here are embarrassing. Moreso since they show that the talkbackers are deathly afraid of an empowered Israeli citizenry. Carumba. What a crock of donkey poop from a bunch of yellow chickens, afraid of the big bad Arab citizens. They're not big (ok, a few of them are), and they're not bad (yea, we have our bad Jews too... the jails have tons of 'em), and yes, they are citizens with the same rights as you and me (actually I'm a "settler" so technically I have fewer rights than them). If we get our heads out of our collective butts we'd realize that an educated and employed population is a great ally. Not only that, but creating economic opportunities for the Arabs means less welfare payments and more taxes they pay, so they get more services and a higher standard of living. And not at anybody's expense. If you're afraid of working with an Arab, then maybe you should consider moving to some country where there are no Arabs. I'll bet 99% of the Arab-bashing talkbackers to this article have never worked in Israel with a single Arab, let alone two or more (I've worked in high tech and in the media with them and no, they didn't attack me, no, they didn't try to sell out their country, and yes, they worked hard and still do and pay taxes like the rest of us). They get education, but they don't get jobs. Let's set up more businesses in the Arab communities and let's also hire more of them all over.

Yes there WERE more Jewish refugees than *Arab* refugees. I guess you are not aware they were ARAB refugees before the term "Palestinian" was co-opted to describe Arabs who were denied citizenship by their own people. That is why there are 6 million Arab refugees -now-, and zero Jewish ones. Because not only are the original refugees being counted, but their descendants also. I clearly stated "breed like rabbits on viagra", ok? And excuse me for being generous on the 1948 figures, because 650,000 is the -higher- figure of most estimates of Arabs, and 800,000 is on the low side for Jews. But had you done any research beyond the NY Times and PBS, you would know that already. This is a perfect example of the ignorance of fact prevalent in the US, which does nothing but fuel hatred against Jews, while at the same time pointing the finger at people like me whose only sin is having factual information that runs counter to what you love to believe. Too bad. There were MORE Jews than Arabs dislocated. They were NOT "Palestinians" until the Arabs refused to integrate their own people. And today they are a political football whose purpose is to overturn Israel by perversion of some anti-Jewish motivated perception of "fairness".

There are so many civilian projects in this country we could save a fortune on if we go the arabs to do a cilvilian form of national service. The jews risk their lives in the military protectiing the arabs as well as the jews from their arab brothers so let them give somethng back to the country as well. They can start by renovating those bomb shelters Olmert promised and never did anything about. If they have a profesional qualifictaion like medicine force them to work in hospitals for a certain number of hours each day. If they dont have any profesional qualifications needed by the state then they can do the manual labour we would normaly import palestinians or foreigners to do. We can make the haredi jews who avoid military service also do some form of civilian service its unfair that any single group jew or arab should have a get out clause which will allow them to scrounge off the state and give nothing in return. Maybe a little civilian national service may even make them feel a sense of belonging to the state and help them integrate better. A vote either at a local or national level should be based on contribution to society. I pay taxes, I serve in the military and I am sick of it where we have a large sector of the population who get the same rights I do but give zero back and my taxes keep them.

and the murderous pals wont change, wont become 'normal people ever. They live to murder Jews, how can anyone change that?