Gautam said: > Yeah, but there have been Jews in that area since > before recorded history and they made up a very large > proportion of the population before the Israeli War of > Independence.
Isn't that rather like saying that the Kingdom of Jerusalem was kinda okay because there were lots of Christians in the Middle East for centuries before the First Crusade, and overlooking the fact that the impetus behind the Kingdom came from an influx of Christians from far afield backed by the military might of a distant superpower? (Also, by my count there have only been four Israeli prime ministers - Rabin, Netanyahu, Barak and Sharon - who were born in the territory of what's now Israel. Ben Gurion, Shamir and Peres were born in Poland; Sharet, Eshkol, Meir and Begin in the USSR. This, if nothing else, suggests to me that the balance of power and influence in Israel is held by those not from the territories, and also that this is changing with time.) Rich _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
