1. "But by 1920 Arabs had been informed that an Israeli state would be created on the spot where they happened to be living and immigrants would be arriving (and were already arriving) to live there."

Who "informed" the Arabs that an Israeli "State" would be created Nickhere?? Under the terms of the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the Balfour Declaration there was NEVER any intention of setting up an Israeli State. What there was supposed to be set up was a "Jewish Homeland" which is not a State by any stretch of the imagination.

2. "You might also remember the hand of the British in this - remember the promises they made to the Arabs in return for support against the Ottomans? War over, they changed their minds and decided to give it to someone else instead."

The British were split on the issue, the Government back in Britain and the Foreign Office were in favour of a Jewish Homeland being set up in Palestine. The Army who had the task of setting up the administration of the League of Nations Mandate were solidly against it, primarily because they could see the trouble it might cause. The Jewish settlers got the rough end of this in the early days of the Mandate when they quite rightly looked to the British to "protect" them against attacks by the Arabs and got little or no protection at all.

So Nickhere promises made to the Arabs, you consider that the British changed their minds?? Funny that because history records that of the original Mandate Territory, the British sectioned off a 77% chunk of it called Trans-Jordan and decreed that no-one but Arabs could settle there or own land there. This as historic record also shows was very successfull, under the auspices of the Mandate Trans-Jordan very quickly became an autonomous self governing kingdom - funny way the British have of breaking their word Nickhere.

3. "Further to above - I see a few other issues as well: Lord Balfour promising the same thing to two different peoples, and Haj Amin, a trouble maker."

Now what happened to the remaining 23% of the Mandate Territory now called Palestine is interesting. This was an area where anybody could settle, but that did not sit well with the Arabs who for the best part of sixty years had seen Jews arrive, buy what was considered to be useless wasteland (because that is all that the Ottomans would sell them) and transform it. Tosser Arafat's Uncle having looked east to Jordan decided that he wanted the same in Palestine, he wanted the Arabs to control it with him raking in the revenue. But things did not go well because within Palestine there were two Arab "tribes" who most definitely did not get along with one another and were opposed to Haj Amin being top dog. So they went to the rulers of Jordan and concocted the plan that as a result of the turmoil caused in Palestine by Haj Amin they would help but instead of Haj Amin ending up in charge the land would become part of Jordan with the rival tribe to haj Amin's becoming sort of district governors under the King of Jordan.

As a result of the anti Jewish riots the Peel Commission of 1937 decided that it was impossible for Jews and Arabs to live peacefully together and they proposed a solution involving two separate states. This idea was taken up by the UN in 1947 as the Mandate period was coming to an end. The Jews accepted this but the Arabs rejected it. In the war that followed Jordan got what it wanted, it invaded and annexed what is now called the West Bank and Egypt did the same with Gaza. This did not trouble the Israelis because under the two state solution they were the areas that were supposed to make up the Arab State anyway. Only trouble was that neither Jordan or Egypt handed those territories over to the "Palestinian Arabs", they kept them for themselves, shut the "Palestinian Arabs" up in camps and kept them in penury because that is what suited their agendas.