The Israeli attacks often are described as retaliation. However, the retaliation is usually out of all proportion to the attack - gunfire or a mortar bomb that misses lead to all-out rocket assaults from helicopter gunships on civilian areas.

I don't argue with the founding of Israel, any more than I disagree with the founding of Bosnia or Croatia as separate entities - the Allied powers stepped in post-WWII to intervene in the same way that the UN troops should have done in Bosnia. For history up to 1997, this thesis is informative about the history of the situation and analysis of "what-if" options. Be warned though, it's big!

Re Celtic's post, the only reason Israel is occupying the Golan Heights is strategic following an all-out assault by Syria. The West Bank is more complex due to religious complications, but again was occupied following the defeat of a Jordanian attack on Israel in the Six Days War. Not to justify Israel in occupying the territory, but it does show that the situation isn't quite that one-sided.

Graham.