Take a look at magazines, maps, globes, and even official textbooks in the Muslim states and the territory under the aegis of the Palestinian Authority: not only are Jews caricatured as in the most venomous anti-Semitic propaganda of the Nazi and pre-Nazi eras, there IS NO ISRAEL on the maps and globes.

The textbooks being used in Israel do not show any independent state of Palestine, either. They show the West Bank and Gaza as being a part of Israel. And I can post plenty of quotes of venemous, anti-Arab probaganda coming from prominent Israeli Rabbis.

I'm not in any major disagreement with much of your post, Sandina. When I say Occupied Territories myself, I am referring to the West Bank, Gaza, and in a sense, the Golan Heights (although that is a very different situation for the most part).

The way I look at it, ending the occupation and helping the Palestinians build their own state within the pre '67 borders would be a good solution for the most part. I understand the reasoning of the people who want a one-state solution, and I don't really disagree with it, but it looks to me like people aren't ready for that approach.

Wolfgang, when those people came to live with you, were you and your family made to accept them into your home with a gun pointing at your heads? I didn't think so. If a group of people came to your neighborhood with their holy book and told you that God meant for them to have your homes and at the point of a gun, they chased you off (killing many of your family members and friends in the process), I believe that all of the male residents of your neighborhood would do their best to try to stop them (at least until it becaume clear that they, along with all of the women and children would be massacred if they didn't leave).

This sort of thing did, in fact, happen to many Palestinian villiages in 1948. I think any reasonable person would understand the Palestinians' need to resist what was being done to them at that time. And that is my point, precisely.

Here in the US, we have a similar history to that of Israel with regard to the treatment of the indigenous people. We can't turn back the clock and undo what was done. But we can have understanding for the feelings of the descendents of the people who were here before the Europeans showed up, and we can and should treat them and their feelings with dignity and respect (and full equality). Unfortunately, my coutry doesn't have a very good track record in this respect, but I think we're learning and even improving in the way we handle this situation. And when we fall short of what is right, I make it a point to speak up about it when the opportunity arises.