Oh, beardedbruce, I have been giving facts here in the Mudcat for about the last two years. Why don't you click on my name in the heading above this post, and just read all of the threads I've posted to since about this time in 2002 that are about the Middle East, and see all of the probably hundreds of pieces of documentation I've provided in them.

The reason most of the Jews who used to be Palestinians are now Israelis is because they wanted to be a part of the new Jewish State. There are some Jews living happily in Palestinian villages in the Occupied Territories, and they are welcomed there by the Christian and Muslim Palestinians.

By the way, there is a book out, by an Iraqi Jew (who became an Israeli), who relates his experiences during the time that the Jews were being forced to leave Iraq. He says that the Zionists (of which he was one at the time) purposely caused the stirring up of hatreds between people who prior to that time had not been enemies, so that the Jews would be forced out of Iraq. He said the Zionists wanted them in Israel so they could provide cheap labor. Remember, this is an Iraqi Jew I'm talking about.

There is a Synagogue in Iraq that has been very carefully and lovingly cared for and tended by Iraqi Muslims since its Jewish congregants left, in the hope that some day the Jewish community will return to it and it will be ready for them if they do.