Dave (the ancient mariner) is no more qualified to speak on this subject than any of the rest of us. When he presents his "facts" he is getting them from online sources just like the rest of us. His historical "facts" in his 6 Jul 06 - 10:40 AM post come from this website...
But the FACT is that almost all of the fighting leading up to and during Israel's War of Independence, occurrred on land that had been allocated to the "Arabs" by the UN, and from which Israel was in the process of ethnically cleansing all "Arabs".
Also during this time, Israel (through Golda Mier) had struck up an arrangement with the King of Jordan to divvy up the land that had been allocated to the Palestinians and although the King of Jordan did not openly admit to making and adhering to this agreement, he did, nevertheless adhere to it almost to the letter. With the exception of a few parts of old Jerusalem, his forces confined themselves almost entirely to the areas that his agreement with Israel allowed him to take.
Having said that, it goes without saying that Jordan's king was no more entitled to divvy up the Palestinians' land with Israel than Israel was entitled to take land that was given to the Palestinians by the UN.
And Dave is most assuredly not neutral on this subject. He supports continued ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.