BBruce - whew! that was a lot of posts! I see you are getting a lot of info from the palestinefacts site - as I've mentioned before, it's a production of the Israeli foreign ministry so I suppose it can't be called exactly independent.

"A SINGLE atomic explosion can take out 80+% of the industry, and 60+ % of the population of Israel"

remember that you said 19% of the Israeli population are Arab-Israeli, as you say they are termed (I don't relly like the term for reasons I'll explain further on). That means any nuclear strikke by Iran would also 'wipe large numbers of Arabs off the map', and I doubt the effects would stop at the West bank border: the security / apartheid wall simply isn't high enough!

"If YOU hold the other Arab nations, and the Palestinian Arabs, responsible for their part, AND HOLD THEM to the same standards you attempt to apply to Israel, THEN I can hold Israel responsible for their actions"

But this is illogical - if you believe someone has committed a wrong, it does not matter whether people hold the 'other party' responsible for their actions - a wrong is a wrong is a wrong!

As an aside, I'd just briefly like to address the idea that Palestinians all left cheerfully expecting to return soon:
Let's look at this logically: if you had news that two opposing armies (Israeli and Arab) were soon to kick off a war in your neighbourhood, would you hang around to watch? No, you'd grab whatever you could of value, documents etc., and you'd clear off to a safer place until it blew over. The parents of the kids who were evacuated from London during WW2 surely expected them to return to their homes as soon as the Blitz was over, true? If I was a Palestinian in 1948, it wouldn't matter if I liked either my Jewish or Arab neighbours - getting killed out-of-hand by either side was a real possibility.

Then there are other facts on the ground - the Deir Yassin massacre of over 100 Palestinain villagers by Israeli paramilitaries and regulars. This was a massacre plain and simple despite Israeli attempts to dress it up as a military operation by falsely claiming they 'encountered resistance' - the usual catch-all phrase. The early zionist paramilitaries (Stern gang etc.,) were no strangers to terrorism either - remember how they dynamited the British HQ killing over 90 people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds?

As for 'wiping Israel off the map' , here are just a few quotes from various Israeli public figures:

David Ben Gurion, Israel's first PM (in 1937 - a FULL 11 years BEFORE 1948 & arab attack) "The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as war"
(This shows clear intention from the outset of ethnic cleansing)

And Golda Meir, another Israeli PM in 1969: "There is no such thing as the Palestinian people...it is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn't exist"
(This is clear self-delusion. There most certainly were people - known as Palestinians - living there, but the fact they did not have a strong sense of national identity such as was forged in European countries in the 19th century does not justify seizing their property and driving them out. Human rights are surely not dependent on nationality?)

Ok, back in a mo...