Israel deploys 'Star Wars' missile killer system

[oberliner]

139. Take the time to consider the following points

1. The West Bank (including East Jerusalem which includes the Jewish Quarter of the Old City where Jews had lived for hundreds of years) was occupied by Jordan in 1948.

2. Jerusalem is the city that is central to Judaism in much the same way that Mecca is central to Islam.

3. Under Jordanian occupation, Jews were not permitted to set foot in the Jewish Quarter - or visit any of the religious holy sites located there. They were evicted and banished from their homes, and their places of worship were desecrated and destroyed by the Jordanian forces.

4. At this point in time, none of Israel's neighbors recognized it as a country and all were committed to its destruction (and made statements to that effect repeatedly).

5. While Jordan occupied the West Bank, they made no effort whatsoever to establish a Palestinian state there, nor was there even any serious movement among Palestinians to do so.

6. At this time, the Gaza Strip was occupied by Egypt, and, similarly, Egypt did not extend any sort of autonomy to the Palestinians it was occupying.

7. After the 1967 war, Israel seized Gaza from Egypt and the West Bank from Jordan. Most Israelis viewed the latter as the liberation of Jerusalem, the holiest city in Judaism, from the unjust rule of the Jordanians. This is celebrated as Jerusalem Day. Jews were finally permitted back to their ancestral homeland and allowed to worship in centuries old synagogues and pray at the Western Wall.

8. Also after the war, Jews living in countries around the region were expelled. Synagogues across Lebanon, Tunisia, and Morocco were burned and Jews living in those countries were attacked - many at this time moved to Israel as a result of this.

9. In the weeks following the war, Israel offered to return the land it seized during the war to Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in exchange for a peace agreement. They were turned down (See the Khartoum Summit).

10. The first and only time in history that Palestinians were given any independence or autonomy was as a result of the Oslo Accords, the signing of which resulted in a wave of terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians by several different Palestinian organizations.

As I have said in our exchanges, I respect your viewpoints and am well aware of the many injustices that Palestinians have faced at the hands of Israelis. I wish you would similarly be able to accept some of these other points that I have raised as well.