i guess the israeli thinking is in 1948, they were willing to do a fair split, including a big independent arab state, but the arab nations expected an easy victory, so why not start a war, and they ganged up and rolled in with more troops and better arms. lots of palestinians left their homes as the conventional wisdom was the arabs were going to go in and kick ass and all the palestnians would d just go home shortly and get the spoils. when that didn’t work out, either because the jewish fighters were fiercer, smarter, or just plain crazier, or some combination thereof, and the palestinans were dispossessed by the war that they were on the losing side of, the Jewish position was, fuck them, we won the war. at the time, that probably seemed reasonable.
the arabs didn’t particularly want to absorb the losing palestinaians, although many were absorbed by neighboring countries, inclduing a bunch in Jordan and Kuwait, where they were mistreated, but keeping a good solid chunk of Palestinan people wanting Israel gone was a way to keep conflict alive.
it all just doesn’t feel kosher … there can be no real Christian or jewish state.
it just doesn’t jibe with the text.
i just wonder if there isn’t some PR advantage to Israel at the point to maybe turning the other cheek and taking a loss. build up a little goodwill…