[gyardley]

Israel got its territory the same way practically every other country in the world got its territory - they obtained it through a treaty, or they won it in a war.

You know, there's a term for holding Jews to moral standards no other nation on earth is subjected to.

And as far as 'extreme human rights issues' are concerned - in the Palestinian National Authority, the freedom to criticize the government is a sham, journalists are regularly killed by governmental authorities, selling land to Jews is a crime punishable by death, there's regular violence against non-Muslims, honor killings take place regularly and are considered acceptable, homosexuality is illegal, and women have to wear a headscarf to enter a government building. And you're not doing business with Israel?

People like you confound me. I can't tell if you're anti-Semitic or just completely brainwashed and blind to the facts on the ground.

[marcf]

Israel runs a two tiered right system. In the West Bank Israeli settlers live under Israeli laws while the non-Jewish Palestinians live under military rule where their land is constantly being confiscated for Jewish settlers.

That is wrong, plain and simple.

It doesn't matter what you said is wrong with Arabs, running a two tiered system of rights is very wrong.

[gyardley]

When a party loses a war against another party, they don't have much in the way of rights until there's a negotiated peace. They certainly don't get to talk about 'their land' in any meaningful sense.

Israel occupied the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights after winning the Six-Day War. When Egypt - twelve years and another war later - negotiated a peace treaty with Israel, Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to them, and it once again became Egyptian.

Syria hasn't shown much interest in negotiating peace with Israel, and that's why the Golan Heights are not Syrian at the moment - and the way things are going, likely never will be.

The Palestinians also haven't shown much interest in peace. The Israelis have made many generous offers over the years - the Palestinians could've easily negotiated peace and established a state at the Oslo Accords or the Camp David Accords. They declined to do so. When they eventually decide that they do want peace, then 'their land' will be what they negotiate - but until then, they've got they same status as Germans or Japanese in the immediate aftermath of WWII.

Considering Israel's historical and religious ties to the land, and considering that there's been over forty years to sort out peace, they've been incredibly tolerant by not annexing the entire West Bank outright. (Which they've quite plausibly got the right to do - Israel may have signed the Fourth Geneva Convention, but the West Bank wasn't claimed by another sovereign state at the time of its occupation.) European countries aren't nearly as generous when they win wars - which is why Gdańsk is Polish, Bolzano is Italian, Kaliningrad is Russian, and Hungary is a whole lot smaller than it used to be.

Again, I have to question why people want to hold the world's only Jewish state to a standard followed by no other country.

[marcf]

You seem to state that Israel not annexing the West Bank is a desirable thing from the perspective of Palestinian Arabs.

Actually real annexation is desirable. Annexing the West Bank and incorporating its Arab residents into Israel proper (the Jewish settler residents of the West Bank are already considered Israeli) would be a just solution to the issue.

Then everyone would be equal under the law and the Palestinians would have a say over the future. Many of them would like to return to their homes that they left 1948:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Palestinian_exodus

I think that either there is a two-state solution or a one-state solution (which can be annexation if you like) is okay. But the dual system of rights where Jewish settlers are privileged and non-Jewish Palestinian Arabs are under military rule is not something a modern Western state should be justifying to itself or others, and it something that people like yourself shouldn't have to wrap themselves in knots trying to "explain".

[fistofjohnwayne]

It's likely he's not going to do business with the Palestinian National Authority, either.