So did Isreal do the right thing?

[kexodusc]

... am joking about nuking anybody, if that can be considered a joke. (Somebody else "started it", so it's was alright to keep going in that vein, eh?)

Let me state up front that I am not calling for the the destruction of Isreal. It exists and it's not going to go away. Palestinians and Arab states ought to face that fact pragmatically.

On the other hand, taking an historical view, Isreal exists only because of the circumstance of European politics and European imperialism in that part of the world. It is not something that the Arabs of the region wanted or deserved. The principles of the Zionist Movement are completely irrelevant to the aboriginal people who cannot be expected to respect them.

Nobody will deny that the vast majority of the population of the Middle East was compelled to comply with the creation of Israel for the benefit of tiny minority, behind the backing of Western countries with no vested interest in the region. So yeah, I'm sympathetic to their disagreement with how things were done.

But upon the formation of Israel (the first day in fact) instead of continuing to negotiate or pleading their case, the neighboring countries (all of them) attacked Israel (who at the time were probably the least responsible for the creation of Israel). Counter-attack, after counter-attack has been ongoing since then.

At some point you have to wonder why Israel doesn't try to negotiate a concession based compromised, with meaningful concessions. Surely the land her people were promised didn't include an eternal war against an overwhelming population surrounding her on all sides? But it comes back to history - there's a reason why Israel's national phrase is "Never Again".