In reply to:
I wonder, however, whether you considered your statement regarding media bias in light of your own phraseology - separating a capitalised Israel from the dubeity of single inverted commas accorded to the 'palestinians'.
Hi Sunshine 
- and thanks for taking the time to write such a long and thoughtful piece... we can start on the board like this and if anyone gets completely bent out of shape about it, we can go 'private' - in fact, right now, let me suggest that you approve my adding of your private email address to my "Friends & Family" list and you'll begin to get articles and comments about the 'situation' here... just send me a message to wonderworks@iname.com and I'll add you...
Now - on the comment above, first I'll say that I have been actively studying the history of this region for about 20 years (more intensely over the past three as I attended a special school to become a licensed tour guide) and though I don't doubt your interest and understanding as far as it goes...
, anyone who actually gives any credibility to the notion of a legitimate nation called 'palestinian' just doesn't know real history! So, you'll understand that I used the capital "I" for the word Israel while keeping the word 'palestinian' as a non-proper noun!
The FACT is that the idea of a separate nation/people/country with that name was CREATED officially in 1964 by the Egyptian government at the Intercontinental Hotel on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem when they official created the "Palestine Liberation Organization" - it was to be primarily a 'political' organization but when Arafat and his Fatah hoodlums got hold of it, they used it as a base of support for their murderous tactics - indescriminately killing anyone who got in their way... who opposed their purpose, which was, from the beginning, to drive the Jews into the sea...
Okay - but there's another question going on here - these folks who NOW call themselves 'palestinian' - where did they come from? MOST (and I do mean that, though I actually do know a few Arabs whose families have been in this area for generations) came here well AFTER the Jews began to return in larger numbers from the middle of the 19th century (after their 2000 year exile) as they (the Arabs who came) saw economic possibilities that were simply not available to them in other parts of the quickly disintergrating Ottoman Empire. If you ask MOST of the Arabs who live here today where their families are from, the honest (but perhaps not public) reply will be Syria or east of the Jordan River [not Jordan, mind you - as it was totally created, with no basis in history, by the British in 1920 when Abdullah was "given" that land which was, of course, also called "Palestine" - if you want to talk about legitimacy in history, they simply have NONE - the Hashemites, after all, were native to the Arabian Peninsula and were forced out in war between them and the Saud Family (which is, of course, why the place is not called Saudi Arabia)... all this is basically 19th and 20th century news - not ancient by any stretch of the imagination], the area now called Iraq (also not an ancient nation nor even a reasonably designed political entity - those guys at Versailles and San Remo... what WERE they thinking?) and even perhaps Egypt or Morocco.
Ya know what - I think that's a good beginning - I can go through a world of history on this board, but let's do it another way - write me privately, give me permission to add your e-mail address to my list, and we'll carry on from there - whaddayasay???
And anyone else is welcome to do the same - there's always room on my e-mail list for a few more friends & family!
Shoshannah
One other word - I had in mind to answer some specific points in your message - I'll do that in private - otherwise, I also just wanted to mention that the name Palestine is NOT a legitimate name for this piece of land - it was given to the 'region' in 135CE by the Roman Emperor Hadrian who, by the way, hated the Jews and created the name to honor the Philistines (who were not "Arab" by any stretch of the imagination...)... prior to that, the region had been called Judea since the time of King David... well, actually just before that period. Also, Hadrian tried to change the name of the city of Jerusalem... be quick now - anyone out there know what he called it? He razed the city and built on the site a new city with a typical Roman city plan - the same design used in most of the cities & towns in the world today. Thus, the name Palestine was born - it was not used as the name of a country or a people - rather a dot on the map of the Roman Empire; the name was later kept alive over the centuries ONLY by Christian cartographers for lack of any other ideas (and they certainly did NOT want to give any credibility to the idea of a Jewish presence there, don't ya know) and of course, there were NO ARABS who lived there or had any authority there until the Muslims arrived (in the presence of Caliph Omar) in 638CE. Okay - enough for now... I'm sure you are happy to hear it!
