US veto on UN resolution on Israeli occupied territories.

[JBeukema]

David Ben-Gurion's response to the Balfour Declaration
January 29, 1918

"..... It is on these vacant lands that the Jewish people demands the right to establish its homeland .....

However we must remember that such rights are also possessed by the inhabitants already living in the country - and these rights must not be infringed upon.

If there are people there, it's not vacant.

 

[jgarden]

David Ben-Gurion's response to the Balfour Declaration
January 29, 1918

"..... It is on these vacant lands that the Jewish people demands the right to establish its homeland .....

However we must remember that such rights are also possessed by the inhabitants already living in the country - and these rights must not be infringed upon.

If there are people there, it's not vacant.

Ben-Gurion was referring to fact that farming practices in Palestine had not progressed appreciably since Biblical Times and that much of the land still remained "vacant."

With the application of modern agricultural techniques (irrigation, drainage of swamps, fertilizers), the Jews could acquire and farm those lands that had traditionally been left "vacant."

In time, these lands could be made productive and form the foundation for a Jewish "homeland" - without displacing the present Arab inhabitants whose property rights Ben-Gurion wanted to preserve!

 

[Foxfyre]

Let's say Israel did withdraw from disputed territories. Would that result in peace? If it did, I'd be the first to encourage that. I just don't know whether or not it would result in peace. It may; I suppose it might be worth trying.

Every time Israel has vacated any territory, it has been rewarded with rockets being lobbed into neighborhoods by terrorist thugs. That isn't much incentive to give enemies even more strategic advantage.

Every time Israel has tried to be more accommodating to its Palestinian neighbors, it has been rewarded with kidnappings, murders, and suicide bombers.

So Israel practices defensive separation that is absolutely essential to keep from putting innocent civilians at even greater risk.

And Israel has held onto the ground it considers necessary as a buffer between itself and regimes/groups sworn to destroy Israel.

No matter WHAT Israel does short of packing up and moving out, militant Islam is sworn to destroy Israel and all the people in it.

 

[JBeukema]

David Ben-Gurion's response to the Balfour Declaration
January 29, 1918

"..... It is on these vacant lands that the Jewish people demands the right to establish its homeland .....

However we must remember that such rights are also possessed by the inhabitants already living in the country - and these rights must not be infringed upon.

If there are people there, it's not vacant.

Ben-Gurion was referring to fact that farming practices in Palestine had not progressed appreciably since Biblical Times and that much of the land still remained "vacant."

Your quote didn't say 'only the vacant areas'

You're getting awfully close to the same rhetoric of social darwinism the Jews bitched about when they were on the losing side

 

[georgephillip]

Let's Ask Harry

"Sometime in the late 1950s, that world-class gossip and occasional historian, John F. Kennedy, told me how, in 1948, Harry S. Truman had been pretty much abandoned by everyone when he came to run for president.

"Then an American Zionist brought him two million dollars in cash, in a suitcase, aboard his whistle-stop campaign train. 'That's why our recognition of Israel was rushed through so fast.'"

Jewish History, Jewish Religion