Why is Israel getting away with these atrocities?

Did I miss something? Am I in bizarro world? So, if I am following you correctly you are saying that the left aren't the ones that have been sponsoring "Free Tibet" events and are speaking out against econimic relations with China until they clean up their human rights record? The left aren't the ones that have been crying foul over the atrocities in Sudan (and before that Congo and Rwanda and apartheid South Africa and concurrently the exploitation and corporate murder in Nigeria and the ever present famines all over Africa)? The left weren't the ones agitating against the Taliban for YEARS before they produced and harbored the 9/11 terrorists and their ilk (not that anyone had the foresight to see that specifically, but we knew of the severe oppression of women and the extremist mentality that went along with that and saw some danger) and against the sponsorship by the US of tyrannical regimes all over the Arab world and even in our own backyard (Chile, Nicaragua, etc)? The left (and the dreaded feminists) aren't the ones speaking out for women's rights all over the world?Oh, wait, I get it. You mean the Orwellian Left. Right is Left. War is Peace. Slavery is Freedom. Gotcha.

So no one has a right to the land they live on unless they claim a right to it?You must think that anyone who puts down a flag on a scrap of land has the right to own it even though someone else has been there for 1000 years, am I right?Just because a group of people did not conceive of themselves as a "nation" does not mean that that they did not love and work the soil that they were born of. That, Faith, is a projection of "western ideals" if I ever heard of one.The Biblical people of Israel supposedly conquered the land "promised" to them a millenia or more ago but that is no reason to assume that they can come back and usurp the peoples that have filled the lands since then no matter how "uncivilized" they may seem to western eyes. Just like Europeans "discovered" lands where other people lived. Exactly how does that happen?Just because Palestine wasn't a "nation" does not mean that they cannot claim a right to the lands that their ancestors dwelt in.You should watch out for your own western notions especially when you call others on theirsEdited by Jaderis, : To add a few specifics

Exactly. Yes, it's been done since people decided to stray beyond their initial stomping grounds, but I was questioning whether it is right to do so. Or, rather, if Faith and others think it is right to do so.

The wikipedia article shows nothing of which you claim. Just because Palestine did not exist as a country so named or theorized until the 20th century does not mean that people did not live there. National identity is a relatively recent phenomenon (some peoples acquiring it much earlier than others) and has often been the result of of empire and colonialism, either directly bestowed on a people from the conquering power or formed by the people in response to colonization (as in the case of Palestine).The areas called Palestine include(d) many different religions and groups of people (mostly genetically, but not necessarily culturally, related). The wikipedia article states that the censuses taken in the region were unreliable as to numbers, but not to the fact that people actually lived there and that their descendents are the ones in refugee camps today. From wikipedia:

quote:

---

Palestinian citizens of Israel have political representation in the Knesset (Israeli parliament). The Israeli government asserts that non-Jewish Palestinian citizens of Israel have nearly all the same rights and obligations as Jewish Israelis (which includes Palestinian Jews), but there are some fundamental differences and restrictions.

---

Emphasis mine.