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It is a fair comparison. Chechnyans don't consider themselves Russian either, they consider themselves under an endless occupation, they don't want Russians on their land, and they've paid a higher price than the Palestinians. No-one cares because Russia is conceived of as a powerful country that is allowed to pull that kind of shit.
When you say 'never belonged to them', that's factually wrong, historical and archaeological records clearly show a Hebrew/Jewish presence on the land over several thousand years, including long periods of self-government. But whether you consider such ancient history relevant to current claims or not (I don't), it makes no sense to make out that modern Israelis have no right to the land. The state's sixty years old - in what way does a fourth-generation Israeli child have less right to the land than a Palestinian kid? You might as well tell modern-day Australians to go back to Britain or Ireland.
What's your answer? Should Israelis with Israeli parents and grandparents go back and reclaim Polish houses? Should they go back to Iraq, where in 1950, before the pogroms, the population of Baghdad was nearly a quarter Jewish? Or should they just submit to 'rightful' Arab rule - a rule that would, rest assured, see 'genocide', 'massacre', 'ethnic cleansing', 'modern-day Nazis' and the like restored to their proper usage within days?
The situation of Arab Israelis is indeed incomparable to that of blacks in apartheid South Africa, but not in the way you're suggesting. We've been through it too many times on here, apartheid no, discrimination yes, same as minorities in many countries, vote, healthcare, college education, Arab on supreme court, economically far better off than Arabs in many Arab states, economically worse off than most Jewish Israelis, ethnic/religious character of state problematic, but see situation of Druze and Bedouins for lack of simple state racism, etc. etc.
As for Palestine, I've been to the West Bank too, it's got its problems, the settlements are a disgrace and should be removed, the Israelis should be much fairer about water, and yes it should be given full statehood with the appropriate security guarantees to Israel. Economically it's doing rather well at the moment, mainly due to trade with Israel. There are far worse places to live than the West Bank.
Gaza is a different matter, but the Israelis pulled out of Gaza three years ago. It's bizarre to talk about hostile relations between two separate countries as 'apartheid'. They could also have improved their standard of living by not electing a government that responded to the Israeli concession of territory by repeatedly shelling them and continuing to vow their total obliteration.
Have you been to Grozny by the way, and talked to people there? The city has been decimated to a fraction of its former size, its population virtually halved. In the meantime, thousands still remain in bombed-out shells, without electricity or water, eight years on from the war.
It's not. For that, see the conflicts I mentioned above, in which hundreds of thousands have been killed in a matter of a few years, in a context of no existential threat to the agressors. That's considerably more than have been killed on both sides in over 60 years of the Arab-Israeli conflict, including at least 2 wars declared on israel by the Arab states.
It's scant consolation to bereaved families, but the fact remains, the Arab-Israeli conflict is small beer compared to a lot of other conflicts round the world.
Israel has done many brutal things and made many stupid mistakes, but it doesn't pull shit like that on purpose. Not because they're nice guys, but because the bad publicity is a major problem.
Your disgust for the people of Israel is itself disgusting. To group together for opprobrium an entire nation, including little kids who don't know shit, old women who were chased out of Middle Eastern countries in pogroms, Peace Now activists who've fought for years for a Palestinian state, immigrant Ethiopian Falashas trying to build a new life for themselves, or just ordinary Joes going about their business like you find in any other country, countries guilty of far worse crimes... disgusting mate.
It's good that you support oppressed populations - though I don't see you weighing in on here about how the populations of the countries responsible disgust you and make your blood boil. None of your reasons for privileging the Arab-Israeli conflict for special outrage are convincing. An atrocity is an atrocity, it should be judged according to its scale and its manner, not extrinsic factors like whether world nations treat it in a balanced way. It's not Israel's fault that extremists round the world care far more about Muslims killed by Jews than Muslims killed by Russians, Serbs, Chinese, Hindus or other Muslims. It's not Israel's fault if other states are biased in their favour (or have a more nuanced approach to blame than you prescribe). Besides, the world did sod all about Rwanda, gave carte blanche to Russia in Chechnya and China in Tibet, and has been toothless and equivocal about the actual genocide in Darfur.
As for the dipossession, look around the world. How many Greeks are left in what is now the Turkish part of Cyprus, and vice versa? How many Hereros in Southwest Africa? How many Japanese in Manchuria? How many ethnic Germans in Czecholsovakia and Poland? Oh, and how many Jews in Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Egypt, Iraq...? A lot less than there are Arabs in Israel and the occupied territories. Have the Palestinians been fecked on, are they still being fecked on, and should they get a state? Absolutely. Do Israeli actions justify their demonisation above far worse acts by other states? Of course not. I don't think you even know why you're combusting about this issue above all others - though the clue lies, I suspect, somewhere in your descriptions of Israeli 'sneering' and 'arrogance'. Have a look at yourself.
good one Pletch - make some of the silly idiots think for a change both pro and anti Israeli
I am eternally grateful for your kindness.