Speaking of Israel...

[Seamus Fermanagh]

The Palestinians are refugees from Libanon. Arabs are discriminated in Israel but that is a social issue, it's wrong but when put in perspective of the hate against Israel it becomess neglectable. They just hate jews and must kill them wherever they find them. Israel grabs no land, it is perfectly fine with what they got after just about the entire arab world attacked them, and the arabs lost because their camels routed. Are we going to reshape the map of Europe as well.

Yeesh. Just to set things at closer to acknowledged fact in the interest of clear discussion....

Some Palestinian Arabs lived, and still liv, in Lebanon. Many live in what is today Israel. Many live in refugee 'camps' in neighboring Jordan, as well as in the West Bank and Gaza which are -- to some extent at least -- under Palestinian authority. Quite a number of them come from families who vacated what is today Israel to get out of the way of the fighting -- at the request of Arab neighbors -- in 1948.

Israel not only established itself without waiting for the official imprimatur of the UN, but also annexed territory they had acquired during the 1948 conflict that went past the proposed UN boundaries of 1947. Israel then acquired more land -- Gaza, the West bank, and Sinai -- after their successful offensive war in 1967. The Sinai was subsequently returned to Egyptian sovereignty, while most of Gaza and the West Bank were remanded to the Palestinian authority. Jerusalem, also acquired in 1967, has not been returned and has been designated by Israel as their capital. Feel free to argue that Israel may keep any of these lands by right of conquest (and even agree with Israel that they attacked in 1967 only to forestall an -- admittedly likely -- Arab assault), but do not live among the sidhe and continue to believe that "Israel grabs no land."

Palestinians are not, in their entirety, haters of Jews and need not "kill them wherever they find them." I had at least one Palestinian in a class last year -- a conflict management class by-the-by -- and none of my Jewish students in that same class expressed any concern -- nor did they have to go to the student health center to get patched up.

In short, stop stereotyping an entire culture in a couple of sentences. Your sniping at Palestinians has all the verifiable "truth" of any other stereotype -- like all those Dutch wearing wooden shoes and skating everywhere they go.