There were no such thing as Palestinians. When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? It was either southern Syria before the First World War, and then it was a Palestine including Jordan. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist.

Golda Meir, as quoted in the Washington Post

If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti - Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault ? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?

David Ben-Gurion

The Israelis treat the Palestinians like shit. They will do so until there are no more Palestinians. The entire drive of Israel's occupation of Palestine is to eliminate Palestine.

On the flip side, "Palestine" belongs to anyone who wants to pretend to be Palestinian. Arafat was Egyptian; he spent a total of 4 years in Palestine as a kid. Hamas is Iranian; the PLO was Libyan. Israel was established as a European nail house for the Arab world so Palestine has become a nail house for Israel.

There are uncomfortable parallels between the Israeli treatment of Palestine and the American treatment of Apaches, the French treatment of Gypsies, the Australian treatment of Aboriginals, etc. It's an ugly-ass situation and the Israelis regularly commit outright evil.

But it's Israel that gives the Middle East a model other than Wahabi Islam.