robdar, I already know BTS is a very nice guy and I'd love to have discussions with him if he would just share his opinions. My eyes glaze over when he cuts and pastes stuff.
Instead of revising for my exams I have been using our library services to obtain some factual info re Palestine and Israel.
I already knew from my studies that Jews have been horribly persecuted by the various dynasties and religious authorities that ruled Europe prior to the forming of nation states.
It is quite interesting to take up the story from the time of the Balfour Declaration in 1917, Nov 2 which set out British policy towards Palestine and is the basis or Zionist claims in the area. All of the stuff below is taken form the encyclopaedia of World History - 1914-45
Dec 2, British troops entered Palestine and placed it under military administration
July 1919, A report was compiled by 2 Americans (the King Crane commission) that showed the inhabitants did not want a Zionist state established in the area and strong sentiment was expressed against the British proposal to separate Palestine from Syria. The British ignored the report.
1929-48 - extensive Jewish immigration...in 1947 the jewish population increased to 32% of the total contrasting sharply with population figures from 1920 when 80% were muslims and the remaining 20% comprised jews and christians.
1920 - the Jewish labour federation was set up (Histadrut) and it is still in force today. Its agenda promoted that jewish businesses only hire Jews! This organisation remains an important political and economic force to this day in the state of Israel.
There is more but I have to be doing something else. Meanwhile the incident below is also mentioned but you can read it at Wiki. Basically secret jewish agents sank a ship full of jewish refugees to draw world attention to their cause.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patria_disaster