The United Nations in November 1947 partitioned the region (not country) of western Palestine into two states: Jewish and Arab. The Jews accepted the partition; the Arabs did not. The Arabs were up front about wanting all of it and five Arab countries attacked the new state of Israel on May 15, 1948, to try to get it all. Defending itself, Israel defeated the five Arab armies.

The land on the western bank of the Jordan River (the "West Bank"), properly named Judea and Samaria, was illegally invaded by Jordan during that war - in defiance of the U.N. Security Council. Jordan illegally annexed the West Bank in 1956, but only Britain and Pakistan recognized the annexation. Even the Arab countries did not.

After establishment of the state of Israel following Security Council approval of a partition plan, the Arab states adopted a strategy of no negotiation, no recognition and no peace with the "Zionist entity." Between 1949 and 1967, Jordan occupied the West Bank and Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip. There was no peace; terrorism was the Arab answer.

The Arab League convinced the Arabs living in Israel to leave their homes until they could kill all the Jews. The Arabs who stayed were given Israeli citizenship while at the same time, they were refused citizenship in Arab countries. The "West Bank" was in the hands of Jordan when Israel won that land, part of which was theirs to begin with. Gaza was in Egypt, but the Egyptians didn't want it back during the peace negotiations.

In June 1967, Israel cautioned Jordan not to enter the upcoming war, but Jordan did anyway. Once more the Arab countries prepared to destroy Israel but Israel struck preemptively and in only six days captured the West Bank from Jordan, the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria and the Sinai from Egypt.

At Jordan's insistence, the 1949 Armistice Line that constituted the Israeli-Jordanian boundary until 1967 was not a recognized international border but only a line separating armies. When Israel crossed that line in June 1967, it was not invading Jordan. Even though Jordan ruled the West Bank from 1948 to 1967, Jordan was never recognized as legitimate sovereign.
Therefore the oft-cited 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention regarding occupied territories does not apply to the case of the West Bank and Gaza Strip because a legitimate sovereign state was not ousted by the Israelis.

For decades, the Arabs have used the strategy of educating their children to hate Jews so that peace would not be possible. One has only to read Arab school textbooks or read the hate that emanates from radical Islamic sites on the Internet. They would even try to have us believe that the Sept. 11 mass murder was executed by Zionists.

Peace will not occur when Israel pulls out of the so-called occupied territories. That is because the Palestinian Liberation Organization (now the Palestinian Authority) is not only interested in recapturing the West Bank.
The PLO was founded in Cairo in 1964, three years before the Arab instigated war of 1967, which forced Israel to take defensive control of the West Bank. The PLO's charter declares, "The liberation of Palestine is a national duty to repulse the Zionist, imperialist invasion from the great Arab homeland and to purge the Zionist presence from Palestine."
The charter does not refer to the West Bank, but to Israel proper, and there is no reason to suspect that Yasser Arafat has changed his mind about his "duty."

Any human rights injustice on the part of the Israelis can perhaps be attributed to the fact that they are surrounded by a host of Arab nations that want nothing more than to destroy them. The Arab desire to purge the Zionist presence from the Middle East led them to launch the wars of 1948 and 1967.

How can a country face repeated attacks and then be criticized for taking from the enemy a buffer zone that will allow it to better protect its people? Since 1967, the Arab world has continued its assault upon the Jews, and the world has largely swallowed the Arab side of the story. Israel is now almost completely isolated from the world because it has maintained the courage to defend itself.

European cowards and American leftists (socialists is a better term) are anxious to remove Israel from the West Bank, and they are anxious to condemn Israel for reacting against campaigns of terror against its citizens. They will not be anxious to defend a shorn Israel against a second holocaust perpetrated not by Hitler's fascists, but by those who originally allied themselves with Hitler: the Arabs.

But, if you are not up on Middle East history, then look at the history over the last 10 years. Yasser Arafat was offered a state for the Palestinian people that included part of Jerusalem, and he said no. He put no other deal on the table, because the only thing he wants is to kill all the Jews, which he tries to do with each suicide bomber, and have all of Israel. There NEVER has been Palestinian country or land. Palestine was a REGION, like the Mojave Desert. It has not been a land to anyone other than the Jews - beginning 3,000 years ago. Jerusalem is known as the city of David, king of the Jews.

The Palestinians want a state? Then why isn't the money that is being given to them used to build roads, sewers, schools, medical facilities, etc., instead of buying shiploads of weapons and allowing Arafat's wife to live comfortably in Paris, shopping to her heart's content?

Never mind the facts, though. The phrase "occupied Palestinian territories" is too delicious in the diplomatic propaganda war against Israel. The Arabs have manufactured countless myths and evidently they have repeated them so often that even they believe them. Unfortunately, so do many others, such as the liberal left-wing media in the good ol' U.S.A.

It's so funny how you never hear both sides of the story from our illustrious network news organizations. Just the liars side.