Dan wrote:
"The Israelis have lots of historical evidence to support their belief system about their plight. The Palestinians, similarly, can point to very valid reasons supporting their belief system."
They don't actually. Unless you consider their myths of genocide as they occupied Canaan record actual historical events. That is precisely the point of some of my comments on various threads. I suppose I could claim God has given me the southern half of Ireland as my rightful home and then go and take it over(if I could get powerful allies to support me). My ancestors left there much more recently than did the ancestors of many people who claim a right to live in ancient Canaan. However my claim would be no more justified than any other belief system based solely on myth. The Palestinians presumably descend at least partly from the Sea people, but so do the Israelites anyway. They are the same people separated by their myths.
I suggest the sooner we can wean the population of the region off these myths the better for all humanity.
