>A discussion I really don't want to have. Do we really need to discuss the history of the Jewish people and Eretz Israel or how Jordan came to be or Palestine or the Ottoman Empire or Babylonia or jeesh, let's just make it Canaan again. In most times, land and people were claimed by war (unless the people left of their own accord).

But in this case, of course, it was the international community that set up the partition. That was pretty good buy-in.

I'll also point out that in those days, the term "Palestinian" referred to anyone who lived in Palestine, whether Jewish, Arab, or something else. There was no notion of the Arabs living there as a "Palestinian community" until the PLO was founded.

Tamar