Comment on Mac's rebuttal

This is in relation to my post below on the Palestinian question

Mac -

I've never heard the word "fisk" before (except in juxtaposition to "Carlton"), so that makes us even :)

Thanks for taking my, er, fisking in the right spirit, and replying honestly. I think we've isolated our fundamental disagreement. That is, I don't believe that Old Testament promises apply to the modern, secular State of Israel. New Testament promises, such as the salvation of Jews, do apply, but the OT promises are expropriated by the New Israel - the church.

A few of your facts are still way off. The name Palestine very clearly refers to all of what is now Israel and the Occupied Territories. The name was coined by the Romans to punich Jews for rebelling, and originally indicated the entire land. Even Jews know this - before Israel was founded, they sometimes referred to themselves as Palestinians (the Palestine Symphony Orchestra was all Jews, for instance). It was just a piece of land, inhabited by Jews, Christians and Arabs.

Also, 80% is owned by Israel, not by Arabs as you claimed.

Another important note is that I'm not making a distinction between ethnic group and nation. They're not precisely the same thing, but the fact that they are total constructions applies to both. Jews are not, contrary to popular belief, genetically defined. They have genetic links, but if you look at them and you look at Palestinians, it's obvious that Palestinians are the more genetically homogenous.

You say, "if the Palestinians persist in a state of their own, it should not be carved out of Israel (Gaza City), but rather out of Jordan or Syria." WHY?????? Why not give them your house? What did the Syrians or Jordanians do to deserve this? And you don't seem to understand that the Palestinians physically owned the land before the Jews came. Before 1948, Jews bought land with money. In 1948, they confiscated it and kicked out the residents. Israel was carved out of Palestine, not vice versa. I repeat that Israel has NEVER claimed ownership of the West Bank and Gaza Strip; those are territories not included in the state's definition of Eretz Yisroel.