Compare Maps, this is the 1946 Partition Map. They called the Isralies "Palestinians". See, the next 1947 Map.
    While President Bush – and now, Oprah – continue to paint a rosy picture of the American-Arab Islamic community, this picture is not entirely accurate. Certainly many American Muslims are loyal and peaceful, but these moderates are not represented in the Islamic leadership that President Bush and the media have recently courted and presented to America. Moderate American Muslims, like Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani and Khalid Duran – who are to be commended for their courage and patriotism for opposing terrorism – are frozen out by the American Muslim mainstream (and by President Bush and Oprah). Instead, Bush and media icons embrace radical Islamic leaders in America and abroad as symbols of peace and tolerance.

      The following is a response from Ron who has lived in Jerusalem for many years and utilizes the Mid East resources for his documentation. Ron was at the bus stop when the 16 people were killed in the June 03 bombing We are introducing his web page http://www.BridgesforPeace.org. Rons answer below comes from a book he wrote last year called, "Unholy War for an Islamic Empire." If these answers are helpful to you, you can order the book from the Bridges for Peace office in Tulsa OK. The toll-free number there is: 1-800-566-1998.

This is the 1947 Partition Map
     Most peoples impression of the Palestinian homeland is frought with political landmines. What the Arab world wants the rest of the world to think is that, somehow, the Jewish State edged an existing Palestinian State out of being and occupied its territory, and oppressed its people.

"Don't the Palestinians need a homeland too?".

     Just the opposite is true. When the Jewish people began coming home in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the land responded to those who cared enough to tend it by bursting into fruitfulness. The surrounding Arab populations were astounded. The desert "blooming like a rose" created job opportunities to which Arabs in surrounding areas responded moving in to take available job positions created by Jewish restructuring of the land.
    Response to the commom comment,
     In the late 1800s, Mark Twain, author of children's books like "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" wrote another book called, "Innocents Abroad." It is a travelogue of his vacation journey from Europe to Egypt and back home again. The section between Damascus and the Sea of Galilee is eye-opening in light of this Palestine question. He documents the absolute barren state of Israel. There were no people in the Golan, not even plants. He says that even the cactus and olive tree that are so hardy were almost nonexistent.
     The rest of the land Twain describes as being in a sad sorry state of affairs and concludes that the place would never play an important role in world issues again. But he does document that there were both Jews and Arabs existing here. Palestinians would have us think that the Jewish population is imported and a new issue since about the 1930s. The governing authority over the land of Israel during Mark Twain's visit was the Turkish Ottoman Empire (Islamic). They were defeated by the British with Arab help in WWI -1917. The British received a mandate from the newly formed League of Nations to administrate the Middle East. The British mandate made way for Jewish people to come home to their ancient homeland. Chaim Weisman - a Jewish chemist, synthesized critical ingredients to make gunpowder at a critical time in the war.
     Between the end of WWI, and the 1930s, many Jewish people came home to Israel. The Arab population was open to Jewish immigration in the beginning, thinking that they would remain the majority and might become the ruling authority if the British gave them what they were demanding. But, by 1936, it was becoming obvious that the waves of Jewish immigration were not going to stop. It was at this time that Arab violence against the Jewish population began. The aim was to stop further immigration and terrorize the Jews already here so much they might leave. The British were sick of war after WWI and created a "commission" to address the issue. It was called "The Peel Commission." At that commissions meetings, a noted Arab leader in the area by the name of Anui Bey Abdul Hadi said . . . "There is no such country as Palestine! Palestine is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Palestine is alien to us; it is the Zionists who introduced it. Even Bibles that have labeled the land of Israel as Palestine are in error" (can be found by searching the web under "British Peel Commission").
     Another Abdul Hadi echoed his predecessor's words in 2001. "There is no such thing as a Palestinian; there never was. It is a PR fiction, a Madison Avenue fantasy." - Sheik Professor Abdul Hadi Palazzi. Italian Muslim cleric. Islam is the only religion in the world to make a horrific statement like the following: Muhammed is reported to have said: "The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or tree would say: 'Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharquad would not say, for it is a tree of the Jews'" (found in -Sayings of the Prophet from the Hadith Sahih Muslim Book 041, Number 6985).
     The Palestinians declared statehood in September of 1970. The location is the surprise here - it was in northern Jordan, not the West Bank and not any part of Israel. This was the last straw in a long list of Palestinian moves to dethrone Jordan¹s monarchy and moved King Hussein to massacre thousands of Palestinians. Many fled into Lebanon and the tragedy became known as Black September. A terrorist group later took the name and went to the Munich Olympics where 11 Israeli atheletes were murdered. The list of these types of items is long. Should you seek more information on Middle East subjects I would suggest several books that really paint the picture well. At the end I have listed two web sites in which you can search the Koran (Islam's scriptures) and the Hadith (collected sayings of Muhammed) as well.
     Bodansky, Yossef. Target America: Terrorism in the U.S. Today. S.P.I. Books, a division of Shapolsky Publishers, Inc. 1993. Katz, Samuel. Battleground. Fact and Fantasy in Palestine. Bantam Books, 1973. Netanyahu, Benjamin. A Place Among the Nations. Bantam Book, May 1993. Netanyahu, Benjamin. Fighting Terrorism; How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism. Farrar Straus Giroux, 1995. Peters, Joan. From Time Immemorial, JKAP Publications, USA 1984 Sasson, Jean P. Princess. Avon Books, New York, 1992.
     Internet Websites Sources
     Koranic references are from the searchable Koran and ³Al-Koran² translated by Ahmed Ali. http://www.hti.umich.edu/k/koran/simple.html
     The Hadith is a compilation of the sayings of Muhammed from those close to him. The Hadith site is: http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/reference/searchhadith.html
     Thank you again for your concern. I believe you are a person of prayer, so please pray for this troubled area of the world. Yours in HIM Ron Cantrell