The Situation in Syria

[CEB]

So, the Brits occupied Palestine after taking it from the Turks. Then gave it to a bunch of people living in Europe and Asia.

I guess I could give my neighbor's house to Dave or Eliz (just random examples) and then they can give it to you. You can move in and shoot the family living there as they try to repel you.
....

Sounds a little like the Louisiana Purchase.

[Erik]

It does, doesn't it.

[Jonathan Randall]

I don't think there's any real question that Great Britain and France screwed up the Mideast (an already messed up place) to satisfy their colonial interests. The borders they set for countries had more to do with spheres of influence - France got this, the U.K., that - after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, than with cultural and ethnic divides.

However, I just don't know what else could have been done in present day Israel. Europe was no longer safe for the jews - if it had ever been, and despite historical revisionism, there already was a large - and continuous - jewish community in Palestine before the Mandate.

The original 1948 U.N. Resolutions provided a livable framework for peace and did not require the relocation of non-jews in Palestine. The Arabs thought they could win a war and refused the deal. They then lost that war and those following it, abandoned the Palestinians in the most cynical and cold-hearted manner possible (see Jordan), and cried foul.

Does this mean I believe the Israelis are lily white? Hardly. The have often behaved like world class thugs and cry anti-semitism at anyone opposed to Israeli Policy - as if opposing what one views as a bad policy makes one a neo-Nazi. Truth is, there are factions on both sides of the conflict who do not want peace - they want victory - and are willing to sabotage, by whatever means necessary, any promising peace initiative.

As to Syria, it is going to be an even worse mess than Libya. The Obama Administration's only accomplishment in the region is to make President George W. Bush look like a wise, elder statesman, in comparison.