"Frank" wrote in message ...

Then why do these folks keep calling themselves Palestinians?


I believe the UN declared a Palestinian refugee to be anyone who had lived
in Palestine for two years or more prior to the Arab attack on the new state
of Israel in 1948 and had lost their homes and livelihood as a result of
that conflict. Israel absorbed the Jewish refugees. The Arab states
refused to absorb the Arab refugees so they were left in camps in what would
have been the new Arab state in Palestine.



What was all that negotiating borders for?


Which negotiations?



Right, wrong or indifferent there are a lot
of people that feel they have a claim to something there. Even Israel
agrees with that in priniciple.


The Arabs claim all of the land, including the state of Israel.



I don't know, but it's my understanding that the people in the camps
and in the disputed areas aren't on either the Jordanian or the Israeli
voting roles.


Well of course they're not on Israeli voting rolls. Why would they be?
They're not citizens of Israel. Those that had property in Israel would be
on Israeli voting rolls if they hadn't abandoned their land.

I don't know if there are any Jordanian voting rolls.



They consider themselves Palestinians and they, apparently, have
various treaties/accords/agreements to support that notion.


They consider themselves Palestinians because they either lived in the
Palestine region before the war or are descendents of someone that lived
there. They are not citizens of Palestine, there is no nation of Palestine
and there never was one.



If I am wrong
and they _were_ able to vote for or against Sharon last election then I
will be suprised that they haven't been able to put up numbers that would
infuence the election.


Did you vote in the last Israeli election? If not, why not?



Israel has agreed to the creation of a Palestinian state, although they
certainly aren't happy about it.


Israel agreed to the creation of an Arab state in Palestine 57 years ago!
That is, the Jews in Palestine agreed to the partition plan that would have
created a second Arab state from the Palestine Mandate.



Understandable in that no one want's to
give up land. But they are in the driver's seat when it comes to the peace
process and dragging this out just causes too much pain and suffering on
both sides.

The Israelis aren't going anywhere and neither are the Palestinians. The
sooner Israel gives up trying to avoid actually handing over the promised
territory the better.


Arafat was offered over 90% of the "occupied territories" and control of
most of Jerusalem four years ago as a STARTING point in negotiations. He
turned it down. The Arabs aren't interested in peace, they're only
interested in the destruction of Israel.