P-Duck, ECH and AzMasta,
First, in the interest of full disclosure, though I am a "fundamentalist" Christian, I was married nearly 20 years to a Jew and my two boys, by Jewish tradition, are Jews--one of whom attends an orthodox Jewish day school and speaks fluent Hebrew. I also lead a Jewish Boy Scout Troop, so I know something of the Tribe and some of my fellow Scout vols are also former Israeli military vets...
Now, it is my understanding, as P-duck has shown, that the Jews have been there for ~3000 years. In fact, there have been various significant 'waves' of Jewish immigration to the Holy Land, including migrations in the 12th Cent. by European Jews escaping Roman Catholic persecution. In the 19th Century the formal, named movement 'Zionism' was created. As P-Duck as already shown, Jewish presence in the Holy Land goes back a long, long time. The suggestion that it is somehow a post-WWII phenomena is simply unfounded.
Now, ECH has several times referenced "international law" and referred to the "legality" of various Israeli acts.
I'm curious exactly what "international law' he thinks was broken. The law of Conquest perhaps? That's the one that lets nations expand by virtue of military action (in this case defensive by Israel).
Before we get into a bunch of UN gobbledygook, let's remember the UN's predecessor, the League of Nations, back in 1922 granted Britain a mandate over Palestine for the express purpose of "placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home".
Now, Israel became a nation in 1948. Soon after, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq – attacked Israel (unprovoked by Israel), launching the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. After the cease fire was declared borders, known as the Green Line, were established. Jordan annexed the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt took control of the Gaza Strip. Israel was LATER admitted as a member of the United Nations, on May 11, 1949. (During the war ~711,000 Arabs or about 80% of the previous Arab population, fled the country as refugees--of their own accord).
Thus, I fail to see how the charge of "stealing" holds any weight. I also don't understand how it can be argued that the (very corrupt--'oil for food') UN can be assumed to have ANY authority over Israel when IT WASN'T EVEN A UN MEMBER YET! Is it me? Am I just crazy? Besides, if memory serves, didn't the Arabs boot the UN "peacekeepers" in '67, just prior to the Six-Day War--or did I imagine that?
Because they got their snouts rubbed in it in '67, the Arabs hit Israel again in the '73 sneak attack known as the Yom Kippur War. Again, tough little Israel kicked their behinds! Perhaps they were motivated by the then-recent barbaric slaughter of their Olympic athletes in Munich, in '72.
Finally, Israel GAVE the Gaza Strip back to the Arabs, and they are being repaid by the Arabs using the crappy little place to launch rockets at Israeli civillians. Nice guys huh? So much for the Arab promises of peace for lands...
So, after all this BS, how on EARTH is tiny little surrounded Israel the bad guy in all this? I'm kinda lost on that one...