so they went to the nearest poor place, said "oh, here's a religious city, we'll give it and some surrounding land to you, and now we're done".
not quite, Jan.
About 2,000 years ago modern Israel was the site of an ancient incarnation of Israel called, at the time, Judea, I believe. Rome broke the back of this nation around the first century when they rebelled and the people were scattered.
When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, all the old Judean holy places became Christian holy places until the arrival of Muslim armies and then both Christian and Muslim fought for the land (Crusades) while the Judeans (or Jews) moved from place to place only to find, in a lot of places, persecution.
So the reason Israel is in Palestine is because 2,000 years ago, that was their home. What the US and others failed to appreciate though, was that the land did not remain unoccupied for those 2000 years and that the people had created a home and a life there. So yeah, they were pissed when they were told they had to move.
It'd be like all the nations in the world coming together and saying they are giving all Native American Indians the land of the continental United States so they can form their own Indian Nation and that all non-Indian residents had to move off. You'd be pissed that you were told to move even though, deep down, you know this land was taken from the Native Americans.
The problem is, you cannot turn back time. You cannot undo the past. You can only learn from it (if so inclined). Otherwise, leave it alone.
The creation of the state of Israel was as much (if not moreso) a political move to ensure (or keep and maintain) US interests in the region than out of any guilt for said holocaust.
While the concentration camps and genocide committed by the Nazi's in WWII was against other races, religious groups and political enemies in addition to the 4-6 million Jews (I forget the number), it is by no means an isolated event.
The purges of the Soviet Union after WWII.
Kraken's example of the Chinese would be another. I read recently that the Communist takeover of the country was aided by the US indirectly. The Chinese civil war was going badly for the Communists and were on the verge of losing all when the US stepped in and halted Kai-shek's advance in lieu of trying to find a "peaceful" solution rather than a military one.
There are probably others.
To say the Jewish Holocaust didn't happen, though, is sheer idiocy in my opinion. But even the truth nowadays does not matter. Now it's all about the media coverage.
If, for the next hundred years, people shout at the tops of the media that it didn't happen, pretty soon everyone will believe it didn't happen. If there are enough websites out there claiming it didn't happen, then soon, people won't investigate for themselves. They won't look for proof. They'll simply mark down a url site and stand behind it, the claim being, if it is on the internet, it must be true or it must be fact. People generally follow the path of least resistance or the path requiring the least effort.
What I am more curious about is the purpose behind such statements. I mean, at first I believe it is simply to gain attention. It is the kind of slap in the face opinion that does tend to get attention. But if, over time, they truly want to bend public opinion to acknowledge that an event that did happen, didn't... I would very much like to know why.
