Your entire argument rests upon the false premise that Israel is "occupying" Palestinian land and that Israel has no legitimate claims to the lands in question.

I never said that. I do believe that the Jewish people have a claim -- certainly more than my ancestors did when they ripped Australia from the hands of its indigenous population. But I believe that the Palestinians -- people that were living there and had lived there since time immemorial -- also have a pretty substantial claim.

My point is not that the Jewish presence in the region is illegitimate -- my point is that it is messy. Because I'm not Jewish (or, to be more accurate, not a practicing Jew) I don't care one fig for any theological arguments that Israel has a sole moral claim. Not that it's comparable, but ISIS claimed the territory of the Caliphate on remarkably similar grounds.

Secondly, I hope that nobody is in here is convinced by your backing up the religious claim with empty appeals to international law. Australia's indigenous people were stateless -- we still eventually sucked it up and admitted that we'd taken their land. "No state, no occupation" is a morally bankrupt platitude. International law itself is often little more than an ad-hoc system of whatever works for the major powers of the day -- and doubly so in the context of the Middle East during and after the withdrawal of the Ottoman Empire. The veneer of legitimacy that it gives to Israeli settlements in the disputed territory is not so convincing to outsiders as you might think.

I reiterate -- I do not think that the state of Israel is illegitimate. I do not think that the Jewish people have no claim to the land. What I do think is that your narrow appeals to religion and international law cloud an important truth -- they are not the only people who have a claim. How can you possibly negotiate in good faith if you don't acknowledge the argument of the people who lived there based on an alien religion and conventions derived from Great Power politics that had little, if anything, to do with the situation on the groud.