Who Owns The Land?

There is a discussion going on over at ECN Magazine about the morality of working to make weapons of war. In the thread there is considerable discussion of the “stolen land” in the Israel/Hamas dispute. Well I had to chime in.

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Re: the stolen land dispute going on down thread.

What is the general rule in land disputes between opposing governments? Who ever can hold it.

Now let us look at that from a historical perspective. Who owned the land before the Ottoman’s? We won’t go back that far. But the British stole it from them fair and square. The British decided they didn’t want it and divided it up between two opposing communities in the area. With the UN seal of approval. Clever boys.

One of those communities and a number of their neighbors decided to gang up on the other group the British gifted because they disputed the gift. They lost the war. And as is usual in lost wars they lost territory. Not satisfied with the results of the first war they decided in ’67 to have another one. Well they lost that one and more territory. That was not the end. In 1973 another war. More territorial losses. Only one party to all those wars has signed a peace treaty. And in return they got considerable territory back.

Now as long as there is no peace treaty the parties are not required to make any land deals. And as long as the war continues the belligerents are subject to more land loss – one way or another. Mostly one way.

The moral of the story? Don’t compound your losses. Peace is better than war. Even if you lost the last one. And especially don’t be stupid and lose the next one too.