The Aristotelian-Thomistic Philosopher: The Case For Israel

This post is in response to the claim that the Palestinians are justifiably outraged because they have been displaced from their traditional land. Much of this is summarised from the leftist, human rights lawyer, Alan Dershowitz's "The Case for Israel" (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003)

Israel was originally settled by refugees who came with shovels and ploughs, not guns, and ammunition. They were not extensions of imperialism but were themselves fleeing persecution and discrimination.
Jews have maintained a significant presence in Israel since at least the Middle Ages. Maintaining significant populations in Jerusalem, Hebron, and Acre. They were a majority in places like Jerusalem since at least the middle of the 19th century.
The immigration of Jews to Israel first occurred in the 1880's (called Aliyah) and from this point on experienced persecution and unprovoked attacks from neighbouring Arabs.
The first Jewish immigrants largely purchased their land from absentee landlords and real estate speculators.
As even anti-Israeli historians have reported, the number of Arabs displaced by these land purchases have been overstated - it was, in fact, only a few thousand and as Mark Twain recounts, the area was vastly underpopulated.
There was never a large, monolithic Arab population in that region prior to Israeli immigration. Many ethnicities, including Greeks and Egyptians, had moved there during the 19th century. The Arab population there was small and largely transitory; many moved out and didn't return.
Many Muslims immigrated to the area for the jobs on offer from the settling Jewish families and more came later as they were attracted to the improvement in basic sanitation, hospitals, and water supplies.
The Israelis transformed what was largely unarable land and mosquito infested swamps into productive land.
Given these facts it is hard to draw the conclusion that there was a large Palestinian-Arab population with generational connections to the land that were forcibly displaced by the Israelis.
The Jews were given only 1/4 of Palestine. The remaining 3/4 was "Trans-Jordon" (meaning "across the Jorden River") that was supposed to be the Palestinian homeland.
U.N. Resolution 181 allocated this 1/4 as the Jewish-Palestinian state and the remaining as the Arab-Palestinian state which included modern day Jordon.
The Jews accepted this but the Arabs did not. Israel declared their own state and they were subsequently invaded by Syria, Egypt, Jordon, Lebanon, etc. This was the cause of the fleeing of the palestinian Arabs in the area. The inhabitants of those regions anticipated war and were fed propaganda about Jewish atrocities by the Arab leaders. Whats more, they (wrongly) expected imminent Arab victory and to be able to return and reclaim their land and the newly acquired Jewish areas.
The Jewish state was created out of the 1948-1949 war. The Arabs occupied all of Jordon, Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem. This was 85% of the original Palestine and the Arabs were still not happy.
During the 1967 war, when Israel was again attacked by several Arab armies, the Israelis took back the territories of Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem. These were the spoils of war but they were also held by the Israelis because their territory was too narrow to defend otherwise. The borderlines were too close and mountainous, providing easy access from enemy aircraft or rocket launches.
There were no calls for a Palestinian state whilst Jordon occupied the West Bank and Egypt occupied Gaza. But all of a sudden there was a need for one after the Israelis took control.
The PLO was established in 1964 before Israel occupied the disputed territories which means it was not formed with the intention of liberating the Palestinians.