Palestine or Israel?

Which has a right to exist?

Some make the argument based on Law - United Nations and the creation of the State of Israel.

Others make the argument based on Religion.  God gave Jews the land.

Let's see.

History and international law: Palestine -- the ancient Land of Canaan . For well over 5000 years to present, various people conquered and lived on this land – these included  Egyptian, Turkish, Assyrian, Persian, and Jewish (David and Solomon and the Ten Tribes of Israel).   In this long history of conquest and habitation, inarguably, the Canaanites were the first, which  gave them priority; their descendants have continued to live there, which gives them continuity; and with the exception of the refugees chased out by Israeli terrorism, they continue to live there.  The Canaanites  are the Palestinians or the Arab population of today.  The Atlantic Charter -- self-governing right -- applies to the Palestinians - the legal occupants of the land, and certainly not non-Arab Jews.

However, seems terrorism trumps international law.  Under the British Mandate, Irgun and Stern terrorist gangs committed terrorism to the point of chasing out the British.  The British did not want to retaliate fearing repercussions and so handed the issue over to the United Nations.   The United Nations then awarded the terrorists with a state - Israel. 

It should come as no surprise then that ISIS aspires to do the same.  Perhaps the precedent has been set by the UN - commit enough acts of terrorism and you will be awarded with someone else's territories to make it your own state.   Zionism to Jews is the same as ISIS to Moslems.  

Religion: Abraham did not promise the land to the Jews alone.  When Abraham made a covenant with God through circumcision, all the land of Canaan was promised to him as 'an everlasting possession'.  When the Bible says the word 'to thy seed', it included Arabs.  Both Moslems and Christians can claim descent from Abraham through his son Ishmael.

And if you really want to be scientific about it, the  2006 Nobel prize for physics was awarded to John Mather and George Smoot for their contribution to the big bang theory of the origin of the universe.  God was not part of it.  Absence God, absence 'God giving land to the Jews'. 

Not to forget another aspect of religious belief by some Jews.  On every Jewish festival, Jewish voices say: “Umipnay chatoenu golinu mayartsaynu" - "Because of our sins we were expelled from our land".   It is believed that at a predestined time, God will send the Jews the Messiah and they will be able to return to the Promised Land.  Jews are to accept exile and not attempt to force their way back. They stayed away from Jerusalem for 2,000 years because their religion forbade them from returning, not because they could not return.  Yet today, those who are violating the laws of man and lay claim to ‘Eretz Yisrael’ as God’s land promised to them, are the ones who are betraying the very God they pretend to worship.    https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3671017/jewish/Discover-the-Four-Exiles-of-the-Jewish-People.htm

So however you want to spin it, the land belongs to Palestinians.  Nothing will change that. As such, the ONLY people with legitimacy to live in Palestine are the Palestinian Moslems, Palestinian Jews, and Palestinian Christians.  The rest are occupiers.  

End the Occupation.