Noam Chomsky, a Jew, has been saying for years that we are wrong on this. That America and Israel are comrades working for world domination. That we will never really press Israel too harshly because they have a very strong military over there and we need each other to further our shared vision of Empire. He states that Israel is our servant in this quest. Basically the US and Israel are terrorists and almost every other country in the world would say so if they did not fear retaliation from the US.

As far as the Christian Right hoping this will happen, they will joyfully state that this is coming in their sermons. They will go on and on about the joyous time to come and how this will lead to the Rapture and the New Jerusalem. Hallelujah kingdom without end yadda yadda yadda...

America has always tried to leverage itself in positions of power globally , and as a survival mechanism it makes sense. As a humanitarian ideal, not so much. We consistently go against the UN on climate change, human rights and many other issues. This is part of the reason the UN has become a joke. We led to it and now our Government is in the business of marginalizing the UN. We can't be made to seem the bad guy, even though we never want to do our part to improve conditions globally unless we have a vested financial interest in the endeavor. WE could care less about human rights abuse, but fuck all if you start messing with our financial well being.  

I am biased because I'm jewish.  So take all of this with the proverbial grain of salt.

I feel that the US has zero business telling Israel how or what to do.  Imagine, if you will, the US being attacked by Canada and Mexico constantly decade after decade.  What would we do?  Would we just roll over and let them kill our citizens?  Of course not.  That is the case with Israel - since it was created in '48, the neighboring Arab nations have attacked numerous times.

The US fought Mexico in the 1800's and we got much of the lower SW of the country from the war (granted, we then paid Mexico for the land, but we never gave it back).  Israel obtained land via wars...and yet it is being demanded to give that land back.

So when we give back the lower SW to Mexico, I'll support Israel giving back the Gaza Strip and other land to the Palestinians and other Arab groups.

Afterall, fair is fair.

As for the end times scenario, honestly, who knows if that is true.  I wouldn't be surprised if it is considering what I've heard from people like Sarah Palin.  These religious zealots just won't be happy until their savior returns.  I guess he's stuck in traffic up in Heaven currently.  But don't you worry, he's inching his way up to that exit.

The children of god.  The abused and neglected children of god.
I do have sympathy for the people of the Jewish faith.  The long centuries of persecution do weigh heavy.
Yes I do believe that the Jews should have a state, a homeland.
And they were given one.  A state, a homeland.  They were given land that was taken from someone else.
And, I'm sorry, that was wrong.  Pragmatically, I think that the should have been settled somewhere else.  But that didn't happen.
I'm not conversant on all the facts, would have to go and read up to be positive.  But, I do believe that the Palestinians, and others, had a state already there, and that there were provisions made in the original setup for their rights to be protected.  All well and good so far.
The disagreement is over land.  The Palestinians, many of whom were pushed off their land and had their lively hoods destroyed, didn't like the part they were given and the wars ensued.
Thus is human nature, when you believe your existence is threatened and your rights violated you fight.
And we do tend to fight over dirt a lot.
I think that early on we were right to support Israel.  After all they were a long persecuted people, they deserved a homeland, and the Arabs started it.  The die was cast.
But now they have a strong powerful state.  They can stand on their own.
And they are wrong.  They want it all and the reality is they can't have it all, unless they kill all the Palestinians.
Both sides have to defeat their own fanatics.  Both sides need to just stop and draw back.
But when you declare a ceasefire the settlement needs to stop as well.  
Other treaties are in place and this is one of the last sticking points.
Israel needs to give up the settlements, it's the right thing to do.
And all sides need to control their terrorists factions, and I include us in that list.
At this point in time neither side is right, everybody's wrong to some degree.
If they are serious about peace, they need to get out of the dirt.

is religion. Remove religion and eventually you will be able to reason with both sides. Until then, they are both convinced that they have a god given right to the land.

I had a discussion with a self-confessed Ditto-Head at work once-upon-a-time.

The background was that he was staunchly pro-gun/anti-gun-control.  He stated that he would defend his house, home and family against any and all intruders with his trusty equalizer (punchline coming) if only his wife would let him have a gun.

Next conversation: Those filthy Muslims and the "so-called" Palestians.

I posited to him the following scenario:

Let's say the U.N. decided that Espiscapalians needed a homeland.  Let's further imagine that this new homeland was deemed to be in North Carolina and that he and his family would have to be re-settled to a nice refugee camp in South Carolina, or maybe the everglades in Florida.  Would he or would he not "defend his house, home and family?"

I thought this might be lead to an interesting discussion.

Wrong.

His red-in-face, spittle-throwing response was, "Oh, so that makes it OK to strap a bomb to someone and blow up a bunch of innocent people in a Pizza Hut?!?!?!?  Yeah, Islam is s-o-o-o the religion of peace!!!!"

Well, I tried.