New thoughts on the Israeli situation

On Israel as a "Jewish state" here's what the New York times had to say:

a brief look at Israel’s neighboring states reveals that most of them have the word “Arab” in their official names, as in Arab Republic of Egypt and Syrian Arab Republic. Jordan’s official name indicates the ethnicity of the ruling minority: Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The Palestinian charter makes a repeated usage of “Arab Palestinian people.”

Similarly, a Huffington Post article brought out some issues in earlier land laws in the area of Palestine (which you can find argued in more detail in a journal article):

So what is Robert Fisk talking about? The "living areas," which he does not wish to even call "settlements," were in almost all cases built upon unoccupied lands (actually, if the truth were out, these are more what should be called "suburbs," "bedroom communities," "small towns" -- in the case of Maale Adumim, a big "town" -- not "settlements"), what in strict Islamic Land Law is referred to as "Mewat" or "Dead Lands." Just as in the American West, these carry a three-year right of revival, after which they can be owned having previously been "owned" by no one.