That homeland might as well have been in Argentina had the Zionist Congress not changed its decision of 1904. The decision to seek a homeland in Palestine came in 1906 when less than 10 per cent of the population of Palestine was Jewish. We are not talking about a history lesson here. Take it as a warning. Rights, possession, inheritance and ownership are not relevant any more. Might makes it right to take your land or your home.

But then the Arabs asked for what they got. During World War I, Britain promised the independence of Arab lands under Ottoman rule, including Palestine, in return for their support against Turkey, which had taken side with Germany. In 1917, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration and promised the Jewish people an independent Jewish state in Palestine. By then it was too late for the Arabs to know that they had been short-changed.

Lawrence Auster lays bare the historical facts in the Front Magazine that Israel has never taken land from the Palestinians and the Palestinians have no claim over Judea, Samaria (the West Bank) or Gaza. His argument resonates the views of most people in Israel and the friends of Israel who stand by it actions. As a strictly legal matter, the Jews took the land from the British, who exercised sovereign authority in Palestine under a League of Nation's mandate for thirty years prior to Israel's declaration of independence in 1948. The British don't want their land back. So who are the Arabs to ask for it?

The same argument goes on. If the British are considered illegitimate usurpers, then the land goes back to the Turks because Palestine was a province of the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years. The Turks are not asking for their land either. Going back further in time until 1517, the land belonged to the Mamluks, who don't even exist to ask for their land.

The Mamluks had taken the land from the Ayubbi dynasty in 1250, who took it from the European Christian Crusaders in 1099, who took it from the Seljuk Turks, who took it from the Abbasid Caliphate in 750. In 661 the Ummayad Caliphate inherited the control of Islamic lands from the Arabs of Arabia who had conquered Palestine in 638 from the Byzantines, who inherited from the Romans, who had taken it over from the last Jewish king in 39 BC. Before that Palestine was owned by the Hellenic Greeks, who took it from the Persian Empire, who took it from the Babylonian Empire, who took it from the Jews after they had taken it from the Canaanites who lived there for thousands of years.

The convoluted history leads us to the stark realities of a dog-eat-dog world. Despite many change of hands any powerful person or state can claim right of ownership on behalf of their ancestors. Under the rule of law it happens in the courtrooms based on deeds and documents that could establish one's right of ownership, possession or inheritance.

But ownership of countries is sorted out by military conquest. The Arabs gained Palestine through military conquest. The Jews gained some of it back through their own conquest in 1948 and subsequent wars. This is the time-honoured way of establishing sovereignty throughout human history. Almost every government today owes its existence to someone in the past that conquered its territory by war or revolution.

If you scratch the surface of civilization, it is seething underneath with conquests, violence, subjugation, cruelty and hatred. The world still remains silent to the fate of the Tibetan people who had quietly inhabited their land until it was seized by communist China in 1950. The argument is often marshaled against the Arabs that in the early Middle Ages they had conquered and reduced to slavery and penury ancient peoples and civilizations stretching from the borders of Persia to the Atlantic.

Perhaps the Jews have an IOU from God to get Palestine as their homeland. Perhaps some Jews were always living in Palestine since the early days. But Israel is where it is mainly by dint of might, supported by the US, which itself is founded on conquered land that belonged to the American Indians. The other supporter is the original sinner which handed the land to the Jews in the first place. It probably did not bother the UK, because once it had conquered half the world to build an empire where the sun never set.

Wars work like diseases, when it is important to diagnose the root cause before applying medicine. Israel sits like a thorn in the side of Arab pride, which is evident in anger boiling on the Arab streets. The Jewish claim on Israel as their homeland is based on a Biblical promise. A section of Christians in Texas has referred to the Book of Revelation, saying that the war in Lebanon is the sign of Armageddon, the final conflict between good and evil when Jesus Christ shall return to earth and bring thousand years of peace. But the world must understand that what is Biblical game to others is death to the Lebanese people.

Palestine belongs to Israel if the United States goes back to the American Indians, if Australia goes back to the aborigines and the UK returns to the Visigoths. For that matter India should go back to the Aryans or the Dravidians. Bangladesh belongs to the descendants of the Bodo aborigines wherever they are living today.

Yo Blair, ask Mr. Bush how much he knows about history. Turn off the microphone. You may not have a decent conversation.

Mohammad Badrul Ahsan is a banker.