I am so tired of hearing people talk about the "illegal" occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. All these people need to read their history. If Israel is illegally occupying the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, then the United States is a nearly completely illegal country that ought to be dissolved. We won, by conquest, most of our territory, including much of the original thirteen colonies. In fact, about the only places that are legitimately ours, by this new definition of what is legal, are the island of Manhatten, the areas included in the Louisiana Purchase, and Seward's Folly, known to most as Alaska. We paid for those with money, not blood. The fact is, many countries have territory they won in war, most of them in which the victorious country was the agressor. The war in which Israel won the Gaza Strip was, in fact, begun by Israel, but preemptively, as Egypt, Syria, and Jordan were mobilizing with the stated intention of attacking. In the hope of peace, I believe that Israel will have to give up these territories eventually, but let's remember what is legala nd what is not. Let's also remember that these were not "Palestinian" territories, as there is, legally, no such thing as a Palestinian.