When Israel was established in 1948, over a hundred and sixty thousand Arabs who lived in what was then Palestine, accepted Israel's invitation to live in the new Jewish state. Today, these Arabs are fully functional and equal members of Israeli society. They hold jobs, vote in elections, enlist in the military, and even serve in the Israeli government. As a matter of fact, one can even argue that Arabs living in Israel are freer than those in most Arab countries. But most Palestinians living elsewhere aren't so fortunate. Many  left Israel soon after it was created and today, nearly five million Palestinians are currently registered as refugees. While it might appear as if Israel "threw out" the Palestinians to make room for the growing Jewish state, is Israel really to blame for this refugee problem? Here's why it's not.

Let's clear things up right from the start. Had the Arabs accepted the U.N partition plan in 1947 and pledged peace with Israel, the refugee problem would never have come into existence. There would be a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and nearly seventy years of violence and hatred could've been prevented. Most of the Palestinians who fled did so anticipating war that Israel neither wanted nor started. As the fighting intensified, many Arab media outlets falsified reports of Israeli atrocities being committed, causing even more Palestinians to panic and eventually flee.  On the contrary however, Arab armies displaced over ten thousand Jews from their homes during their invasion of Israel, killing those who couldn't flee and razing their communities. Arab nations promised the fleeing Palestinians that they could return to their homes as soon as Israel was "annihilated." But that day never came.

So now that we've cleared up that it wasn't Israel who displaced them to begin with, why is it that almost seventy years later, these Palestinians are still refugees? Israel managed to absorb the eight hundred and fifty thousand Jews who were expelled from Arab countries following the establishment of Israel. So how come the Arab nations, who are six hundred and fifty times the size of Israel, couldn't absorb half that amount? The reason is, well, there is no actual reason. In fact, the very Arab countries who pledged to the Palestinians they could return home after Israel was wiped out refuse to allow their Palestinian refugees to integrate into society, denying them even the most basic of civil rights and forcing them to remain in their refugee camps. To the Arabs, Palestinians are nothing more than a tool they use to delegitimize Israel. "The Palestinian Cause" gives them an excuse to accuse Israel of expelling and oppressing the Palestinians, when in reality, the accuser happens to be the real culprit.

So if Israel didn't expel the Palestinians, and the Palestinians are being oppressed by their Arab "brothers," why can't Israel simply grant these Palestinian refugees the "right of return" like they do to Jewish immigrants? The problem with this is that if Israel were to grant citizenship to all five million Palestinian refugees, it would make the Jews a minority in their own nation. Consequentially, Israel's very basis of foundation as a Jewish State would be lost, eliminating the whole purpose of having the State of Israel. The only way to truly solve the refugee problem is through a negotiated two-state solution. This, though, requires a Palestinian leadership truly committed to peace with Israel and recognizes Israel's right to exist, both of which the current Palestinian leadership lacks.

If there's one thing about the Middle East that everybody, no matter who they are, can agree on, it's that the dynamics of the region are constantly changing. So much can happen in just a matter of weeks - whether it be half of Yemen falling to Iranian-aligned rebels, or the P5+1 finally drafting a proposal for a nuclear deal with Iran. While it doesn't take much thought to recognize how dangerous this deal is, this blog isn't about that deal. It's about why Iran can't be trusted. There are many reasons why Iran isn't trustworthy, but among them are its aggressive imperialistic actions in several countries, decades-old support for terrorism, and atrocious human rights record.

First and foremost, it's no big secret that Iran is becoming increasingly aggressive in spreading its sphere of influence in the region. From Syria and Iraq to Saudi Arabia and more recently Yemen, Iran has proven that it has no respect whatsoever for the sovereignty of any nation, anywhere, including the United States. In 2011, Iran plotted to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S right in our capital, Washington D.C. Yemen, once a key ally for the U.S in the fight against terrorism, was overthrown by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels just a few weeks ago. Through its countless terrorist proxies, Iran's aggressive expansionist policy  knows no boundaries, and alone, stands as reason enough not to trust the Iranian regime, but there's another, even more obscene act that Iran engages in, one that's even struck at the very heart of our nation.

Iran stands today as not only being one of the oldest and most active state sponsors of terrorism, but is also guilty of carrying out attacks itself. Through its extensive network of terrorist proxies, Iran has ordered countless attacks across the globe.  In 1983, a suicide bomber who rammed a truck filled with explosives into the U.S embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killed 63 Americans. Just a few months later in Beirut, 241 U.S marines were killed when an Iranian suicide bomber drove a truck into the base, then detonating it. Overwhelming evidence pointed towards Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, as being behind both of these attacks. More recently, in 2012, a Hezbollah suicide bomber detonated himself on a bus in Bulgaria, killing the driver, five Israelis, and wounding over thirty people. Bulgarian investigators concluded that Hezbollah, under direct orders from Iran, carried out the attack.

Besides personally ordering attacks, Iran has on multiple times, been found to be providing weapons and training to multiple different terrorist organizations, in particular, Hamas. No matter what grounds a country claims, aiding terrorist groups in any way is a violation of international law, which judging by Iran's abysmal human rights record, doesn't seem to think applies to them, which leads us into the third reason why Iran is untrustworthy.

We often take for granted in the West being able to express our minds freely. Make those same statements in Iran, and you'll be lucky to escape with lashes and prison time. Even as Iran negotiates with us, it continues it's oppressive policies towards religious minorities, particularly Christians. Speaking of Christians, don't plan on becoming one in Iran, it's illegal to convert to any religion besides Islam under the government-enforced sharia(Islamic) law. Over a hundred Christians are, to this day, jailed purely for religious reasons, including an American pastor. In 2014 alone, over seven hundred people, including thirteen children, were executed for offenses not even considered crimes in any westernized country. Women are denied even the most basic of civil rights and are often considered as little more than "property" of their husbands. While adultery in the west is often met with little more than a divorce, in Iran, women who are even suspected of cheating on their husbands are subjected to an instant death penalty, and not just any death penalty, but stoning, to be exact.

So aside from all of this, let's not forget than Iran has a history of lying to us about its nuclear activities, including operating secret underground facilities from which international nuclear inspectors, to this day, are barred from entering. If their nuclear program is really as peaceful as they claim. why are they hiding many of their facilities from us? Why would they hide a peaceful nuclear project?

While some politicians might think that Iran would keep its word and uphold its part of a nuclear deal, judging by it's relentless pursuit of terror and imperialistic intentions, Iran's motives behind its nuclear program couldn't be more obvious. We need to stop and ask ourselves a simple question: "Who are we really negotiating with?"

We've all heard it on the news; how Israel is in violation of international law by building houses in occupied territory, or perhaps, how settlements are the only reason why there isn't peace with the Palestinians. But are they really an obstacle to peace? First let's take a look at how the West Bank is run today.

Think of the West Bank today as one big puzzle with three separate pieces, called areas A, B, and C. Area A, which includes cities like Ramallah and Nablus, is completely administered and run by the Palestinian Authority; no Israelis are allowed to live or even enter this part of the West Bank. Area B is  administered by the Palestinian Authority, but security is maintained by  both Palestinian and Israeli police forces. One example of a city in Area B is Hebron. The final area, known as Area C, is Israeli territory, which includes all of Israel's West Bank settlements, such as Efrat and Ariel, and currently makes up for sixty percent of the West Bank. The remaining forty percent of it is home to nearly ninety eight percent of Palestinians; only an estimated forty eight thousand Palestinians, around two percent, live outside of Areas A and B and in Israeli territory. Still though, that's over half of the West Bank that's reserved just for Israel. Doesn't that seem a bit unfair? Upon more thorough examination however,  the puzzle begins to piece itself together.

Ninety eight percent of West Bank Palestinians live under the administration of the Palestinian Authority in areas A and B. Only an estimated forty eight thousand Palestinians live in the largely vacant area C part of the West Bank. From all we hear about how intrusive Israel's settlements are, in reality, they don't even cover two percent of land in the West Bank, and all of them are inside of Israeli controlled territory that was agreed to between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1995 Oslo II Accords. Most of the Israeli section of the West Bank is unoccupied and permanent ownership of it will be determined in future negotiations.

So we've determined so far that Israel's settlement policies aren't really the reason why there's no peace. But aren't Israeli settlements illegal because they're built on disputed Palestinian territory? Well, not exactly. The Palestinian Authority is only an interim government meant to run the Palestinian territories until a state is created through negotiations. Palestine isn't officially a state; meaning it doesn't legally have borders. Even according to several key scholars and lawmakers, such as  the former Dean of Yale Eugene Rostow, Israel's settlement activity in the West Bank is completely legal. Despite it being legally allowed to, Israel hasn't established a single new settlement since the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords, in which, by the way, the Palestinians agreed to allow Israel's current settlement policy.

So despite Israel's settlement policy being both legal and taking place inside of Israeli territory, why shouldn't Israel just try stopping its settlement construction  to show how truly committed it is to peace? Well, in 2010, it did exactly that. As a gesture to the Palestinians to compromise on some of their demands, Israel instituted a ten month settlement freeze, meaning construction inside of the territories would be temporarily halted. This effort by Israel proved futile however, and the freeze was allowed to expire in 2011 after the Palestinians refused to compromise on even a single one of their demands. This wasn't the first nor the only time that Israel was willing to end its settlement activity in exchange for a true and lasting peace.  It offered in both the 2000 and 2008 negotiations to not only freeze but even dismantle many of its settlements. Both times however, the first being under Yasser Arafat and the second under Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinians rejected Israel's offer.

Settlements are little more than a side-effect rather than a cause of conflict with the Palestinians. There were no Jewish settlements when Palestinian leaders preached violence against the Jews in the 1920s. Israel sought to compromise with the Palestinians before by giving them "land for peace" when they withdrew from Gaza in 2005. But instead of accepting this and moving forward towards peace, the Palestinians instead chose to use this territory as a launching pad for nearly eleven thousand rockets. Israel has never wanted anything more than peace with its neighbors, but until the Palestinians recognize Israel's right to exist as a sovereign Jewish state, peace with the Palestinians can't be  in the foreseeable future.