I don't think Abdul has said anything which needs such an emotional response, I should add.
Empror Mike, Abdul beat me to it but Patagonia is certainly much better off than Israel, at least in agricultural terms and since Israel doesn't have much in the way of minerals either how badly could Patagonia compare in that sense? On the other hand, that was part of an established nation and had been since the early 19th Century.
Arguably Argentina would have been a poor choice also because it displayed a greater tendency than most of Latin America as a melting pot of sorts and assimilation was not the Zionist point.
The Sandman, actually Eilat apparently did not have a population of relevance, being little more than a border outpost in 1948. It's positon on the international borders with Jordan and Egypt and access to the Red Sea gave it potential importance not achieved by that time.
Abdul, your point about how the European powers carved up the region and left any Syrians with claims in Israel on the wrong side of the imperial borders is a new one and one worth looking into. The precise degree to which that played a role after 1918 is unclear to me but may have been important.
I might note that in 1947 the Jews owned 7% of the land in British Palestine, partially due to British blocking of land sales, the Arabs owned 12% and 81% had no clear owner whatsoever, partially due to reasons Abdul gives and partially because much land was not worth owning. The Negev Desert primarily. Which went to Israel because the Jews behaved intelligently as regards the UN Commission and offered sensible proposals regarding that nearly uninhabited piece of land whereas the Mufti, leader of the Palestinians by default and by murdering any possible rivals, refused to make the slightest effort towards the UN. The Jews did not own the Negev. No one did. Also Beersheeba was outside the area assigned to the Jews in 1947.
Israel would certainly exist without US aid which did not begin seriously until after 1967. Which was also after Israel became a secret nuclear power. Whether there was a connection or not...
Since the Cold War ended I might note that US relations with Israel hit their low point shortly after Netanyahu actually proposed ENDING US aid to Israel.
Which made no sense to me. If a nation doesn't need your tax dollars, I say you don't need to send them those tax dollars. Instead Clinton sought to replace Netanyahu(who I don't like) with someone more inclined to take US tax dollars.
