Much of what has been said in the thread is so dumb it makes my teeth hurt, but I'll try to be as temperate in my comments as I can.
I've spent quite a bit of time in the Middle East -- Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, with brief visits a decade or so ago (as a reporter embedded with the Army) to Iraq and Kuwait. I like and admire the remnants of middle eastern civilizations, especially those of Iran and Egypt. I spent quite a bit of time in Israel, as I worked on archaeological digs there for 15 years (as a dig photographer.) I should mention that I'm not religious, but my heritage is Roman Catholic; and that I'm a political liberal.
1. Israel is not an apartheid state. On the contrary, until recently most of its Jewish population was made up of refugees from Arab states that maintained apartheid as related to its Jewish residents. With the recent arrivals of large numbers of Russian Jews, driven out by the widespread revival of anti-Semitism in Russia and Eastern Europe, Jews of European heritage now have a slight majority.
2. Israel is often thought of as having a relatively small population of Jews, when in fact, there are 6.5 million Jews in Israel, as well as a couple million of the most affluent Arabs in the Middle East. Its Jewish population is about one and a half times that of Ireland. The point being, the Jews aren't going anywhere, any more than the Irish are.
3. American "progressives," who make up one of the most anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic groups in the US, are usually so insular that they equate their ignorant, flower-child feelings of goodwill with the natural state of being of the world. That's because they don't know any better. What the Jews have learned over their history, and particularly in the 20th Century, is that you should listen to what your enemies say, and then, **believe them.** Hamas advocates the elimination of Jews. Period. It's not a secret, it's part of their charter. The Jews believe them, as they should. That's the core of the conflict. Hamas is also an explicitly fascist organization. No secret about that either; it's kind of odd that U.S. progressives and fascists should make such friendly common cause, but there it is.
4. There have always been Jews in Jerusalem and Israel in general, going back to the first millennium BCE. The Jews have very good reason for taking the land they've taken in the recent expansions, and it's not because they wanted to grow grapes on it. Anyone whose been there knows that's laughable -- most of the land they're talking about (that taken over by "settlers") is hard desert. Then why do it? Because the Arabs forever have threatened to invade Israel, and some of the most sensitive land takings have involved defensive/offensive positions. The original West Bank came as close as either 12K or 12 miles to the Med (I forget which), about halfway down Israel. One quick military thrust by Jordan (which controlled the West Bank before the war) would have cut Israel is half. Same with the Golan Heights: If you stand on the wall of the Golan Heights, you are looking straight down on the Sea of Galilee and Tiberius, one of Israel's major cities. And, of course, the first thing the Syrians did, when they controlled it, was fill it up with artillery.
5. Originally, the land occupied by new, incoming Jewish inhabitants of Palestine in the early 20th century was not "taken." They didn't have that power. It was purchased from Ottoman overlords who mostly lived in Istanbul. The Arabs were essentially driven out after what amounted to a guerrilla conflict begun after WWI by the Arabs, continuing through the 20s and 30s, culminating in all-out war after WWII. Even then, the Israelis didn't exactly drive out Arab inhabitants, though they could have. Muslim Arabs still make up 25% of Israel's population; whole towns are dominated by Arabs (including Nazareth) and Arabs sit in the Israeli legislature. It's not in any way analogous to the European settlement of the Americas, which often was an explicit invasion.
6. Americans too often think of the conflict between Jews and Arabs as a "problem." Problems can be solved, but the conflict isn't a "problem." It's a situation. A situation can't be solved -- it just is. If you insist on a "solution," you're going to get a bloodbath. The Northern Ireland/Ireland situation is somewhat similar. So is the Russia/Ukraine situation, and the India/Pakistan Kashmir situation.
7. By the way, the U.S. military didn't actually win the European war during WWII. That was mostly done by the Russians, who had the Germans on the run before the Normandy invasions. We helped, but most of the credit for winning in Europe goes to the Russians.