Why is there a conflict in Palestine?

I sent the following letter to the Philadelphia Inquirer that is critical of Charles Krauthammer's view of the conflict in Palestine.  The Inquirer refused to publish it.

To the Editor:

In his column, Why Gaza went to war (11-26-12), Charles Krauthammer demonstrated conclusively that he lives in a fantasy world.  His statement that "Israel wanted nothing more than to live in peace with this independent Palestinian entity," only makes sense if Krauthammer lives on a completely different planet and is completely ignorant of what is happening on planet earth.  In order to fully understand the complete absurdity of Krauthammer's thinking we need to look at a bit of international history.

The United States government has acknowledged that it violated nearly 400 treaties with Native Americans and sent them to impoverished reservations.  History also tells us that for many years, the U.S. government supported a system of Jim Crow segregation where African Americans did not have full citizenship rights.

In the year 1948, the nations of Israel and South Africa came into existence.  The governments of these nations rejected the British model of colonial rule.  The United States was becoming the world's superpower, and apartheid South Africa as well as Zionist Israel chose to imitate the United States government.  In South Africa and Israel the native people saw their land confiscated and laws were enacted to legalize discrimination.  

In both South Africa and Israel a system similar to the reservation system of the United States became the law.  In South Africa they called the reservations bantustans.  In Israel they called the reservations the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The nation of Israel exists for one and only one reason.  This is because of the massive aid they receive from the United States every year.  

The people who have power in this country give this massive amount of aid to Israel for one and only one reason.  Of the brutally repressive governments in the Middle East, Israel has proven to be the most reliable for Washington and Wall Street.  

Most of the oil in the world comes from the Middle East.  Corporations need a constant flow of oil or they will not be profitable.

There is no mystery as to what the Palestinian people want.  They want the same rights as Palestinians who live in Detroit, Michigan.  The means that they want the right to, own land, to travel, and to vote in every part of Israel.

While President Obama claims to support the ideals of Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, he has made it clear that he supports the apartheid-like policies of the Israeli government.

Sooner or later working people and farmers who are Jewish and Palestinian will understand these basic facts.  The only resolution to this crisis will be a democratic secular Palestine where Jews and Palestinians will have equal rights.  When this happens we will be able to talk about a genuine peace in the Middle East.