“We came to a region of land that was inhabited by Arabs, and we set up a Jewish state. In a considerable number of places, WE PURCHASED THE LAND FROM ARABS and set up Jewish villages where there had once been Arab villages. You don’t even know the names [of the previous Arab villages] and I don’t blame you, because those geography books aren’t around anymore. Not only the books, the villages aren’t around…”

Kind of destroys your implication that the land was stolen, doesn’t it?

This quote was actually Dayan’s response to a student who suggested that Israel should adopt a policy of punishing Arabs who commit crimes in Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”) by deporting them to Jordan. Moshe Dayan’s response was that he was vehemently opposed to such a plan and that Israel must instead learn to co-exist with the Arabs. A slightly different message than you were suggesting he conveyed, don’t you think?

In any case, you ask what Mt. Herzl was called when it was still part of Palestine. I ask what Jordan was called when it too was part of Palestine? Maybe you should take it up with the Hashemite Kingdom! But really, of what relevance is any of that? Before there ever was a “Palestine,” there was an Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. And it belonged to the people of Israel. Before the Roman Emperor Hadrian renamed the country Syria-Palestina (after the Biblical enemies of the Jews, nothing to do with the present day Arabs who call themselves “Palestinians”), there was the country of Judea — and it belonged to the Jews. Learn some history.

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“Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist.” ~
Moshe Dayan