Eh, that's what the Palestinians are doing too, saying they've been there for hundreds of years. The fact is, at one time or another, both sides of the issue have valid claims. If you go back far enough though, that land was primarily controlled by Semitic tribes, and the little parcel of land that is Israel is a pale shadow of the area the Semitic tribes once controlled.

I am personally a Zionist. That is, I believe the Jews deserve some piece of land to call their own. 'Zionist' is in no way an insult. It just means you believe that there's a large enough population of Jews to merit being a sovereign nation. (I'd also like the Kurds to have their own nation, but Turkey will never allow that to happen, even if Iraq would.) I am not in any way Jewish (I'm caucasian German/Irish), but I see no reason the Jews can't have their little chunk of land, since their claim on it is as valid as anyone else's, and arguably moreso. The Arabs that attack Israel generally just plain want every Jew on the planet dead. They use land issues and politics and terrorism to work toward that goal, but most rational people see through that.