Neville > From his comment, it sounded like he meant the fact that Jews even lived there (pre-state) made the Oaths not apply and therefore matir’d conquering the land.
Not just some Jews lived there. I think we can’t easily use small old Yishuv as a justification for further expansion, but at some point pre-1948, there were masses of Jews in possession of Tel Aviv and multiple kibutzim without, seemingly, any violation of Oaths. I am not sure whether you disagree with this premise, or you don’t agree with using it as a starting point (Avira’s Tanna Kamma seems to disagree on the first point, but agrees on the second).