The Palestinian "Right of return" claim in context

During the fighting in 1947-1948, about three-fourths of a million Arabs fled or were driven (both are true in different places) from Israel and found refuge in the neighboring Arab countries. In the same period and after, a slightly greater number of Jews fled or were driven from Arab countries, first from the Arab-controlled part of mandatory Palestine (where not a single Jew was permitted to remain), then from the Arab countries where they and their ancestors had lived for centuries, or in some places for millennia. Most Jewish refugees found their way to Israel.

What happened was thus, in effect, an exchange of populations not unlike that which took place in the Indian subcontinent in the previous year, when British India was split into India and Pakistan. Millions of refugees fled or were driven both ways -- Hindus and others from Pakistan to India, Muslims from India to Pakistan. Another example was Eastern Europe at the end of World War II, when the Soviets annexed a large piece of eastern Poland and compensated the Poles with a slice of eastern Germany. This too led to a massive refugee movement -- Poles fled or were driven from the Soviet Union into Poland, Germans fled or were driven from Poland into Germany.

The Poles and the Germans, the Hindus and the Muslims, the Jewish refugees from Arab lands, all were resettled in their new homes and accorded the normal rights of citizenship. More remarkably, this was done without international aid. The one exception was the Palestinian Arabs in neighboring Arab countries.

The government of Jordan granted Palestinian Arabs a form of citizenship, but kept them in refugee camps. In the other Arab countries, they were and remained stateless aliens without rights or opportunities, maintained by U.N. funding. Paradoxically, if a Palestinian fled to Britain or America, he was eligible for naturalization after five years, and his locally-born children were citizens by birth. If he went to Syria, Lebanon or Iraq, he and his descendants remained stateless, now entering the fourth or fifth generation.

The reason for this has been stated by various Arab spokesmen. It is the need to preserve the Palestinians as a separate entity until the time when they will return and reclaim the whole of Palestine; that is to say, all of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel. The demand for the "return" of the refugees, in other words, means the destruction of Israel. This is highly unlikely to be approved by any Israeli government.

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Brookes News Update

Economics sank the Howard Government: It is very likely that an autopsy will reveal that the principal cause of the Liberal Government's demise was its grotesque mishandling of labour market reform
Recession, the dollar and the US economy: Once again the US economy is defying gravity as well as the pessimists. Predictions that the 'mortgage crisis' would bring down the economy have been confounded, much to the disappointment of the Democrats. So what is really happening?
Protectionism and " free-market absolutism": Once again Terry McCrann demonstrates why he should give up economic commentary. Unfortunately his incompetence in the field of economics is shared by other media commentators. People - including McCrann - need to learn that economic laws do exist, and ignoring them can be a wealth hazard
The Al Qaeda-Iran axis has been beaten in Iraq: Al Qaeda has been thrashed in Iraq and its Iranian alliance broken. It now seems that it might by the mad mullahs turn to get a beating
Truthless in Gaza: the al-Dura scandal exposed: Western journalists have a long record of collaboration with the Arab propaganda machine. It is Western journalists who suppress the truth about the Palestinian Authority. It was the same journalists who lied about the Iraq. This is the same scum that pushed the al-Dura affair that has now been exposed as a vicious anti-Semitic hoax
How global warming activism hurts the poor: The Religious Left - a group of socialists posing as Christians - is using the myth of man-made global warming to launch a thoroughly dishonest attack on the US economy. It's calling for more taxes, spending and greater control of the economy

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ELSEWHERE

Michael Gerson has a very strange view of conservatism. He is a retired GWB speechwriter and he has written a book called "Heroic Conservatism". There is a review of his book here which points out how off-beam it is. (H/T KBJ)

Bans on Muslim garb in Flanders: "Belgium's third largest city Ghent has banned its employees from wearing Muslim headscarves and other religious or political symbols. All city personnel, such as librarians and child care workers, will not be allowed to wear such garments or symbols if they come into contact with the public, a city spokesman said. Similar measures have been imposed in other European countries like France, where there are growing numbers of Muslim immigrants. The council voted 26 to 23 yesterday for the ban, with the Liberals, Christian Democrats and far-right Vlaams Belang in favour and the socialists and Greens against. "It is really not clear who counts as an employee in contact with the public, but we will have to carry it out," said the spokesman. The city has 4700 employees and is aware of two women wearing headscarves who work on counters dealing with the public. It was possible they might be offered work elsewhere, the spokesman said. The ban would not affect teachers and police officers. Ghent follows Belgium's second city Antwerp, which banned its workers from wearing headscarves and religious wear earlier this year. Antwerp has since said Muslim women in nurseries would be allowed to cover their heads with bandanas instead."

McCain opposes waterboarding: "It is a matter of controversy whether waterboarding constitutes torture. McCain's position is certainly a defensible one, but we find his instinct unsettling. There are going to be gray areas in the war on terror, and we'd rather have the man at the top be someone who, when faced with difficult questions, errs on the side of protecting American women and children from being murdered rather than protecting terrorists from being treated unpleasantly.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN.

List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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