Saint,
(I've sent a copy of this to the author as well)
Why does no one ever mention the fact that some 630,000 Arabs were displaced by the 1948 war, most leaving because the advancing ARAB ARMY told them to do so, but that also, 630,000 Jews were FORCEABLY removed from Arab lands by way of Pogroms and personal attack with no compensation, and no opportunity to reclaim the land.
However ALL ARAB property that was abandoned would be returned to any Arab that could prove ownership as long as they agreed to live there in peace.
Saint, why, when Jordan controlled the West Bank, was there no call for a Palestinian homeland?
You said (or the article did) that,
The problem the Zionists faced in 1947-48 was this: Despite their best efforts, they had not succeeded in persuading a sufficient number of Jews to emigrate to Palestine. Consequently, even in the territory allotted by the partition of Palestine to the Jews, there were so many Palestinian Arabs that the early Zionists knew they should soon equal or exceed the Jews in numberThe truth of the matter is that BRITISH authorities wouldn't allow Jewish immigration into the area, while Arab immigration continued unabated
another quote
Zionists, however, were not acting in an arbitrary manner. The Zionist ideology, on which the current state of Israel is based, demands a Jewish state defined as a state with a Jewish majority, a Jewish government and Jewish laws. Small, non-Jewish minorities can be tolerated, though in practice in Israel they have been treated like second-class people. But a plural state is out of the question
And you find this objectionable because WHY exactly? No other peoples have faced the persecution the Jews have. No one went about trying to kill every Arab in the World in 1942 did they. The only way Jews can be sure they will not be attacked and run off their land like in so many pogroms throught Europe or killed outright, is to have a JEWISH STATE.
An Arab majority was unacceptable to Zionist ideology, so they practiced ethnic cleansing.Notice this statement is NOT followed up by any facts!
You had a family, a farm or a business or shop. You had friends and relatives in a village where your ancestors had lived for centuries. Then, in the blink of an eye, you are torn from your roots and cast into a foreign country with no possessions, no money and no state you can call your own.Several problems with the above statement. by the figures give by the writer of the artical he admits that over HALF of those so called Palestinians arrived in the Holy Land AFTER 1919, so their families had NOT been there for Centuries. Also, most Arabs were NOT forced out, but left because the INVADING ARAB ARMIES told them to. Further, The so called Palestinians had NEVER had a State to call their own EVER!
These people and their descendants still live in those camps, at least those the Israelis haven't killed during their periodic bombing and shelling. These are the people Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak told Yasser Arafat that he must agree can never return or be compensated for their losses. That alone would have prevented Arafat from signing the agreement.Tell me, why are they still living in camps? Why haven't they been allowed to blend with the population in, oh, say, LEBENON? it's because the Lebonese fear that allowing them to mix with the population would unsettle the ethnic balance and makeup of Lebenon. Why, with the 100's of millions the PA has recieved, are there still Camps in places like Jenin? And why did these bombings and attacks take place? Is it because Arabs have used these camps first to launch attacks on Israel. The land mentioned was held for 50 years, all they had to do was prove they owned it.
It is this expulsion, not the establishment of the state of Israel, that Palestinians mean when they speak of the "Catastrophe." It was not only a cruel act of ethnic cleansing, but it was one of the greatest robberies in the history of mankind. Imagine if you could suddenly gain ownership of Miami-Dade, with all its businesses, inventories, bank accounts, houses, farms, and crops. Palestine was no Miami-Dade County, but the Palestinian possessions were nevertheless quite a pile of loot for the Israelis.No, the Palestinians have CONSISTENTLY called for the Destruction, eradication, anihilation of Israel and the Jewish people. Ethnic cleansing? Who did the jews stand against a wall and murder? Roberry? Where's the outcry for the robbery of Jewish property in Arab lands? The Jewish people found a land that had not been developed in the least. They've made a fertile and prosperous land from Desert, and for this the Arabs are jealous.
In 1947-48, Palestinians Became VictimsIn 47-48 There were no Arabs called Palestinians, Jews were, but not Arabs. Arabs were identified as being part of Greater Syria. WHERE was the outcry for a Jewish homeland when Jordan controlled the West Bank and Egypt the Gaza Strip? Why wasn't a Palestinian homeland founded then? Because it wasn't until the late 60's that the term "Palestinian" was applied to Arabs who had lived in or immigrated to (like Arafat) the Holy Land.
YERUSALYIM
"Vanity! It's my favorite sin!"
[Al Pacino as Satan, in "DEVIL'S ADVOCATE"]
