A very short Middle East History for my friends who need the lesson..Thanks so much to my knowledgeable friend Bill: In the best of all possible worlds Gandhi would be right. The Jews would return to their ancient homeland and be welcomed with open arms by the Arabs. But in fact the Arabs and the Jews are by the same religion that Gandhi mentions, mortal enemies according to the Arabs, but not the Jews. And when the Jews chose to return to their ancient homeland to build a safe harbor for all Jews, they didnt come and take the land back, they bought it from its landlords the Ottoman Arabs in Syria. Palestine wasnt a country, it was a county or province within the Ottoman empire at the time. It was sparsely inhabited by a disparate group of peoples, Arabs in the majority but also Christians, Copts and Jews. Mostly it was desert in which Bedouin tribes roamed. The Jews paid exorbitant prices for the land, up to $1,000 an acre for desert. The Arabs never welcomed them back but were accepting of Jewish money raised worldwide for the rebuilding of Israel. And this was done in response to the pogroms of Jews which had been ongoing throughout Europe for centuries and which actually continued throughout Europe until the close of WWII. The Arabs resented the return of the Jews and in the run up to WWII sided with the Nazis, the nascent Jewish state fought with the allies. After the war the leader of the Palestinians, The Grand Mufti of Bethlehem was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death. And when the British ended the mandate imposed after WWI, when the Ottomans lost all their holdings, and they pulled out, the Palestinian Arabs attacked the new Jewish state and were joined by all the surrounding Arab states. The survival of the Jewish state was a close question but they prevailed and did throw the bulk of the Palestinians out of Israel creating the Palestinian refugee situation, but I ask you who wouldnt have done the same. And what happened to the Ottomans after WWI and their holdings? Gone! !! Taken by the victors. And what about all of Germanys holdings? What happened to them after WWII? Gone, all of them. In the entire history of mankind, to the victors go the spoils and the Palestinians were justly kicked out as enemies of the state of Israel which they remain to date through their leadership. The PLO, Fatah, and Hamas. The question is why didnt the Palestinians refugees get absorbed by all the surrounding Arab states after they lost their war with Israel? Why were they left to rot in refugee camps for over 60yrs. Its because the Arabs are tribal and didnt want them and also it became to their PR advantage to show them suffering and dying in squalid conditions and to blame it on the Jews. The Arabs with their oil money could have erected a pleasure palace for the Palestinians in part of Saudi Arabia for instance like they have around the Mediterranean in places like Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Also note that following the war that the UN with our push recognized the state of Israel making it legitimate and enduring it will be there as a fact forever. They did it in part as reparations for the sins of the allies and the world in blocking Jewish emigration from Germany before WWII which made the Jews easy pickings for Hitlers final solution for the Jews which we know today as the Holocaust. So the state of Israel can be thought of as an international act of Eminent Domain with a final seal of approval from the last court of appeal, the UN. In other words, Israel is a done deal forever, just like the US aint going back to the indians who have a better claim to it than the Palestinians have to what is now Israel. And if the 48 war werent enough to seal their fate, theres the 56 war, the 67 war, The 73 war, the 82 and infitadas of 87 and the 2,000s all of which the Arabs have lost. Then there is the matter of what happened to all the Jewish populations of the Arab states? The Jews were slaughtered and driven out of the Arab states. Show me a Jew in Iraq or Saudi Arabia or really any of the Arab states. Theres probably only a few thousand in places like Lebanon and thats it. How about a right of return for them. Youll never see it. The real questions are after all these wars, is if the Israelis are such genocidal, murdering maniacs.. then why dont the Israelis just kill every last one of the Palestinians and be done with it? They could in a day. But they chose not to. And why dont the Arabs just accept the fact of Israel and put their energies into building a new homeland for the Palestinians instead of continuing to fund this never ending state of war
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 16:45:00 +0000
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