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Then, as I’m sure you know, when Israel declared a state in May of 1948 the surrounding Arab countries immediately attacked them. During the ensuing war, which the new State of Israel surprisingly won, roughly half a million Arabs lost their homes; some fled from fear, some fled to make room for the Arab armies to wipe out the Jews, and some were forcibly removed by Israel. Although the loss of one’s home during a time of war is truly tragic, unfortunately that’s what happens during a war. As I’m sure you know it happened in much greater numbers in Europe during the same decade. However perhaps less well known is that as a result of the events in Israel, approximately 700,000 Sephardic Jews were forcibly removed from the Arab countries where they had been living for many generations.
Nevertheless, while the war in Israel created both Jewish and Arab refugees, there is a major difference. While the Jewish refugees managed to resettle, as do all refugees, the Arabs never resettled. Moreover, as a result of the unique definition employed by UNRWA to define who is a Palestinian refugee, something that is different from that used to define any other refugee in the world, the number of Palestinian refugees has been greatly bloated. Still worse however is that rather than solving the problem years ago and resettling the Arabs, UNRWA has simply maintained the situation and thus perpetuated the humanitarian crisis.
Of course UNRWA is not alone to blame for this, as the Arab countries have also been making cynical use of the Palestinian issue for years. Rather than granting citizenship to the UNRWA-defined refugees who reside in their countries and in doing so close the issue once and for all, it’s been far more important for Arab rulers to keep these people stuck in refugee camps in order to keep the Arab-Israeli conflict alive. This policy of course has been wildly successful as the conflict continues on and on. However, do you honestly believe Mr. Sarkozy that Israel should pay the price for either this cynical Arab treatment of the Palestinians or for the damage done by UNRWA?
Returning to the 1948 war, one result of the conflict was that Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria. This move of course was clearly illegal since this land legally belonged to the Jewish people for the creation of a Jewish state. Of particular importance is that during the nineteen years that Jordan ruled Judea and Samaria and even part of Jerusalem, where, by the way, they managed to destroy nearly sixty synagogues in the Old City of Jerusalem, for the most part no one spoke about creating a Palestinian state. So the question is, if the Palestinian Arabs were waiting for a state, as you claim Mr. Sarkozy, why didn’t they and their supporters speak up when Judea and Samaria was under Jordanian control?
Finally, even if you say let’s not talk about what happened years ago but let’s look at the present generation, that’s fine with me. Let’s talk about what happened eleven years ago when Prime Minister Barak offered the Arabs more than 95% of Judea-Samaria-Gaza and even part of Jerusalem. What happened then Mr. Sarkozy? You got it, the Arabs once again said no.
In light of the above and in light of a century of endless hostility towards the Jewish people, to say that for sixty years the Palestinians have been waiting for a state they deserve is a somewhat dubious, if not false, claim. Moreover, to imply that Israel is to blame for this supposed injustice and therefore should pay by relinquishing more land for the creation of an Arab state that will undoubtedly pose a threat to the very existence of Israel is nothing short of ludicrous.
Sincerely,
Yoel Meltzer
Yoel Meltzer is a freelance writer living in Jerusalem. His personal blog is http://yoelmeltzer.com.
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