The 1948 war began with Arab attacks the day the U.N. passed the partition resolution in November 1947, which was accepted by the Zionists, and rejected by the Arabs in mandate Palestine and the Arab nations. The war escalated when 5 Arab armies invaded in May 1948 when the British withdrew, with a goal of wiping out the Jewish presence. About 600,000 Arabs abandoned homes in the war that went on for over a year. Only a very few of them were kicked out or driven out by the Jews. 
Of the 600,000 original Arab refugees, perhaps 75,000 are alive today. Yet the Palestinians claim 5 million refugees. They do this because alone among the refugee populations of the world, the U.N considers descendants of the original refugees, whether 2nd, 3rd, or 4th generation, as refugees, even though they never even set foot in Israel in their lives. The Palestinians and Arab nations blame Israel for the plight of the refugees, but it is their cynical use of the refugee issue, that has kept alive a refugee population 63 years after a war, and embittered Palestinians from ever accepting a Jewish majority state of Israel.(1)
Kristallnacht, example of physical damage
About 200 synagogues were damaged, and in many cases destroyed, (constituting nearly all Germany had), including Jewish cemeteries. More than 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps. The treatment of prisoners in the camps was brutal, accounting for 2,000 to 2,500 hundred of the deaths, whereas less than one hundred died during the riots. Most were released during the following three months on condition that they leave Germany.
Lets skip the Holocaust and go back to the Middle East.
Seventy years ago, on June 1, 1941, the most dramatic and violent pogrom in the Arab Middle East during World War II took place in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. Known in Arabic as the Farhūd, this devastating pogrom left approximately 150 Jews dead, hundreds more wounded, and led to the ransacking of nearly 600 Jewish businesses. The grim events of June 1-2, 1941 were the Iraqi Arab equivalent of the mass violence on Kristallnacht, which had taken place some two and a half years earlier across Nazi Germany.
The pogrom struck at what was the most prosperous, prominent and well-integrated Jewish community in the Middle East – one whose origins went back more than 2,500 years – long before there was any Arab presence in the country. The 90,000 Jews of Baghdad, it should be said, played a major role in the commercial and professional life of the city. However, in the 1930s they already found themselves confronted by an increasingly virulent anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist propaganda in the Iraqi press and among nationalist political groups. This agitation treated the intensely patriotic Iraqi Jews as an alien, hostile minority who had to be ejected from all the social, economic and political positions it held in the Iraqi state.
Iraqi Arab nationalists, like their counterparts in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt, had been much influenced in the 1930s by the rise of Nazi Germany. Hitler’s National Socialism attracted them as a spectacular, authoritarian model for achieving Iraqi national unity and a wider union of Arabs in the region.
Significantly, it was also in Baghdad that the first official Arabic translations of parts of Hitler’s Mein Kampf appeared in 1934. In order not to offend Arab sensibilities the final translation “edited” out Hitler’s racial theories about inferior “Semites” – making it clear that anti-Semitism related only to Jews, not to Arabs.
Ten years later, the government of Iraq under the pro-British Nuri es-Said, expropriated, dispossessed, disenfranchised and brought about the forced emigration of nearly 120,000 Iraqi Jews, thereby cruelly terminating the oldest of all Diaspora histories. This was not only a crime against humanity but an insufficiently acknowledged part of the history of the Holocaust. The Farhūd exposed with shocking clarity just how vulnerable the Jews in Arab lands really were and what their fate was likely to be under any decolonized Arab regime in the future, especially if there was a breakdown of law and order.
Despite the “Arab Spring” not much has changed for other minorities in the Middle East in the last 70 years. As for the Jews, from Morocco to Iraq and Iran they would be “ethnically cleansed” after 1945 by their Muslim rulers. The Farhūd already represented the writing on the wall for those willing to read it. The reinforcement of a strong Israel was and still remains the only viable long-term answer to the repetition of such horrific atrocities in the future.(3)
First Germany, then many Arab countries began a brutal campaign of mob violence including police and soldiers to drive out all Jews and seize their property. Even Jews who could trace their heritage back to 586 BC in Baghdad were expelled from Arab lands. So they fled to Israel and, when the UN announced the Jews would be granted their own land, the surrounding Arab’s said they would not allow it, and attacked. I don’t blame the Arabs living in Israel for leaving, as warned, before the fighting started. But it was the Arabs that displaced them, not Israel. But why were they not allowed to return after the fighting ended? At first, they were. I spoke with a Jewish, former USAF Captain who was serving at that time what he remembered about this, he said they allowed them to return until Hamas arrived, around 1950. But not to just take the word of any one person…..
Arab refugees from the 1948 War of Independence, located in camps in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, became a locusof anti-Israel activity. No Arab country would take them in and no Arab country would help them, so they became the responsibility of the United Nations. These angry Arabs began to make one-night raids against Israelis, killing one here, raping one there. They were encouraged by the Arab states to do so. In fact, Egypt’s military recruited and trained them and Egypt even offered a fixed price for Jewish heads.
This wave of attacks on Israel became more organized in the form of Palestinian Arab terrorist groups, called “fedayeen” (peasants who were deemed “Men of Sacrifice” or “Suicide Fighters”), who began to conduct raids against the Israeli civilian population by 1951. The fedayeen operated from bases in the territories surrounding Israel: Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan. They were trained and equipped, primarily by Egyptian Intelligence, to engage in hostile action on the border and infiltrate Israel to commit acts of sabotage and murder. The fedayeen operated mainly from locations in Jordan, so that Jordan would bear the brunt of Israel’s retaliation, which inevitably followed.
In the period 1951-1956, hundreds of fedayeen attacks were carried out against Israel; over 400 Israelis were killed and 900 injured. The IDF reacted in a series of “Reprisal Operations” many of which were carried out by infantry units, paratroopers and the special anti-terrorism Unit 101.
The fedayeen acts of terror, supported by the Arab countries led, eventually, to the outbreak of the Sinai Campaign.(4)
My, that does sound familiar. The countries that attacked Israel, displaced the Arabs living there then urged them to embark a terrorist war against the Jews, offering training and support, but not allowing them any chance for a permanent home.
Entrance to UNWRA’s Aida Palestinian Refugee Camp near Bethlehem, with key representing the right of return that says “not for Sale”
Ramallah, West Bank — It has surrounded the Jewish state on all sides for months, a roiling wave from Egypt to Jordan to Syria, but this week the Arab Spring came to Israel. The thousands of Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon who Sunday tried to surge across the border with Israel introduced a new tactic in the Palestinian struggle to reclaim what they see as their homeland. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he feared it is just the start of a new initiative that could present “far more complex challenges.” The would-be Palestinian invaders were not chanting for a two-state solution but rather for a return to the Galilee and to Jaffa. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out, they were carrying keys to “our homes in Jaffa, Acre, Haifa and Ramle,” not to their homes in Ramallah or Nablus, he said.
Entrance to UNWRA’s Aida Palestinian Refugee Camp near Bethlehem, with key representing the right of return that says “not for Sale”
photo by Rhonda Spivak
Whether Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas heard their chants is questionable because two days later he wrote an op-ed in the New York Times in which he detailed his plans to ask the United Nations General Assembly in September to recognize a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. “Until Sunday we thought this revolution of the youth of the Arab world was against Arab dictators and that we were out of the equation, that it was not about us,” said Morchechai Kedar, a research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. “That is correct when it comes to the people from those countries, but when it comes to the Palestinians who have been held in refugee camps there, they are demonstrating in Israel because of the repression of the Arab world.” The Palestinian longing for a return to their former homes in Israel is perhaps best exemplified by a 28-year-old Syrian man who managed to breach the Israeli border Sunday. He hitchhiked and took a bus 130 miles to Jaffa and later told police he was searching for the home of his parents before they and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven to neighboring Arab countries during Israel’s War of Independence. “This is something they will try again and again,” Kedar said. “This is today the modus operandi in the Arab world. The weaker you are, the stronger you are. If you don’t have weapons and exposed hands, you are the most powerful. The ones who shoot are illegitimate and are weaker than you. Israel will have to find a way to send them back without killing them, such as with the use of tear gas and rubber-coated bullets.” He said Syrian President Bashar Assad instigated the Palestinian demonstration to “divert the media from what he is doing” in various Syrian cities to forcibly crush a popular uprising in which more than 1,300 have been reportedly shot dead by Syrian forces.(5)
Does Israel have the “right” to claim that land and defend it against all attackers? I say yes, that the attackers “owe” the moral burden to those displaced. Will Baghdad return the property stolen and pay restitution to the Jews? And the same for all the other countries who did the same? The guilt and the burden belong to the countries that attacked Israel in 1948, and the thieves that expelled their Jewish citizens. We believe in “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. The Arabs surrounding Israel seem to believe the Jews deserve life only if they are slaves. One out of those three is pretty bad.
(1)http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/05/chris_wallace_says_israel_kick.htmlThe Palestinians want to flood Israel with five million “non-refugee refugees” in order to become a majority in Israel and change the character of the state.
(2)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht
(3)http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/4751
(4)http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_1948to1967_fedayeen.php
(5)http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/israel/arab_spring_palestinians_new_tactic_against_israel
other sources not used
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/05/the_myth_of_the_palestinian_re.html http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/05/clarices_pieces_obama_and_the.html
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/05/obamas_revisionist_history.html http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/06/13/syrians-pour-across-border-after-crackdown/?test=latestnews
Black Flag®
commonman55
d13thecolonel
gman
Just A Citizen
Life of Illusion
Jon Smith
USWeapon
Stand Up For America 
Good Morning, LOI. I stand ready with tons of facts and figures………..I will refrain until I see the responses. I am no fan of Israel at all, as I have stated, but I will defend their right to be where they are….I do not like our funding of them but I do not like the funding of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the myriad of others that Iran is specifically doing and has been caught. And, I believe, that if the United States pulled financial support and Israel were eliminated, nothing stops there. So, I am ready to help defend.
By the way…….. I hope you do not get a bunch of…..Hamas, Hezbollah, etal would not be around if the United States was not complicit….to that, I throw the early BS flag…
Morning D,
I guess I am a “fan” of Israel, partly as a PsydoChristian. They are “Gods Chosen people”, and that carries some weight. There are arguments on both sides on our foreign meddling. I think the one true statement on that would be either stop all of it or pick your side and try to win what you think is just. If it’s all about oil, drop Israel, cozy up to SA, kiss & make up with Iran. No matter how you look at it, our mixed policy leaves everyone confused. We’ll do something that pleases the Saudie’s, then something else to piss them off. One strong statement I can make about Israel that cannot be said about her neighbors is she does not want to see the US, UK, or any nation conquered by Islam. With Israel, we have shared values. And a purely emotional reason to support Israel, invaded by five Arab armies, they kicked their @sses.
My hero! My hero!
My point also….make a policy and stick to it.But this clap trap that the US and Israel is responsible for ME unrest is just that…clap trap. Good luck today, sir.
Small hijack…Texas took a gigantic step forward Wednesday and passed SB9…..no sanctuary cities in Texas anymore.
GO Texas!!! Self hijack,
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/4754
😐
We talk alot on here about our right to stand up to tyranny, our right to freedom-It seems to me that the Jewish populations in the ME did just that, using the tools they had available to get a Jewish state. That they have had to fight over and over again to retain that state and the freedom it provides. Yet somehow they are put down for it by some of these same people who DEMAND their right to freedom. International law is quoted as if it is the end all, be all of an individuals or a countries peoples right to freedom-when it is in my opinion in reality(although a noble endeavor to stop nation building) unreasonable to tell a country that is continually attacked that they simply must return land to the people who attacked them. Even if returning the land will make them and their freedoms in danger of being taken away.
V.H.
Matches my thoughts. Thanks for saying it so well! But you had better prepare yourself for a flag attack for those statements. Go strap on all protective equipment.
I think we said the same thing in different words but thank you 🙂 -I find it strange that people keep insisting that the Palestinians own this land-perhaps I misunderstand history but I believe that Gaza was a part of Egypt and the West Bank was a part of Jordan-So why are these people considered refugees. Why aren’t they citizens of these two countries. If Mexico took back Texas(calm down D-it’s only an example 🙂 the citizens of Texas would still be American citizens-not refugees.
Take away the refugee status that the UN (and the world now) confers on the Palestinians, thereby making them citizens of the country they were born in, and you remove all political cover for the continued Palestinian problem since they wouldn’t be without a homeland.
And we know that just wouldn’t do…..hell it could lead to all sorts of dreadful things – like peace for example.
Well, it is very obvious that the important point to the Arab population in the ME-is not wanting Israel being there-not the well being of the so-called Palestinians.
Agreed. I doubt wiping Israel off the map as a nation will gain the Palestinian “refugees” anything. I would be willing to bet that those poor refugees still wouldn’t have their own nation. Instead we’d end up seeing the lands of the former Israel parceled out to the surrounding Arab nations – becoming parts of those lands.
Either way those refugees lose.
No offense taken…I was running out of prairie dogs anyway.
The supporters (here in the US I mean the liberal-progressives) of the “refugee” Palestinians and their claims to the lands “stolen” by the Jews of Israel, the Jews are categorized as no better than the white Europeans who “stole” the lands of the United States – using the argument of Manifest Destiny – raping, pillaging, and plundering it from its “rightful” owners.
In other words – no one cares about any rights of a bunch of white European Jews (for the most part) who are victims in this repeated cycle of rape, pillage, and plunder for political goals.
There – now we have the opposition view out of the way.
The situation is Israel will never be solved as long as anyone on either “side” of the issue pushes for their “rights” (violently or otherwise) over all others. If Israel were to “disappear” of the map of the world just what would that settle?
PS: For those of you with a liberal-progressive position I did intentionally broad brush you all into one group since it is too difficult to keep your individual beliefs straight. 🙂
Keep in mind also that the tent cities in the desert from 1948 are long gone. Over the past sixty-three years the United Nations and the United States have poured billions into the camps to upgrade living conditions. What Palestinian advocates like to call “camp shelters” or “CS’s” are typically 4-5 story concrete apartment buildings with electricity, kitchens, satellite television tuned to al-Jazeera, and municipal garbage collection. According to the UN, 99.8% of camp shelters are “connected to water networks” and 87% are “connected to sewerage networks.” In other words, Palestinian camps are modern cities. Yes, they are overcrowded, with high unemployment, and I wouldn’t want to live there. The infrastructure in these so-called refugee camps is however far superior to the shantytowns in Dhaka, Calcutta, Soweto, Kinshasa, Rio de Janeiro, Lagos, Jakarta, and many other cities where hundreds of millions live without running water, in shacks cobbled together from scraps of tin and cardboard, with open sewers running through the streets.
The conduit for most of the money pouring into the Palestinian camps is the UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, which was set up as a temporary agency in 1949. Its current budget is $1.2 billion, which compares to the total “regular” U.N budget of $4.9 billion. Including all “extrabudgetary” programs (which includes UNRWA), the total 2010-11 UN budget is $13.9 billion. Thus the UN spends an amount equal to 25% of its regular budget, or 8.6% of its total budget on 0.08% of the world’s population.
UNRWA is, for obvious reasons, pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel. A press release on May 16th following the “Nakba Day” assault on Israeli borders from the UNRWA Commissioner-General (their website offers his photo but not his name) gives an idea of where their sympathies lie:
I deplore the deaths of Palestine refugees in Lebanon, the occupied Golan Heights and the occupied Palestinian territory [“occupied” is another code word for the illegitimacy of Israel–repeated not once but twice]. These sad events demonstrate once more the vulnerability of the Palestine refugees we serve…They underline the need for a just and durable solution, based on UN resolutions, to resolve the plight of those who have endured statelessness, exile and dispossession for 63 years.
Another UNRWA press release last Friday is titled, “Palestine refugee health as much at risk today as in 1950, says new report.” The motivation is obvious, to prove that despite 63 years of activity, the temporary agency UNRWA is still vitally needed. The text of the press release however reports that a) “the reduction of child mortality (Millennium Development Goal Four) is on track” and b) “UNRWA continues to achieve a near 100 per cent rate of immunization coverage.” The desperate health risks noted include:
A rise in non-communicable diseases such as diabetes [that] have led to acute health challenges
New-born screening for hearing impairment in Gaza
Integrating mental health and family protection in the West Bank
Improving rational use of drugs in Syria
Translating health reform into action, with focus on primary health care in Lebanon
Screening for phenylketonria (PKU) and hypothyroidism in Jordan
None of these health concerns should be scoffed at, but how ludicrous to compare the risk of diabetes or hearing impairment to life-threatening diseases like dysentery and diarrhea in the 1950 camps and in so much of the world today.
Calling Palestinians “refugees” and continuing to treat them like helpless victims does them no favors, especially when $1.2 billion could be spent more effectively elsewhere.
http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/05/the_myth_of_the_palestinian_re.html
I also remember reading about Jordan-that they were giving citizenship to their citizens from the disputed land-but at some point they stopped and even took back citizenship-just so the so-called Palestinians wouldn’t lose right of return. And that somehow Jordan gave up ownership of the West Bank but without actually giving it to anybody or some such sorry I can’t remember the correct word ? but anyway they didn’t want to be part of the dispute over the land.
I also read the following article about the UANRWA which I thought was interesting.
June 17, 2011
UNRWA: Protesting Too Much
By Arlene Kushner
What do you do when your license to continue operating as a human service provider is about to come under review?
If you are smart, you devise a two-pronged plan: provide evidence of the continuing need for your services, and attack those who criticize or question your operation.
This is precisely what UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) — a PR-savvy agency if ever there was one — is doing in the run-up to the U.N. General Assembly vote on the renewal of UNRWA’s mandate at the end of this month.
Unfortunately for UNRWA, this time, it is seriously overplaying its hand. It has been fairly successful until now with regard to convincing the world that Israel is responsible for the Palestinian Arab “refugees” remaining in limbo. And UNRWA has as effectively provided a picture of overwhelming human hardship in Gaza.
However, UNRWA has just issued a report that can be readily refuted. In addition, official spokesperson Chris Gunness has put out statements in the media that only someone recently arrived from outer space would be likely to swallow uncritically.
Let’s look at the official report first. This is an annual report, put out each year to mark Israel’s blockade of Gaza — instituted in June 2007, after Hamas took Gaza in a coup.
This Israeli maritime blockade is sanctioned by international law: Israel is at war with Hamas and has the right to prevent arms and rockets, which would be used to attack Israeli civilians, from entering Gaza via the Mediterranean. One need only consider the history of ships that Israel has intercepted that were carrying arms meant for Gaza — most recently on March 15 of this year — to understand Israel’s concern.
Furthermore, Israel has set up no barriers against humanitarian aid on land. Goods are permitted through crossings between Israel and Gaza on a daily basis. In the past year, restrictions on what would be permitted through have been loosened, with only those materials that serve a dual purpose and might be employed by Hamas for weaponry being denied entry. The permitted goods are both humanitarian — for use by UNRWA and other human service NGOs operating in Gaza — and commercial.
UNRWA’s report this year documents what it claims is a deteriorating situation in Gaza. Says Gunness, who is cited in this report:
[T]he number of people coming to us, the abject poor living on just over 1 dollar a day, has tripled to 300,000 since the blockade was imposed and with many reconstruction projects still awaiting approval, the future looks bleak.
Of course, he explains:
Amid this economic gloom, UNRWA will continue with its human development work in health and education, running schools for some 213,000 children in Gaza, helping them towards a belief in an educated, dignified and peaceful future.
Gunness makes the claim that growth took place in the public sector — that is, within the government run by Hamas — and not at all in a declining private sector.
But let’s take a look at a few salient facts that address the situation in Gaza.
According to a report issued last month by the International Monetary Fund, the gross domestic product in Gaza increased by 15% in the last year.
A June 13 article by Media Line states that “Gazans say that goods smuggled in from Egypt [via the tunnels] are now an option rather than a necessity … Gazans say they turn to Israeli goods because there is a wider variety and better quality.”
On occasion, UNRWA has made the argument that consumer goods may be available, but people cannot afford to buy them. This ultimately defies logic, because merchants would not continue to bring in consumer goods via the crossings from Israel if said merchants were not selling said goods. According to an IDF release, in the past two days alone, 491 truckloads of goods and fuel (totaling more than 13,000 tons) passed into Gaza. Some of those goods were commercial.
But for confirmation of the fact that conditions are better in Gaza, we don’t need to go further than a statement by John Ging, made in December, shortly before he left his position as coordinator of UNRWA operations in Gaza.
[W]e’ve now turned the corner[.] … [S]ince the new Israeli government decision on adjusting the blockade [that is, allowing more goods in via the land crossings], every day is better than yesterday.
This is not the picture Gunness has painted, and it’s not his only misrepresentation.
In an attempt to refute charges made concerning UNRWA, Gunness wrote an op-ed this week, in which he claimed the following:
Any suggestion that UNRWA is complicit in promoting anti-Semitism or terrorism lazily pedals old myths and fails to take account of the invaluable “neutrality” work that we carry out in our installations, whereby international UN staff work tirelessly, regularly inspecting our facilities, immediately rectifying any issues that come to light.
Our strenuous efforts to assure the neutrality not just of our facilities, but also of our staff, are regularly reported to our major donors, included the United States, to their satisfaction. In addition, we teach human rights and peaceful conflict resolution every day to some 500,000 children in the Arab states and territories around Israel, encouraging in the next generation the belief in a peaceful and stable future. Here our contribution IS unique.
As someone who has documented statements by UNRWA personnel for years, I rather thought that Chris Gunness outdid himself here.
It is a matter of public information that Hamas (via its affiliate Islamic Bloc) has long dominated the UNRWA’s teachers’ union in the Gaza Strip. In 2006, for the first time, Hamas’s candidates won all eleven seats, meaning that Hamas representatives now controlled the executive council of this union sector. That pattern persisted in the 2009 elections, and Hamas-affiliated people are now effectively in charge in the schools.
That Hamas-affiliated Islamic Bloc (known in Arabic as Al-Kutla Al-Islamiah) also maintains broad programs in UNRWA schools in Gaza. Beginning as early as junior high school, the Islamic Bloc promotes incitement to jihad and opposition to Israel. The goal is to win the hearts and minds of students so they can be recruited into the Hamas military wing during high school or after graduation.
What is more, the textbooks used in UNRWA schools in Gaza and Judea and Samaria are produced by the Palestinian Authority. These textbooks teach that all the land between the river and the sea belongs to the Arabs and that “martyrs” should be praised. Academic researcher Arnon Groiss calls these volumes “texts of war.”
So much for teaching human rights and belief in a peaceful future in UNRWA schools.
Could it be that UNRWA is running scared?
Hopefully Western nations, which provide the bulk of the financial support for UNRWA, are beginning to look at the organization’s operations with a jaundiced eye. It’s time to adjust that UNRWA mandate.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/unrwa_protesting_too_much.html
Sabra? Shatila? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
::crickets chirping::
……..and here we go…….
Where does it all end?
Where does it all end?
I don’t know when or where, but statistics and history tells us that sooner or later a large asteroid will strike the Earth. This will strike with the force of hundreds of trillions of tons of TNT. As with the K-T boundary, we can expect that it will throw up hundreds of trillions of tons dust and debris into the atmosphere. This dust will blot out the sun and take at least a decade to dissipate.
First, the plants and algae which depend on photosynthesis will die.
Next, the herbivores which depend on plants and algae will starve to death.
Next, the carnivores which depend on herbivores will starve to death.
Next, 99% of the human race will starve to death.
Next, of the remaining 1%, fierce competition for resources result in the death of at least half.
Of the remaining 0.5% of humanity, there is likely going to be nothing resembling a government, so the Palestinians will be able to freely move back to their ancestral homes which will be unoccupied because the owners all starved to death.
Finally, some fanatic (on either side), will get a hold of a loose nuke and blow up Jerusalem claiming it to be God/Yahweh/Allah’s will.
The radioactive mutant survivors will live in peace, knowing first-hand, the futility of the feud.
Your point sir-Israel did bad or their army did bad -so have most if not all countries in the world. That is what happens when hate is paramount and people are continually attacked for 60 some odd years-so just what is the state of Israel supposed to do-to make up for what happened-Cease to exist?
No, no, no.. that’s not it at all..
I just think, as always, that things are more complicated than they’re being presented.
Though I generally – generally – agree with LOI’s narrative, I think it paints an overly one-sided portrait of the innocent Israeli Jews who never do anything wrong and are purely victims of millenia of pogroms, discrimination, and mass murder.
While it is true that, generally, the Jews try to do what is morally right, it is very important in order to hold a rational debate to observe the simple fact that they, like their enemies, commit atrocities from time to time.
This, of course, coming from the token Jew of SUFA..
I would agree that painting Israel as nothing but the victim is an inaccurate at least. They have their share of – shall we say – bad faith acts against the Palestinians of Israel.
But, I think it needs to end there as far as it goes and not continually, or so it seems, get locked into unproductive debate battles over who done who wronger. It’s a wonderful distraction for actually dealing with the issues and problems of the Israeli-Palestinian “problem.”
There is no easy answer to getting the violence stopped, individual and cultural rights protected, and peace brought about. Especially when there is so much outside influence – not of the diplomatic kind either.
Again, I generally agree… but it does the debate a disservice to only acknowledge one side.
What does Kristallnacht have to do with the Palestinians? They didn’t do it?
What does Farhūd have to do with the Palestinians? They didn’t do it?
Yes, the Jews have been dealt bad hand after bad hand.
And, yes, the refugees largely drove themselves out (although (God I hate to cite BF), but as he points out, you’d have to be pretty stupid not to get out of the way of a war). And LOI makes the claim that the Arabs attacked, so the war was their fault, but this takes no consideration of the fact that just because the UN says so, doesn’t mean that the people living there should have to agree to a new government (how would you feel if the UN carved out the state of Colorado to be a Muslim state, then all the Muslims in the entire US moved there and started passing laws?).
So, it’s just a little one sided to me.
Here’s how I see it: the Jews had to go somewhere. They went to ‘Israel’. They got some authority to give them the cover of legitimacy (perhaps out of guilt over the Holocaust) and they took over the and set up shop. They got into a fight – the fight was the fault of both sides, don’t kid yourself. The non-Jewish residents fled (they fled on the advice of the Arab forces and local leader paranoia (“the Jews will kill us all!!!”, etc), and because prudence dictates that it’s not wise to get caught in the middle of a war-zone. The Jews kicked some ass – which is surprising because historically, our people haven’t been very athletic. Followed by exactly what LOI describes (right of return, border raids, etc). Arabs attack, Israel responds (sometimes overreacts), Arabs take umbrage, spurs more attacks.. and round and round she goes.
And behind it all are Arab leaders who don’t want responsibility for the shitty lives of the Palestinians, so they lie and manipulate to make sure that they blame who? Blame the JOOOOOOOOOOOS! So they direct the anger outward, and help to ensure that is severe enough to draw a response which can then be used as evidence in support of the opinion that the evil Jews are to blame for everything.
And on the other side are hard right JOOOOOOOOS who refuse to see the Palestinians as human beings who should be treated with respect – who but the kabash on any viable attempt at peace because they see it as imperative that Israel remain a Jewish state and that it give up no territory. These people are better tacticians than the Palestinians, they build illegal settlements and micher (yiddish: to annoy/provoke) the Palestinians, so that they (the JOOOOOOS) can play the victim.
Who what’s the answer? Easy. Screw it. Let the moderates move out, let them kill each other for a few decades more and wait for the meteor to wipe out all life on Earth.
Mathius,
That reply is about an accurate description of the reality as I’ve read.
It never fails to amaze me how some – in this case you – will argue with someone who agrees with you. lol….why is that?
The Arabs actually attacked – if we think this through – because of a decision of the UN, not the Jews living in Palestine (since those Jews really had no power to establish the State of Israel at that time). Once again some high-minded politicians got together and decided what was best for everyone else – typical political recipe for disaster/failure.
The guilt is carried on both sides (and I mean Arab-Israeli, not Palestinian-Israeli). The Arabs outside of Israel are the motivators, the facilitators, the enablers for the Palestinians. I see many of them being caught in the middle (as I see many Jews simply caught in the middle) by events swirling around them. I see blood on hands of both sides.
Israel has a right to exist now – you can’t undo that anymore than you can give the US back to the Native Americans. But, the Palestinians have a right to exist as well, either as a part of Israel (at least if or until a separate Palestinian nation is somehow worked out) or of the nation they were born in and should be citizens of.
And about the UN turning Colorado into a Muslim nation – you really don’t want me to comment on that.
Who the hell pays attention to the UN?
I agree that Israel shouldn’t be painted as innocent-but the rest of the world seems ready to paint Israel as guilty and only speak of the poor Palestinians and using the word Occupied territory over and over again. So my voice is going to be raised for Israel. . I hope the US continues to stand with Israel-hopefully stopping an attempted genocide(and no I do not think that is an exaggeration of the danger) because if we don’t -who will?
Eretz Israel can fend for itself. Believe me, if the US cut and run, they’d find the wherewithal to beat back the Palestinians for a decades.
It took the the Romans decades to conquer Israel.
The Jews ain’t goin’ nowhere.
—
That said, it would probably help if we stopped buying oil from the people funding the attacks on Israel.. just a thought..
Well, if you would help put a Republican in office we would be allowed to use our own energy resources and we wouldn’t have to buy the oil from anyone we didn’t want to buy it from . He He 🙂
I have no doubt that Israel is resilient and strong-that has been proven-but lets not overstate the size of the battle-it isn’t just against the Palestinians or even just the ME anymore. And quite frankly Obama, the left, and even some Jewish organizations in this country seem to be backing the Palestinians more than the Israeli’s -at this point it doesn’t even seem to be somewhere in the middle.
if you would help put a Republican in office Let’s see who wins the primary – then let’s talk.
To justify the State of Israel requires one to also justify this:
I have changed my religion to believe in Hika po-loo, and now I claim that the land in Hawaii is mine by “tradition”- and I can steal and kill to get it from those that live there.
Israel was founded by a bunch of Caucasians who changed their religion to Judaism around 900AD – and to claim these people have a “right” to the traditional homeland can only prove their ignorance of history.
Meh.. you’ve made far better arguments, Flag.
It wasn’t only founded by Caucasians. It was founded by Semetic Jews and Jews from all the tribes which were dispersed after the Diaspora.
Mathius,
*sigh*
I will provide you your history lesson:
* Zionismis a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland.
*Zionist movement was founded in the late 19th century by secular Jews, largely as a response by Ashkenazi Jews to rising antisemitism in Europe,
*Ashkenazi Jews are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north.
*Ashkenazi Jews accounted for 92 percent of the world’s Jews. Today they make up approximately 80 percent of Jews worldwide
A Semite is a person who claims dependency from Shem, the eldest son of Noah. Given that the existence of Noah is highly disputed, it is kinda hard to claim they are “founders” of Israel.
Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist movement.
He was born in Pest, Hungary, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Zimony (today Zemun, Serbia), which was then part of Austria-Hungary. He was second child of Jeanette and Jakob Herzl, who were German-speaking, assimilated Jews
…so, if I change my religion to Hawaiian I get to kill and steal some pretty nice property!
Maybe the official “founder” of Zionism wasn’t the descendants of original Israeli Jews, maybe his great-great-great-great-great-grandmother was. Who knows?
But to assume that there weren’t many Zionists who were legitimately heirs to Israel is, I think, unrealistic.
Especially, when you consider that Judaism is very tribal in nature – we tend not to rely on conversion so much as bloodlines. That’s not to say that we don’t have recent converts (and that may include Herzl), but a large number of modern Jews’ ancestry will include Jews’ from thousands of years ago.
Flagster, well met good sir!
To deny justification of the State of Israel requires one to also justify their only allowed existence is as slaves. Slaves to Egypt’s Arabs, slaves to Arabs in Babylonian. Owning property and being prosperous citizens in numerous countries throughout history only to have it taken by force with the only justification being they are Jews! 2,500 continuous years in Baghdad! Maybe they should have claimed Iran instead? But that would only mean a different group of Arabs wrongly denied their lands.
Egypt, Jordan and the others made “illegal” war on Israel. I suppose Israel should have conquered them outright and kept all the lands and subjected the Arabs for a couple hundred years? Maybe they could have picked up a few Nazi slaves real cheap back then, saved the world money for those pesky trials?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_captivity
Babylonian captivity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Babylonian Exile was the period in Jewish history during which the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon – conventionally 586-538 BCE.[citation needed]
According to the Hebrew Bible, there were three deportations of Jews to Babylon: in 597 BCE, involving King Jeconiah and his court and many others; in 587/6 BCE, of his successor King Zedekiah and the rest of the people; and a possible deportation after the assassination of Gedaliah, the Babylonian-appointed governor of Yehud Province, possibly in 582 BCE. The forced exile ended in 538 BCE after the fall of Babylon to the Persian king Cyrus the Great, who gave the Jews permission to return to Yehud province and to rebuild the Temple;[1] but most Jews chose to remain in Babylon.[citation needed]
The captivity and subsequent return to the Land of Israel and the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem are considered significant events in Jewish history and culture, which had a far-reaching impact on the development of Judaism.
The UN today announced a new resolution to deal with the “Muslim Problem”
Because of persecution of Muslims around the world, they have carved out the state of Colorado to be a new Muslim Homeland. It is to be renamed AllahLand.
REUTERS June 17, 2012:
Following the surprise UN resolution today, tens of millions of Muslims have announced plans to move to
ColoradoAllahLand. The mass migration has sparked concern among longtime residents of the former state. One man, identified only as “Plainlyspoken” had this to say: “It’s my land. I was born here and I intend to die here.” His sentiment was quickly seconded by his wife.REUTERS August 17, 2012:
In the two month following the announcement of the UN, an estimated 27 million Muslims have moved to AllahLand. In direct defiance of the UN resolution, several outpost towns have been established inside the borders of neighboring states. Tensions appear to be rapidly mounting among the native population as the incoming Muslims being to set up a system of government which does not recognize the right on non-Muslims to have a say in the government. The state us Utah has issued an advisory warning to the natives that it may not be safe to remain where they are. However, no state has declared itself willing to accept the displaced population citing high unemployment and a weak economy as well as security concerns.
We caught up with an individual who was only willing to be identified as “S” and got her opinion of the situation: “It seems to me that it isn’t safe to stay. A lot of local leaders are warning us that the Muslims are going to start killing us Christians. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I think there’s going to be a fight. I’m making plans to get out of here because it generally isn’t wise to get caught in the middle of a war-zone. It’s a shame – I’m really going to miss my neighbors, but hopefully I’ll be able to come back some day.”
REUTERS December 12, 2012:
Refugee downs have been set up in the Oklahoma, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico. Though the states have repeatedly refused to grant the refugees citizenship, they have at least allowed them to stay in camps and safely away from AllahLand. The camps suffer from extremely high unemployment.
Yesterday, six states joined in an organized assault on AllahLand in response to the settlements encroaching on their borders. AllahLand officials stated that these settlements (though technically outside their borders) were necessary for their own protection to serve as bulwarks against just this type of “unwarranted hostility.” The assault has sparked a new wave of refugees as the fledgling nation’s remaining non-Muslims fled across the border.
REUTERS December 12, 2013:
On the one-year anniversary of the assault to reclaim land given to AllahLand by the UN, the surrounding states have capitulated. AllahLand has annexed nearly 50% more land over the course of the war. Though they have agreed to refrain from settling in parts of this territory, it is clear that hardliners within the young nation fully intend to do so anyway.
A man we interviewed last year, PlainlySpoken, who had declared his intent to stay put, has since fled to a refugee camp after it was clear that the fighting was putting his life, the life of his wife and daughter, and the life of his goats, cats, horses, cows, sheep, dogs, rabbits, hens, pigs, and his beloved toy poodle, Fluffy, at risk. The entire Spoken Clan, livestock and all, live in a two bedroom apartment in a camp. Asked about his situation, he had this to say: “They stole my land and I demand it back!”
Reached for comment, a spokesman for AllahLand claimed that they never forced him to leave and that, since he left, he has forfeited his land. His homestead, which recently survived a wildfire with the help of massive government intervention, was bulldozed last week to make way for a new Mosque. PlainSpoken, with tears in his eyes has publicly stated his intent to seek vengeance by any means necessary against his oppressors. He does not hold the state of Wyoming (where his camp is located) to be responsible in any way.
It is believed by some, that Wyoming may in fact be funding and training radicals such as PlainlySpoken in an attempt to divert attention away from their own role in the present situation. Official Wyoming broadcast station, Al Wyoming, has initiated a campaign of convincing the displaced refugees (many of whom are illiterate and have no source of information) that they are the victims of the Muslim Occupiers.
The states have taken no responsibility for the war or the disposition of the refugees, nor for the fact that they continue to grant them citizenship.
Funny, but in your wasted time to come up with your satire you didn’t cover the primary reasoning your scenario failed:
They came and we played a game of Cowboys & Muslims, and the Muslims fared no better than the Native Americans!
Isn’t it also interesting that all of the United States stands idly by while the Useless Nations violates the sovereignty of this nation in your satire?
Must be another Obama in office when it happens.
Well it’s 2012.. It doesn’t have to “another” Obama.. it could be the same Obama. 🙂
This was fun to write – I hope it gets some traction because, seen from this perspective, the Coloradans/Palestinians are far more sympathetic. It’s just another perspective on the whole issue. I know you have a more nuanced view than some, so sorry for picking on you but I just couldn’t help myself.
Oh it gave me a chuckle, so no worries there.
I have many nuanced views. Nothing is ever black or white in my thinking.
You have way too much free time on your hands today.
Slow day again.. inexplicable two days in a row, but it’s important to look busy at all times – thus the typing.
Buck…a question. Suppose a state decides to not follow a SCOTUS ruling…… where is the enforcement? FBI?
I really think that we (Texas) is about to do something along those lines. Still monitoring the special session.
I just wanted to take a moment and share with you a picture of US Weapon’s new car. I ride in back.
Here’s the link.
Next week I am adding racing stripes….
REUTERS June 17, 2013:
After several years of on and off hostility, it has been established that the neighboring states would not be able to retake the lost land. Those the authorities in AllahLand officially deny it, it is widely believed that the nation is in possession of several nuclear missiles left behind following the annexation from the United States. Coupled with NORAD for early warning threat detection, it is apparent that AllahLand is here to stay.
Rebel leader PlainlySpoken’s group “The Cowboys” has been conducting illegal cross border raids into AllahLand for months. It is believed that he is being given sanctuary, funding, and training as well as being illegally equipped in Nebraska. Holding all Muslims responsible for the destruction of his ancestral home, he has declared it a sacred duty to kill any citizen of AllahLand. Intelligence suggests that Nebraska, coupled with Wyoming, has deliberately recruited and backed PlainlySpoken because his following diverts responsibility for the refugee situation. Additionally, many in the state governments firmly believe they are doing God’s work in helping to kill the evil Muslims who stole land that they had no right to.
REUTERS June 19, 2013:
Responding to rockets launched over the heavily fortified Wyoming border into civilian populations, AllahLand military conducts a strike against a camp believed to be the recruiting and training grounds of The Cowboys. Though 27 Cowboys were confirmed killed in the raid with no losses on the AllahLand side, three civilians were killed in the shootout – it was not immediately apparent which side had fired the bullets which killed the bystanders, including a young child, age 7.
Sparks of outrage flew as refugee camps across seven states reacted to the “murder” of the civilians in the raid. Al Wyoming, the state sponsored propaganda broadcast station, plays up the tragedy and paints the AllahLand forces as bloodthirsty savages who kill Christians indiscriminately (no better than Canadians!).
Cowboy second in command, “S,” releases a statement to Al Wyoming that the streets would run red with blood in repayment for this atrocity. She makes no reference to the rocket attacks which sparked the initial raid. She appears to have filmed the message from a cave located somewhere in the Rockies.
REUTERS July 4, 2013:
Today as states celebrated their independence from British rule, a new offensive rocked AllahLand as a coordinated series of at least 15 separate suicide bombings focused primarily on AllahLand military checkpoints and government facilities took the lives of 137 people, of which at least 40 are confirmed civilians. Statements from the Cowboys clarified that, while they hold all life to be sacred, the civilians are part of the war machine which conducted the raid killing three civilians in the Horse Creek, WY camp.
AllahLand officials responded to the bloodshed with a statement of defiance stating that they would redouble their efforts to crush the Cowboy and beef up security to protect their land holdings, including the extra land won during the war for independence. They announced their intentions to build a security fence whose location would be highly controversial and economically devastating to regions of western Wyoming and Kansas. They also announced rolling checkpoints and suspended rights of non-Muslims within AllahLand borders, claiming that profiling and random searches could be helpful in saving lives.
REUTERS August 30, 2013:
Special forces of AllahLand conducted a cross border raid into the Horse Creek camp in the early hours of last night. Painting a target safe-house from the ground, an air-strike was conducted. Initial reports are conflicted as the Cowboys claim the safe-house was actually a hospital with no connection to the Cowboys and 370 elderly patients were murdered in their sleep. AllahLand contends that it was the hideout of senior level Cowboy officials and that any civilian deaths were the responsibility of Cowboys who chose to hide behind civilians.
As of press time, we are unable to ascertain which side is correct. AllahLand is claiming a major victory and possibly the death of Cowboy 2nd in command, “S.” The Cowboys have released a statement calling for all non-Muslims to rise up and drive AllahLand into the sea.
It was not immediately apparent which sea they were referring to, as AllahLand is not located near any major body of water.
The statement also contained veiled threats of forthcoming reprisals.
REUTERS September 13, 2013:
A new wave of bus bombings, aiming at shutting down AllahLand’s transportation infrastructure have resulted in dozens of deaths. Cowboys, citing the fact that hardened targets such as military bases are impossible to effectively strike, have stated that they have no choice but to choose softer targets. They continue to demand the return of their home land.
Rocked by the tragedy, AllahLand hardliner respond by initiating settlement construction deeper into the disputed territories – a move many call antagonistic. Reached for comment AllahLand hardliner, Jon Smith, noted that Cowboy terrorists are subhuman and deserve no rights. Allah has ordained this land to be the Muslim homeland and that, properly, the land stretches from Utah to Michigan. Reuters correspondents find it odd to have a AllahLand hardliner named Jon Smith, but accept him at face value.
REUTERS October 8, 2013:
A teenage Christian girl in the disputed territories is found stoned to death near the Jon Smith settlement, located deep inside official Texas territory (having pushed past Oklahoma in their initial expansion). Jon Smith refuses to comment on the matter stating that Christian dogs are none of his concern.
Riots and demonstrations erupt in several states as Al Wyoming drums up hysteria following the murder.
REUTERS October 29, 2013:
Jon Smith is assassinated. Preliminary investigation suggests that he was struck by a sniper at 1600 yards while in a moving vehicle. Authorities noted markings on the extracted bullet which appear to be the number 13 encased in the letter D.
REUTERS December 2, 2013:
Air strikes are conducted across the Texas border destroying several structures and what AllahLand officials claim to be a terrorist training ground. Early reports suggest that at least a few of the structures may actually have been labs where mad scientists were attempting to construct a biological weapon they are calling a “raptor.”
Unfortunately, a targeting mechanism malfunction caused a strike against a dam upstream from a small town near Amarillo. Though AllahLand authorities were quick to apologize and offer humanitarian aid, massive property loss and casualties are expected to be reported as the extent of the damage is realized.
Al Wyoming was quick to play up the damage and once again paint AllahLand as the vicious aggressors. They reiterated the need to drive them into the sea and reclaim lost land.
It is anticipated the there will be reprisals from the Cowboys, followed by provocation and overzealous responses the AllahLand military.
REUTERS December 31, 2013:
A meteor has crashed into Earth. An estimated 100 trillion tons of dust and debris has been thrown into the atmosphere. With the end of humanity looming, AllahLand authorities and the PlainlySpoken’s Cowboys have both taken the opportunity to blame the other side.
Interesting-Muslams who recently insisted they needed a State of their own because they were being persecuted because of their religion were turned down because Colorado was a free country which allowed freedom of religion, and although some injustices have been committed by the citizentry against Muslams the court felt the injustices could be worked out through the courts. So the Court system has ordered an investigation of the complaints. And we feel justice, which unfortunately is sometimes slow- will be served.
While in another part of the world, the Jewish population is also asking for a state of it’s own-the authorities have granted their request because their is no freedom to speak of in these countries, definitely no freedom of religion-so they feel that the only way the Jewish population can ever have a life of freedom or any justice-a state of their own is necessary.
Jews are much better at PR than Muslims.
Are they? It seems most of the world is against them at this point in history-so I would have to say the Muslims are pretty good at PR.
Who has a nation of their own with a fanatical base in the US and massive financial and military backing by the most powerful country in the world?
And who gets “randomly” searched every time they go to an airport?
—
Who do you, you personally, think is (generally) more of a victim in the middle east?
That is hard to answer, I think living in a country like Israel where everyday you live with the very real possibility that you may die or someone may blow up your children-is a horrible way to live but still better than living under Muslim rule. I also think the Palestinians have been used as a tool for so many years that some of them are victims but not all and I wonder how much their situation and the numbers are inflated. But I cannot get past the belief that the Arab countries especially Egypt and Jordan should have accepted these people as citizens. There is no reasonable reason for them to have spent 60+ years in camps. People throughout history have ben treated unfairly. Now that the years have passed the situation is what it is-I accept that Israel will have to give some concessions-but I feel that the complete refusal to acknowledge Israel or to agree to stop bombing them -gives Israel the right to safe borders. Combine that with the fact that the Palestinian leaders are so hard line and I feel like many of the Palestinians have brought it on themselves. And the others need to realize who is really to blame for their continued hardships.
Was in a hurry yesterday and didn’t really complete my answer. But in the end-it isn’t just who is the most victimized-it’s why they are being victimized and an assessment of the unknown but possible cost to each side in the future. As Plainlyspoken said-Israel is there and has been for many years. It is time for the global community to focus on real solutions not just to call for Peace Talks. These countries should be encouraged to give these refugees citizenship instead of allowing them to continue as outsiders for reasons that do nothing but encourage more death and destruction. And all this money that goes to support and keep them in camps or to send ships to stop a blockade or all the other millions and billions that are spent on this dispute-should be used to give them a new start, not as a weapon to continue to argue that Israel should do the impossible. The bargaining table has not worked-it isn’t going to work. So stay out of it and let them work it out through war(which I don’t believe is ever going to happen, nor should it) or start supporting and encouraging some plain old common sense. There is in my opinion, no answer that these two parties can agree too that has any hope of working this out. There are too many “refugees” and too much hate. It seems the world is simply adding fuel to the fire instead of trying to put it out.
Arab Affairs: The revolt at Yarmuk refugee camp
By ZVI MAZEL
06/17/2011 16:47
“Ya Bashar, ya Bashar, where, where are you? They massacred us under your eyes, where, where is the Syrian army, where are you?”
Talkbacks (4)
While the eyes of the world were focused on the thousands of Palestinians trying to storm the Golan Heights on Friday, June 3 – “Naksa Day,” the day commemorating the defeat of the Arab armies in the Six Day War – scant attention was given to the developing drama inside the Yarmuk refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus.
Several youngsters from the camp were taking part in the attempt, and soon news started trickling in about the number of dead and wounded. People in the camp suddenly understood that they had been duped by Syrian leader Bashar Assad, who had chosen to buy with Palestinian blood an operation intended to draw attention away from his brutal handling of the country’s crisis.
Identifying bodies and returning them to their families took time, and it was not until Monday that the nine victims from the camp could be laid to rest. By that time, anger was boiling over at what was perceived as the result of Assad’s cynical use of the Palestinian cause.
An estimated 100,000 Palestinians – some two-thirds of the Yarmuk camp population – took part in the mass funerals, chanting slogans against the Syrian president: “Ya Bashar, ya Bashar, where, where are you? They massacred us under your eyes, where, where is the Syrian army, where are you?” Syria is home to some of the more extremist Palestinian organizations – from Hamas, which has its headquarters in Damascus, to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), led by Ahmed Jibril.
Jibril himself came to the funeral with a number of assistants and the leaders of several other extremist Palestinian organizations; however, when he tried to make a speech praising Assad and blaming Israel for the deaths, his voice was drowned by protests; he was asked to leave and let the dead be buried in peace. He refused to move, so the crowd started pelting his group with stones.
Soon the protest turned more violent, and protesters vented their anger on the PFLP-GC’s headquarters.
They burst into the offices and broke furniture before setting the place on fire. Two guards were killed in the onslaught; Jibril’s security officers opened fire, killing 14 protesters and wounding hundreds. Throughout the rioting, the masses yelled, “The people want an end to the factions” – that is, the many Palestinian groups active in Syria, meddling in their lives and fighting among themselves for influence – mimicking the call of the protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, “The people want an end to the regime.”
What the refugees were saying was that they’d had enough of being manipulated by the Syrian regime through the 10 extremist Palestinian factions it supports and which do its bidding. Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal rushed to the camp in an attempt to appease protesters, but he was greeted by loud jeers and curses and was driven away.
Jibril is considered the most important of the leaders of the pro-Syrian factions; it is a well known fact that he has been acting for the Syrian government for the past 40 years. It transpired that he had been the principal mover in the planning of the mass demonstrations on the Golan on behalf of Assad, while, according to Arab media, it had been clear from the first that they were doomed to failure since Israel would not let its border be overrun. On Tuesday, the victims of the previous day were laid to rest; the heads of the factions stayed prudently away.
Some Arab media are saying there are many in the camps who feel solidarity with the Syrian protesters being massacred by the regime. In any case, the violent protests in this camp probably explain why Assad did not send more people to the Golan the following day and why his army restored the roadblocks on the road leading to it, which had been dismantled in advance of the Friday march to the border.
There are today 13 Palestinian refugee camps in Syria administered by UNRWA; an estimated half a million people live there. Over the years, infrastructures have been built or modernized. The inhabitants of the camps enjoy full civil rights, including the right to work in academic professions and governments offices, though they have not been granted Syrian citizenship so as to perpetuate their refugee status vis à vis Israel.
In view of his present predicament, Assad has no desire to open a second front with the Palestinians; they represent a political force that there would be no point in turning against him. Should they decide to join the protesters, it could be catastrophic. Even before the recent Golan events, there was a feeling that the relations were turning sour.
A few weeks ago, Syrian authorities complained that Palestinians from Al-Ramel camp in Lattakia had rioted, burning and otherwise destroying public buildings. Palestinian factions immediately denied it, stressing that Palestinians in Syria remained neutral and were not taking part in the country’s internal affairs. It should also be remembered that there is widespread speculation that Hamas is considering transferring its headquarters to Qatar and opening offices in Cairo because of the deterioration of the situation in Syria.
Assad will probably not try again this transparent ploy of using the Palestinians to deflect attention from his sorry state – a ploy that was roundly condemned by the United States and left a bitter taste in the Arab world’s mouth.
At the same time, the leaders of the Palestinian factions are also in trouble.
They are afraid not only of clashes between the refugees and Assad’s security forces, but also of the possible emergence of a new regime that could curtail their privileges. According to press reports, these leaders intend to meet soon and discuss the best ways not to further the rift with the Syrian government.
The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah issued a measured condemnation through its news agency, Wafa. The communiqué spoke of “a group of armed men” from the PFLP-GC as being responsible for the crimes, and promised an investigation; there was no reference to the situation in Syria, Assad or Jibril.
So far, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has not seen fit to face the camera and express clearly his support for the Palestinians protesting Assad’s duplicity. Apparently because of the current Palestinian confrontation with Israel and the looming showdown at the UN General Assembly in September, the PA is unwilling to cross swords with the Palestinian factions – let alone Hamas, with which it recently signed a peace agreement. However, there has been strong condemnation in the Palestinian press, as well as from some more junior members of Fatah, who went as far as to ask that Jibril be expelled from the PLO.
Tarek al-Hamid, editor of the Londonbased Arab daily Asharq Alawsat, summed up on June 8, under the headline “The common currency for crises,” his take on the way Arab countries and Iran have exploited the Palestinian problem.
According to Hamid, Arab regimes “pay their debts” for internal or external problems either by sacrificing Palestinians or by “writing checks” – meaning exploiting the Palestinian problem while doing nothing about it. He wondered why Assad had not sent Syrian citizens to the Golan (the Golan being a Syrian problem), why Hezbollah had not taken part in the demonstrations on Naksa Day, and why Hamas had not let the people of Gaza demonstrate. He did not forget Iran, a country that issues bombastic declarations in favor of the Palestinians and against Israel – without doing anything – simply to meddle in the internal affairs of Arab states.
The Palestinians, he wrote, have become the common currency used to pay for the turmoil in the Arab world, and this state of affairs will go on until a Palestinian leader stands up and proclaims, “Enough, stop trafficking in Palestine and Palestinians!” – a not-toosubtle dig at Arab countries and at Abbas, reminding them that it is high time to solve the Palestinian issue pragmatically and stop using it to ensure their own survival.
http://www.jpost.com/Features/FrontLines/Article.aspx?id=225371
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all father’s here a very HAPPY FATHER’S DAY for Sunday. I hope you all will have a wonderful day.
Take Care.
JANUARY 1, 2014……. With Reuters gone because of the meteor crashing into earth, it appears that in the Eastern and Southern parts of the Texas Republic that there were some preselected survivors and mad scientists sequestered away in the deep salt dome caverns of Grand Saline and Beaumont. The Limestone Caverns in the Edwards Aquafer zone house the preselected raptor contingent. There is food and water to last for two years until the dust settles and the ominous rise of the fabled D circled 13 brand will ride again.
Somehow, there is a ship named Thor’s Hammer that has managed to escape to the southern hemisphere and a remote undiscovered tropical island. The saga continues……………………….
NO, NO, no, Matt is wrong again!
It’s not a meteor that did us in, it was another ice age! Hope Thor’s Hammer is an icebreaker.
Read more: http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/06/17/joe-bastardi-differs-mainstream-media-beware-mini-ice-age#ixzz1PZaG4qeu
A missing jet stream, fading spots, and slower activity near the poles say that our Sun is heading for a rest period even as it is acting up for the first time in years, according to scientists at the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).
As the current sunspot cycle, Cycle 24, begins to ramp up toward maximum, independent studies of the solar interior, visible surface, and the corona indicate that the next 11-year solar sunspot cycle, Cycle 25, will be greatly reduced or may not happen at all.
The results were announced at the annual meeting of the Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society, which is being held this week at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces: http://astronomy.nmsu.edu/SPD2011/
“This is highly unusual and unexpected,” Dr. Frank Hill, associate director of the NSO’s Solar Synoptic Network, said of the results. “But the fact that three completely different views of the Sun point in the same direction is a powerful indicator that the sunspot cycle may be going into hibernation.”
End of the Middle East Christian?
By David Isaac
A little over a month after former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s fall, Ayman Anwar Mitri, a Coptic Christian, was beaten by Islamists inside his apartment, which they had torched.
“When they were beating me, they kept saying: ‘We won’t leave any Christians in this country,’” Mr. Mitri recalled to The Wall Street Journal.
Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, recently wrote: “Since [late February], a heightened campaign of violence is being directed against Egypt’s Copts and is presaging a mass exodus from the country…”
You’d never guess this listening to President Obama’s speeches. In a major speech on the Middle East in May he declared: “In Tahrir Square, we heard Egyptians from all walks of life chant, ‘Muslims, Christians, we are one.’” Apparently Obama didn’t get the memo that they are no longer one.
Egypt’s Copts are not alone. The war against Iraq’s Christians began when the U.S. invaded Iraq. U.S. troops were unable to protect the Christians, an estimated half of whom had fled the country by 2009. Ironically, they were safer under Saddam Hussein. President Obama seems to have missed this development as well. In that same speech he declared: “In Iraq we see the promise of a multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian democracy.”
To be sure, Christians of the region have long ceased expecting support from Western (ostensibly Christian) nations. When Lebanon’s Christians suffered a similar fate in the 1970s, the West ignored their plight.
As Shmuel writes in his book “Battleground: Fact and Fantasy in Palestine”, (Bantam Books, 1973):
Here was the only Arab state in which the Moslems had to share power and even to accept a minor share in it. Indeed, the original raison d’etre and the whole modern history of Lebanon was primarily of a Christian enclave, of a haven for Christians in an unfriendly Moslem environment. In recent years in particular, with the increasing discomforts and unease suffered by Christians in some of the Arab states, Christian immigrants from those countries were being absorbed by Lebanon. By the agreed Lebanese Constitution of 1943, the President and the Commander in Chief of the Army were always Christians, while a Moslem was Prime Minister. A Moslem was also Speaker in the Parliament, but the Christians held a majority of its seats.
But Muslims could not abide a status less than domination. Shmuel wrote in “Hypocrisy in Lebanon” (The Jerusalem Post, August 31, 1979):
That, after all is the source and root of the horror and destruction the Moslems have brought down upon Lebanon. It began early in 1975 with the combined onslaught by Lebanese Moslems and Palestinian Arab terrorists to crush the Christians and destroy their power in the country. The attack was sponsored by the Syrian Government, who had two objects in view. Following closely upon the crushing of the Kurdish revolt in Iraq, the attack in Lebanon dovetailed into the overall purpose of extinguishing the pockets of non Arab-Moslem independence in the “Arab world.” The second purpose was to establish specifically Syrian hegemony over Lebanon—which they claim as part (like Palestine) of “Greater Syria.”
Brigitte Gabriel, founder of ACT! For America, describes what it was like living in Lebanon in the 1970s: “When the Moslems and Palestinians declared Jihad on the Christians in 1975, they started massacring the Christians, city after city. I ended up living in a bomb shelter underground from age 10 to 17, without electricity, eating grass to live, and crawling under sniper bullets to a spring to get water.”
As Shmuel relates in “Battleground” (updated edition, 1985):
Large sections of [Beirut] the once flourishing westernized city, banking and business metropolis of all the Arab states, were reduced to rubble, and day after day tens, and later hundreds, of people, mostly civilians, were killed. After a year of civil war, at least twenty thousand people had perished.
By then the political objective of the Moslem onslaught had been accomplished. Whatever the precise organization of the country turned out to be, Christian predominance had been brought to an end. The army had been broken up into its religious components and had in fact disintegrated as a viable force. The Christian President, whose resignation was demanded by the Moslem insurgents, was finally replaced by a cowed majority vote in a besieged Parliament; his successor was a Christian nominated by the Syrians. …
The Christian nations, who with more or less embarrassment had throughout the months kept silent and turned their faces from the slaughter that Syria had generated and sustained, now welcomed her, and the troops she sent into Lebanon, as a “Peacemaker”.
One might say that the coup de grace to this decades-long process begun in 1975, (and delayed for a time by Israeli intervention), took place this Monday. Lebanon announced the formation of a new government dominated by the terrorist organization Hezbollah. Thus is a new Syrian-Iranian client state born out of the ashes of a formerly peaceful Christian country.
The Christian world did nothing for Lebanon’s Christians. It did nothing for Iraq’s Christians. It will do nothing for Egypt’s Christians. The reason, for the most part, is that the Christian world has stopped considering itself Christian, whereas the Muslim world has not stopped considering itself Muslim. In “No Solution to the Arab-Palestinian Problem” (Dawn Books, 1985), Shmuel wrote:
In the Arabs’ view, they were humiliated for hundreds of years, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, by the Western Christian powers – even though they, as Muslims, are the bearers of a superior religion.
The Arabs never lost that feeling that they should rule by divine right. Indeed, in the midst of an Islamist resurgence they believe this more than ever. The Christian West, on the other hand, has replaced its Christianity with a toxic blend of multiculturalism, environmentalism and assorted politically correct pieties.
Given the imbalance, which side do you think will win?
http://bigpeace.com/dfriedman/2011/06/18/end-of-the-middle-east-christian/
Sure is quiet today-guess everyone has a more exciting life than I do 🙂 Oh well-maybe I’ll get fixed up and convince hubby we need to go dancing-If anyone is around-Have a nice night!
Gee Whiz..300 million people out there and no one would hang out with VH!
Happy Father’s Day to all you wonderful daddy’s out there. 🙂