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Elaine Krintzman's avatar

Interesting how the evil ones always accuse others of Exactly what they are doing . Arafat yemach shmo's "marching orders for Nakba" that you quote here is an example of this. Same as the democrats'accusations against their enemies

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Miriamnae's avatar

Arafat…that filthy little cretin being treated like a statesman. I think of the line in Lawrence of Arabia by the great Anthony Quinn, trading insults with Omar Sharif . . . “… thy mother was a whore…”. BTW: the movie pretty well detailed the pitiful romance Britain had with all things ‘Arabian,’ and does a good job on the Sykes-Picot Agreement, another paper shuffle of someone else’s borders by powerful men, tossing out the Jew again for the Sheikdoms and dashing make-believe guys with swords, reneging on the Balfour declaration allowing Jews to build a state in ‘Palestine’. The conservative right, real Brits, are being arrested and beaten by Bobbies as they rise up today trying to stop the murderous carnage in the streets done by mideastern scum called immigrants…Ok, King Charlie…sipping your gin whilst reading The Rubiyat…the romance with Islam is long over. British means ‘Covenant Man.’ Hebrew. Pray for our British cousins fighting the invasion. Next week, we are.

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Robbin Close's avatar

Thank you Joshua for another thoughtful and well researched discussion. The Palestinians are clever and evil. How anyone would think there could be a two state solution is beyond surprising.

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Boris Doyle's avatar

Telling any of this to the kids wearing their mother's tea towels is pointless.

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Nancy F's avatar

This stupid war is going on and on because dollar donations to the poor Palestinians are going straight to Doha. They pretend to be a theocracy but they are just another kleptocracy. Five star hotel my ass.

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Gerard Dab's avatar

In regards to whether or not Israel is a Western country.

I am fully aware that there is a clear majority of Jewish immigrants to Israel in the 1940s and 50s that came from outside Europe, was probably a million from Arab countries if you include Morocco. Nevertheless Israel is very much a Western country it has Western institutions most of which were develop in the 1930s by immigrants from Germany. The political institutions have been inherited from England. Most structural aspects of Israeli life is decidedly Western but with a great compliment of Eastern culture and flavor.

Is it a middle East country? Does geography dictate Destiny always? What other middle Eastern country would have a GDP 20% larger than Iran with a population of 10 million.

None. Now having said this the fact that the West does not support Israel well that in itself is an interesting topic that is directly linked to the Jewish nature of the country. Trenchy enough two of the most solid supports of Israel happen to be the two biggest anti-Semitic countries in recent history if we f we exclude France, that is Germany and Poland and they have their own reasons for supporting Israel the way they do.

Otherwise thank you for your letter it's very opinionated and yet very thoughtful and I've been enjoying it so again thank you for the effort that goes into it.

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Lynne Brown's avatar

Palestine was first named "Palestina" by the Romans to inflict punishment on the Jews for their revolt in AD 132 and remind them of their ancient enemies, the Philistines. Interesting that in Genesis 26:12-14 it says, “Then Isaac sowed in the land (Yep. That land) and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him. The man (Isaac) began to prosper and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; …SO THE PHILISTINES ENVIED HIM.”

Proverbs 27:4 “Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy?”

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David Eichler's avatar

The claim that Muslims don't care about money and the implication that they are bad at or indifferent about business is the worst kind of cultural bias and possibly racist too, since it seems that "Muslim" in this context especially means Arab. Clearly the Palestinians do many things that get in the way of doing business and generating prosperity, but I don't think it is inherent to them being Muslim or Arab.

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blackdog1955's avatar

The jews also had a "Nakba" in 70 CE. Reclaiming Gaza, Judea & Samaria and Jerusalem is simply our "right of return." Let's use their own logic against them.

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Laura's avatar

The "palestinians" completely appropriate Jewish history as their own.

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“The ‘Nakba’ has thrown us out of our homes and dispersed us around the globe. Historians may search, but they will not find any nation subjugated to as much torture as ours. We are not asking for a lot. We are not asking for the moon. We are asking to close the chapter of ‘Nakba’ once and for all, for the refugees to return and to build an independent Palestinian state on our land, our land, our land, just like other peoples.”

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Gerrard's avatar

Not sure I agree with overall message but think you should have included:-

1) Compare to India. No one has a right to return to the part of India (which includes Pakistan and Bangladesh) weather they moved voluntarily or by force around 1948 and like us included both.

2) number of jews who were displaced at the same time and earlier (i.e. 1929) - combined with none* who supports a (none jewish) Palestinian right of return (to live in Israel) support a right for Jewish Palestinians(now Israelis) to return to the land they owned and lived on. (*to the best of my knowledge)

3)In no other circumstance can you have the label refugee when still on the land of your nationality. (It is called internally displaced)

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