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Sunday, May 11, 2008

Nakba nonsense floods in

Major newspapers are dutifully printing Palestinian Arab nakba nonsense. Here's a sample.

From Ahmad Samih Khalidi in the Guardian:
Despite a public discourse that often claimed the opposite, the Zionist movement set out to build a Jewish state in Palestine with a Jewish majority. This could only come about at the expense of the local inhabitants, the vast majority of whom were Palestinian Arabs - both Muslim and Christian. From this perspective, neither the Zionists' intentions nor the reactions of the Palestinians are at issue: Israel could not have been built as a Jewish state except on the ruins of Arab Palestine.
Given that there are now more Arabs in Israel than existed there in 1948, this is manifestly untrue. Of course, the Arab leaders in the 1920s and 1930s did all they could to stop Jewish immigration, even though none of them were being dispossessed by it - and in fact their people became much richer as a result.

From Daoud Kuttab in the Washington Post:
Jews worldwide, including modern-day Israelis, should be the first to understand Palestinians' desire to return. For 2,000 years Jews reminded each other of the prayer for Zion, repeating the hope "next year in Jerusalem." No one opposed that dream. Likewise, no one should demand Palestinians stop yearning to return.
Sorry, Daoud, but your heroes like Haj Amin Husseini did all they could to oppose that dream, and your tolerant Arab brethren in Jordan made sure that historic Jerusalem was Jew-free when they controlled it. But it really sounds good.

From Saree Makdisi in the Los Angeles Times:
To resolve the conflict with the Palestinians, Israeli Jews will have to relinquish their exclusive privileges and acknowledge the right of return of Palestinians expelled from their homes. What they would get in return is the ability to live securely and to prosper with -- rather than continuing to battle against -- the Palestinians.
Yes, just as Jews lived securely and equally with their Arab neighbors for centuries, right?

No, having a single Jewish state in an ocean of Arab states - almost all of which declare Islam to be their official state religions - is inherently abhorrent to Arabs. Their love for democracy starts only as soon as they can rig the results to ensure an Arab majority.

Note that Saree Makdisi teaches at UCLA, Daoud Kattab teaches at Princeton University and Ahmad Samih Khalidi teaches at St Anthony's College, Oxford. As I pointed out in my last posting - all these former Palestinian Arabs are living in the West, claiming to want what is right for their brethren still in the Middle East, but not willing to actually leave their cushy academic positions to truly help. Their protests ring hollow when one realizes that they pretend to be advocating for a people who just want to raise their families somewhere, and cannot because of the actions of "friends" like these.