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Friday, May 17, 2013

Arab suggests helping Palestinians; other Arabs attack him

There was an educational exchange on Twitter recently that encapsulates the real problem in the Middle East.

Ed Husain, Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), tweeted:




Lebanese journalist Alex Rowell responded:




Besides the fact that experience in Lebanon itself shows this to be false, Husain answers:


  1. So don't make it conditional. Give them hope of eventual "dual citizenship" -- in the meantime, build up their lives again.
  2. . Possible. But in any case they oughtn't have to jump through such hoops when Israel is obliged by law to let them return


Again, Rowell is wrong; there is no international law obliging Israel to allow Palestinian Arabs who fled in 1948 and their descendants to return.

One person responded to Rowell's earlier false claim that Palestinian Arabs would refuse citizenship:


  1. Once agn, Pals missing oppty 2 achieve somthg: Rejecting ctiznshp for somethg they'll never get.
  2. It's a question of principle. You might see things their way yourself if you were a refugee.


Given how eager Palestinian Arabs have been to embrace citizenship in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan, Rowell is justifying his own desire to discriminate against them. Palestinian Arabs may tell journalists how steadfast they are in these "principles" but their actions tell a very different story.

Another subthread that is revealing, as an Egyptian responds to Husain:






  1. We agree to disagree, my friend. This helps give Palestinians a life today, not jam tomorrow. Dual citizenship also an option.



  2. no pah-lease. We can barely stand them now.
  3. . The Palestenian can have a life without citizenship. Here in Egypt they do. If they have citizenship, what's their plight?
  4. why should they be lower than Egyptians? Why can't they have the right to vote and take part in social life?
  5. Egyptians themselves r not that eager abt their right 2 vote. Again, if they have citizenship,what's their plight?
You see? Their plight is what must be kept alive at all costs! Alleviating their plight by treating them as human beings is considered self-evidently undesirable!

This isn't the first time we've seen this depraved Arab logic to keep Palestinian Arabs in misery, but it shows that little has changed over the decades.


(h/t Elias)