Thursday, October 10, 2024
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Between Sept. 23 and 30, with the sudden and dramatic intensification of Israeli bombardments, General Security recorded the passage of 234,023 Syrians and 76,269 Lebanese into Syrian territory. By Oct. 5, more than 400,000 people had fled to Syria, according to Lebanese authorities — around 300,000 Syrians and 100,000 Lebanese, but also some Palestinians, Sudanese and other nationalities as well.That means about 20,000 have been fleeing every day to Syria, meaning the number is apprpaching 500,000 this week.
And that is just the overland route.
Middle East Airways, the only airline to still service Beirut, has sold out all its flights . They fly between 5-10 planes a day in peacetime with each one having a capacity of between 150-400 depending on whether they are using Airbus A320 or A330. So we can conservatively estimate that 2000 are leaving every day by air, or about 50,000 since the fighting intensified.
Not only that, but private yacht owners and ferry boat charters are bringing hundreds of Lebanese to Cyprus and Turkey daily at what they consider exorbitant prices of between $1,400 and $2,300 per passenger. Those prices have gone up about 50% from before the war, and the Lebanese ministry of transportation is taking advantage as well, taxing the boats far more than they did before and driving prices even higher.
Now, compare this with how much Gazans were charged to become "VIPs" and leave to Egypt before Egypt closed Rafah.
Instead of a yacht, they had to take several buses for hours - and pay between $5,000 to $10,000 per person for the privilege.
Arab and Muslim countries are welcoming Lebanese - but none of them wanted Palestinians unless they paid a huge amount for the privilege.
While Palestinian leaders were against Gaza receiving aid from Cyprus, fearful that some Gazans would hitch a ride on the return trips with the boats, no one has a problem with Lebanese leaving for Cyprus.
As I noted previously, the difference of how the world didn't want Gazans to flee to safety and how the world welcomes Lebanese under the exact same circumstances trying to save their lives could not be starker. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians could have fled to Egypt and Syria and many lives could have been saved; those people would not be forced to keep moving away from where Hamas keeps following them and using their humanitarian camps as terror hubs.
The hypocrisy is stunning. It is even worse when you listen to the official reasons given by Egypt and Jordan and Palestinian leaders to oppose the resettlement of Gazans: it is for their own good.
No one even gave Gazans a choice in the matter. And none of the "human rights organizations" had a problem with that.
Even today, if, say, Qatar said that they would accept 30,000 Palestinians for a few months, the quota would be filled within minutes and Israel would cooperate to help the transfer, the same way it helps sever medical cases leave Gaza. But no Arab nation is saying that.
If they simply didn't want Palestinians, that would be bigoted enough. But the Arab and Muslim world is saying, quite clearly, that they would rather Palestinians die than be safe in their countries. Their deaths serve Hamas' purposes and are propaganda wins against Israel.
That is how little the Muslim world really cares about Palestinians.
And, incidentally, it is how Hamas and Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Authority think about their fellow Palestinians as well.
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