Sunday, November 03, 2013
Elder of Ziyon
There were lots of stories in the Arab media about the 96th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration on Saturday.
Some demanded that the Arab world sue Great Britain.
Some note the supposed treachery of the 1919 Faisal-Weizmann Agreement that allowed a Jewish home in Palestine while the entire rest of the Middle East went to Arabs.
Hamas even produced a documentary about how Balfour was the beginning of all Arab woes and problems.
No Arabs, as far as I could tell, blamed themselves for any part of their problems.
I found an interesting article in the Palestine Bulletin from January 14, 1930, which shows that at least some Arabs saw the difference between how Jews were building a nation while Arabs did nothing but call meetings to complain about the Jews.
Nothing has changed. It's been 96 years since the Balfour Declaration, nearly 66 years since the UN partition plan and 20 years since Oslo, and the Palestinian Arabs are still spending more time, effort and money trying to blame Israel than to do anything positive themselves.
Of course, it all makes sense when you realize that their goal isn't the creation of yet another Arab state but the destruction of the only Jewish state.
Some demanded that the Arab world sue Great Britain.
Some note the supposed treachery of the 1919 Faisal-Weizmann Agreement that allowed a Jewish home in Palestine while the entire rest of the Middle East went to Arabs.
Hamas even produced a documentary about how Balfour was the beginning of all Arab woes and problems.
No Arabs, as far as I could tell, blamed themselves for any part of their problems.
I found an interesting article in the Palestine Bulletin from January 14, 1930, which shows that at least some Arabs saw the difference between how Jews were building a nation while Arabs did nothing but call meetings to complain about the Jews.
...The writer of the article contrasts the achievements of Jew and Arab during the last twelve years and complains that "'The Arabs have met seven times. They have sent as many delegations to London, to the Hedjaz, to Iraq. They have broadcast thousands of protests. They have arranged hundreds of memorial meetings and celebrations. But what have all these delegations, all these protests. all these memorial meetings, all these celebrations accomplished?. True, the Supreme Moslem Council has repaired the Mosque. The Supreme Moslem Council has purchased three thousand dunams of land. 'The Supreme Moslem Council has constructed a large hotel which it transferred to a Jew in order that he might better compete with small Arab hotels.. But in the meantime Zionists have managed to bring in 80,000 immigrants, compelling. the Arab to make room for them. They have acquired 1,200,000 dunams of the best lands. They have established .factories whose products we and our Arab brothers in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Transjordan buy, thereby regaining many times over the price they paid to us for lands. They have gained control over commerce. They have built -dozens of colonies. In view of these alarming facts, we would suggest that our delegation remain at home. That instead, we collect funds from Moslem and Arab countries to develop agriculture and industry. If; after we have accomplished these undertakings, we send a delegation to London, it will be able to say for us: We know how to use our lands. We know how to advance civilisation. We know how to build the bridge that is to unite East and West"The same newspaper, a month earlier, describes a roughly translated Arab children's song:
Nothing has changed. It's been 96 years since the Balfour Declaration, nearly 66 years since the UN partition plan and 20 years since Oslo, and the Palestinian Arabs are still spending more time, effort and money trying to blame Israel than to do anything positive themselves.
Of course, it all makes sense when you realize that their goal isn't the creation of yet another Arab state but the destruction of the only Jewish state.
