I wonder how many of those commentators who diligently monitor the "muzzling" activities of the "Israel Lobby" will note the story of a UN official who made a perfectly reasonable observation at a recent conference, and now has everyone from Hamas to the government of Jordan demanding his head on a plate.
The official in question was Andrew Whitley, the New York Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA,) the UN body charged with providing aid and services to Palestinian refugees. When UNRWA began its operations in 1949, there were approximately 700,000 refugees; now there are close to 5 million, by dint of the fact that, in marked contrast to other refugee populations, Palestinians registered with UNRWA can pass down refugee status to subsequent generations. It's also a pertinent fact that explains why Whitley said what he did.
"We recognize, as I think most do, although it's not a position that we publicly articulate, that the right of return is unlikely to be exercised to the territory of Israel to any significant or meaningful extent," Whitley told an audience at the National Council for US-Arab Relations conference. "It's not a politically palatable issue, it's not one that UNRWA publicly advocates, but nevertheless it's a known contour to the issue." Instead of entertaining that "cruel illusion," he continued, Palestinians should start considering "their own role in the societies where they are, rather than being left in a state of limbo where they are helpless."
For simply articulating a truth known by very many, not the least the Palestinian leadership, for decades, Whitley was chastised by the Jordanians, while Hamas angrily demanded his dismissal: one more example of how speaking your mind can land you in scalding water with those who regard freedom of speech as contingent on what you say.
Still, it's hard to fault Whitley's logic. Of the 50 million people who lost their homes because of war and conflict in the twentieth century, practically none of the original displaced returned to their homes, never mind their descendants. The historical record shows that refugees - like those 17,000 displaced Jews administered to by UNRWA back in 1950 - are invariably absorbed by host countries.
What's different in the Palestinian case is that the refugee question, and its associated "right of return," has been deliberately positioned by the Arab side as the single biggest obstacle to a final settlement of the conflict with Israel. Accepting that the refugees will not go home, that they will live free of the apartheid conditions imposed on them in states like Lebanon and Syria, and that they might even receive some financial compensation on top, is the height of political incorrectness in the Middle East. It means accepting not only that Israel has the right to exist, but also the right to define itself as the democratic state of the Jewish people.
More than settlements, or Avigdor Lieberman, or any other variable you might care to mention, it is this refusal to break with the narrative of Zionism's original sin which has derailed the peace talks for nearly two decades. As I was researching a new short film on the peace process (embedded below too,) I was struck by how the offers made by Benjamin Netanyahu's predecessors would have resulted in a contiguous, viable Palestinian state in nearly 100 per cent of the West Bank, had they been accepted.
They were rejected because resistance to the notion of two states side by side - which, let us remind ourselves, is where President Obama wants the parties to be one year from now - runs counter to the main currents of Palestinian nationalism.
The persistence of refugee status for millions of Palestinians has been the physical bedrock of rejectionism, both expressly, as in the infamous "three noes" of the Khartoum conference of 1967, and by implication, as demonstrated by the recent Palestinian decision to withdraw from direct talks. Could Andrew Whitley's carefully worded remarks mark the beginning of a seismic shift on the Arab side, given that he has arrived at these conclusions as a friend of the Palestinians? I don't want to predict. All I will say is this: those who call themselves peace advocates could prove themselves by encouraging the liberation of the Palestinians from what, to the western flotillistas and their ilk, seems like a noble dream, but is, for the people living the reality, a quixotic struggle with no end.
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The operative word here is cruel. Do the Arabs feel no shame? Do the member nations of the United Nations feel no shame? Muslim Arabs don’t love their fellow Arabs but cruelly use them as political pawns? The United Nations dominated by cynical hate and politics co-operates with Arab states keeping generations of Arabs in cages in Arab lands? There is a command in the Torah to love not only your neighbor but also the stranger. Whether neighbor or stranger the United Nations cooperating with the cynical policies of the Arab states is collaboration with evil.
Whitely is correct. Palestinians should start considering their role in the societies where they are. But the Arab states holding the keys to the prison doors should also accept their fellow Arabs, not hate them. The United Nations should end its cynical collaboration with evil.
The the US gave citizenship to the Vietnamese and Cambodians who sided with the US in our wars in Indochina. The US gave citizenship to the Cubans who fled the collapse of our puppet in Cuba, much as the Germans gave resettled the Germans evicted from Danzig (now Gdansk) after it was taken from Germany in response to WWII (curious that no one has ever called Lech Walesa a "settler"). The millions of refugees in the Pakistan/India division, found homes and citizenship. The Arabs must give citizenship to the people who fled their attack on Israel in 1948 and 67, just as Israel absorbed the Jewish refugees ethnically cleansed from Arab lands after 1948.
The Gaza strip should also be resettled as part of Egypt, from where it came. Just as the Palestinians who came to the US and were given citizenship here (can you imagine them being deported to Palestine after a peace treaty? never), the refugees who reside in Gaza, having fled Egypt's attack in 1948, should be given Egyptian citizenship.
BTW: Mr. Arafat rejected $30-bbln in international pledges (y2k) without batting an eye. He could have at least demanded $300-billion before storming off and starting his 2nd "Intafata".
Isn't that the entire basis for the state of Israel?
The only difference is that most of the israeli refugees can't actually trace their lineage back to Israel like these Palestinians can.
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Lesson to be implemented while defining the boarders between Israel and the new Arab state to be invented in addition to the 22 Arab states
A:CONCLUTIONS FROM THE UNSOLVED CONFLICTS
*PEOPLE DESIRE TO BE GOVERNED BY THEIR OWN
*ARTIFICAL OR IMPOSED BOARDERS ARE NOT PERMANET SOLUTIONS
*THEY ARE THE SEEDS OF ONGOING CONFLICTS
1:Minimize the creation of conflict continuation while defining boarders
2:Muslims governed by Arabs. Jews and others governed by Israel.
3:Israel will hand over to Palestin government land inhabited by Arabs from Israel and the Jews from settlements will be governed by Israel.
B:Example of unsolved conflicts created by the European&Muslim Emperial period.
Hopefully American will not be trapped to the same mistakes.
1:Vive le Quibec Frances
2:Belgian Valones and Flames separation desired
3:Scottish independence from UK
4:All Balkans wars and conflicts
5:Wars in Caucuses
6:Tibetan independencies desire
8:African wars as result of European policy of slip /unite tribes
10:Kashmir
11:Chasing of Christians&non Muslims people in Muslim countries
12; he civil wars Lebanon artificially created by France.
C: Solutions example
1:The peaceful split of Czechoslovakia into Czech and Slovakia
2:In Swiss a canton has been split into:Jura-France and Bern-German
3:Turkey&Greece don’t fight the last 90 years following the population exchange.1.5 million Greeks from Turkey and0.5 million Muslims from Greece were uprooted
4:Turkey force partition of Cyprus into a Christian and Muslim areas is a problem or the solution? on the ground no casualties
Citizens of Israel should be governed by a soveign Israeli government; Citizens of Palestine should be governed by a soverign Palestinain government.
While they have legitimate claims for the 1948 borders, it seems the Palestinains have conceeded that Israel's soverignty should be allowed to extend to the pre-1967 borders. Given the number of israeli citizens living between the 1948 and 1967 borders, I think that is an appropriate concession, and one that should be acknowledged by Israel.
Its not "ethnic cleansing" if both sides cooperate. Its merely doing what we teach evry k/garder kid. People get into fights, seperate them.
http://www.economyincrisis.org/content/us-officials-celebrate-nations-oldest-fta
Israel (today) has like 7-million people. Just who was this trade deal intended to benefit?
I agree with this. You are correct.
I am sure to some it is a disappointment, but it can't be a surprise.
Exactly.
The PA talks about "two states", by which they mean "1 x Palestinian state & 1 x state with Palestinian majority through 'the right of return'".
PLO formally recognized Israel, because it was (together with cessation of terrorism) the condition set by the civilized world for any dialogue with it. It was also "the price" of Israeli concessions, such as allowing PLO access & control of territory in West Bank & Gaza. Once established in those territories as the result of that recognition, the PLO is attempting to renege, suggesting that it "recognized" something that should not exist BY RIGHT.
The avoidance of any reference to "two peoples" is telling. It signals clearly the PA's refusal to recognize the Jewish people's inherent right to national self-determination in their ancestral homeland, while at the same time hypocritically demanding the same right for the Palestinians.
By reneging on its commitments, the PA demonstrates that it's no partner for peace, since it cannot be relied upon to fulfill agreements it signs. In fact, the PA is increasingly turning away from negotiations to unilateral steps. Consequently, since an AGREED solution is not on the table, it's time for Israel to also re-assess its options.
It is easy to demand the Palestinians keep up the struggle from comfortable American and European homes.
I said Americans and Europeans are demanding they keep up their struggle, especially in face of any form of compromise with Israel that may lead to peace, until they get "justice" or the right of return or all of Israel (depending which supporters you talk to). How many Americans and Europeans on here support a one state solution, for the Palestinians of course, despite the overwhelming Palestinian support for the two-state solution (last numbers I saw were 74%).
One of the silliest comments I have ever read on Huff Post.
You should check out the articles on here from September and the subsequent comments and you'd see what I mean.
It does sound silly, doesn't it? I think it makes it even sillier that there are people out there like that...
Yes, I can see how that would be awfully convenient... for Israel. It would be more convenient for everybody else if Israel just agreed to the 1967 lines as the basis for any peace agreement.
This argument is akin to claiming that there was no Armenian genocide since there are still Armenians remaining in Turkey.
There will be peace, that peace will not have any mention of any return. The Pals will get the WB and Gaza, maybe parts of EJ.
Real and lasting peace is going to have to include both sides of the conflict making sacrifices -- and seeing the other side making sacrifices as well.
Many thanks for a factual accurate article Mr.Cohen.
Anyway, what I was trying to say, I would be the last person on these boards to suggest that the settlements are the only problem, it's not like they were there all the time. In my 43 years, I've seen the Pals and the Arab position change so many time that no matter what there is always a reason for NO, while Israel continues to reach out and ask for peace.
Gradually, the concept of Palestinian refugees used as pawns in Arab game to de-legitimize and cast out Israel is loosing its grip on world community. At some point Arab countries will see more benefits in cooperating with Israel than in confrontation.
An idea for HP: I think if you allow people to vote comments up and down (YouTube style), you'll make a lot of your readers happier, since they won't have to resolve to this absurd behavior of making a totally fine comment as abusive, just because they disagree with its content.