Cobalt, Interesting article, but your author gives the Arab states a completely undeserved free pass on the responsibility for the Palestinian refugee problem:
It is after 1967 that Palestine became the paramount sticking point between the Arab world and the U.S. No issue provokes as much unanimity in a fractured Arab world as the sorry fate of the Palestinians. The U.S. stands at the center of this drama, both as culprit and vehicle for salvation. The Arabs have for decades been on solid ground morally when addressing the Palestinian problem. Proof of this is that both the U.S. and Israel have steadily moved towards recognition of Palestinian national rights, the very same ones that they refused to consider two decades ago. This progress, however, has not been sufficiently appreciated or exploited by Arab opinion-makers, who still use the term "Oslo process" pejoratively. They refuse to accept that Oslo returned Yasser Arafat to his land and legitimized Palestinian statehood.
Solid ground morally? Excuse me, the Arab states bear a very large proportion of the responsibility for the existence of the Palestinian refugee problem.
If the Arabs had accepted the UN partition of 1947 instead of invading the new Jewish state with five armies, the refugee problem would never have been created in the first place.
If, having determined to fight the partition, they had not evacuated the Arab populations of the cities in Jewish areas, there would have been many fewer refugees.
If, having lost the War of 1948, they had negotiated a peace with Israel, the refugee issue could have been addressed at that time. There was never a peace.
If they had permitted the refugees to resettle in the Arab countries, the refugee problem would have been much diminished. But with the exception of Jordan, the Arab countries never even granted the refugees work permits, let alone citizenship. Even when countries were advertising for immigrants, such as Iraq in the 50's, they always refused to take refugees from Palestine. There were no strong linguistic or cultural barriers to such a resettlement, and Iraq in particular could have supplied the refugees with the property it confiscated from the 120,000 Jews who fled Iraq.
If, having kept the refugees in camps, they had not added their own local poor to the camps, using UNWRA as a free welfare agency, the refugee problem would be much smaller.
In short, the Arabs have done nearly everything in their power to keep the refugee problem festering, as a weapon to club Israel with, and as an ever-ready distraction from their internal problems. Yet your author speaks as if the Arabs honestly wished to solve the problem, but just didn't know how:
The place to start is Palestine. If the U.S. has been so intolerably partial on the Palestinian issue, then it’s time for the Arabs to circumvent Washington. There are two options: to declare war on Israel, something few Arabs desire or expect will succeed; or to address the Israelis directly and set down realistic demands for a settlement of the Palestinian imbroglio. Palestine was always primarily an Arab-Israeli concern. There is no reason why it should not again be so. It’s time for the Arab elites solve a half-century conundrum that still baffles them.
The problem has never "baffled" the Arabs. It hasn't been solved because they don't want it solved, except at the expense of Israel's existence. They will always want the very best for their dear Palestinian brothers -- as long as Israel pays. |
