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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: marcos who wrote (156674)	1/20/2005 2:23:46 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

MYTH "Israel refused to allow Palestinians to return to their homes so Jews could steal their property." FACT Israel could not simply agree to allow all Palestinians to return, but consistently sought a solution to the refugee problem. Israel's position was expressed by David BenGurion (August 1, 1948): When the Arab states are ready to conclude a peace treaty with Israel this question will come up for constructive solution as part of the general settlement, and with due regard to our counterclaims in respect of the destruction of Jewish life and property, the long-term interest of the Jewish and Arab populations, the stability of the State of Israel and the durability of the basis of peace between it and its neighbors, the actual position and fate of the Jewish communities in the Arab countries, the responsibilities of the Arab governments for their war of aggression and their liability for reparation, will all be relevant in the question whether, to what extent, and under what conditions, the former Arab residents of the territory of Israel should be allowed to return.46 The Israeli government was not indifferent to the plight of the refugees; an ordinance was passed creating a Custodian of Abandoned Property "to prevent unlawful occupation of empty houses and business premises, to administer ownerless property, and also to secure tilling of deserted fields, and save the crops...."47 The implied danger of repatriation did not prevent Israel from allowing some refugees to return and offering to take back a substantial number as a condition for signing a peace treaty. In 1949, Israel offered to allow families that had been separated during the war to return, to release refugee accounts frozen in Israeli banks (eventually released in 1953), to pay compensation for abandoned lands and to repatriate 100,000 refugees.48 The Arabs rejected all the Israeli compromises. They were unwilling to take any action that might be construed as recognition of Israel. They made repatriation a precondition for negotiations, something Israel rejected. The result was the confinement of the refugees in camps. Despite the position taken by the Arab states, Israel did release the Arab refugees' blocked bank accounts, which totaled more than $10 million, paid thousands of claimants cash compensation and granted thousands of acres as alternative holdings. jewishvirtuallibrary.org

To: marcos who wrote (156674)	1/20/2005 2:27:37 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Everything comes in the wake of something, doesn't it It wasn't just what it was in the wake of, but what it was in the current context of. The Brits tried to broker a deal whereby the parties signed a truce, Israel took the Jews from the Arab lands, the Arab countries took the Arabs from the part of Palestine that became Israel, and everybody signed a peace treaty. The Arabs took the first part, the truce (they were losing) and reneged on the rest. So the deal they offered the infant state of Israel was: we remain in a state of war with you (we'll get you next time), we'll send you 700,000 Jewish refugees from the Arab lands (in addition to the 300,000 penniless Holocaust survivors they had already, the total was greater than the pre-war Yishuv), and by the way we absolutely demand you take back all the Arabs of Palestine, whom we told to leave. Ben Gurion and cabinet seriously debated the issue, they understood the plight of the refugees, but decided that to take back the Arab population was suicide. There was no peace treaty, so how could they take back a population that would shoot them in the back in the next war - and they had to assume that the Arab countries would smuggle plenty of fighting men in among the refugees, had they been foolish enough to accept this very lopsided deal. Context. That's what you refuse to look at. Context.