At Long Last
The Jerusalem Post reports on a welcome – yet long overdue – development.
As peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians gather steam, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution on Tuesday urging that the issue of Jewish refugees be part of any agreement.
While the Palestinian claim of a “right of return” for its refugees has long been an issue – and stumbling block – in final-status talks, the resolution seeks to have the suffering of Jewish refugees taken into account as well.
Backers described it as the first congressional measure to recognize these refugees, and argued that it shouldn’t hinder the peace process, but rather ground it more firmly in the historical reality experienced by two peoples long at odds.
“This is not an impediment,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
He argued that raising the profile of Jewish refugees would create a stronger and more credible foundation for talks.
But the Arab American Institute suggested the resolution was unhelpful and “distracts attention” from other refugee issues, according to an action alert sent to its members last week.
The non-binding House resolution recounts the history of the issue and calls on the US to make sure that any international resolutions relating to the “required resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue” also contain “similarly explicit reference to the resolution of the issue of Jewish, Christian and other refugees from Arab countries.”
It also demands that the US make clear its position that “as an integral part of any comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace… all refugees displaced from Arab countries, including Jews, Christians and other minority groups,” be recognized.
Around the time of the creation of the State of Israel, hundreds of thousands of Jews in Arab countries lost their homes and savings – and in some instances, their lives – as they were forced to flee.
A similar number of Palestinians fled from present-day Israel as hostilities between Jewish and Arab armies broke out.
I take issue with this last statement. The number of Jewish refugees was around 820,000 – 850,000, while the number of Arabs who left Israeli-controlled territory was somewhere between 430,000 – 650,000.
“The world needs to understand that it’s not just Arabs and Palestinians, but it’s also Jewish people who were dispossessed of their homes and possessions, who were victims of terrorist acts and murder,” said Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-New York) on a conference call Monday with resolution cosponsors Jerrold Nadler (D-New York) and Mike Ferguson (R-New Jersey). A companion resolution in the Senate has yet to be voted on.
Regina Bubil-Waldman, a Jewish refugee who fled Libya as a child, welcomed the resolution with a quaver in her voice.
“It touches my heart, and I cannot tell you how emotional this is,” she said. “Only with historical truth can we build a better future – and today, that’s what we’re doing.”
Filed Under: Uncategorized
About the Author: An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.
I think it’s great that Congress did this, and it’s something I’ve been talking about for years. The question though, is why is the American Congress bringing this up instead of the Israeli government?
Steve, the US is pushing the Annapolis “peace” process, which will deal w/the refugee issue, so its appropriate the US brings this up in order to put its weight behind factoring this into the resolution of the refugee portion of the “peace” negotiations. That said, I’ve always believed the refugee issue is only a pawn to be played by the Arabs in the end, always intended to be given up as an apparent concession to elicit tangible land gains from Israel.
Despite what Shas and Olmert say, both Condoleezza and Condi-appointed “monitor” Gen. James Jones (carefully note last paragraph) are already discussing “final status” issues (i.e., that means Jerusalem), so this resolution barely came in time.
I wish I could be happier over Congress’ recognition; but it just seems like a prelude to push for the palestinian “so-called” right of return in the future, a sane Israeli government could simply not agree to any compromise on that issue.
Seems like a prelude to countering such a push. Add to that some financial arrangements and voila, it will appear that the Palestinians really have offered Israel something after all (though it shouldn’t even be on the table) and so then having supposedly “gotten something” and having gotten out of 1/2 of the demographic threat Israel then won’t feel so bad about giving up land.
Somebody’s wallet is stolen, the robber is caught and the police says “well, let’s take the middle of the road, here, let each of them, owner AND robber take half of the money in the wallet and they both go happy their own way and nobody got hurt”. Should Israel had by this time, soundly defeated her enemies; all this immoral discussions would not be taking place. In the end, Israel’s position will be so bad that the “final solution” to the problem will be a true “final solution” for Israel because there will simply not be enough Israel to be viable. And the “palestinean state” will be just a cancer that will grow and plot and arm itself until the day they can fall on Israel and deal the final blow. And the Israelis will be dealing with a “sovereign state” and not be able to interfere. Israelis are, at this very moment, committing suicide. Their leftist brainwashing doesn’t let them see what others, outside Israel see as clear as anything clear has ever been seen. It would be a good idea for Israel to tell Rice where she can stick her criminal plans to sell the Israelis down the drain for political gain before she keeps building this fantasy of hers where she’s Bill Clinton and EVERY Israeli’s last name is Lewinsky. But will they? Noooooo . . . Israelis will go along with every measure that will divest Israel from any means of self defense not for lacking the tools but because all involved will understand that Israel will not USE the tools because you have lost your spine. You don’t have that much time left to change your ways. Will you?
Right of return for Palestinians?
That would only be true and solve everything if they went to their true Palestine.
It’s spelled J-o-r-d-a-n.
Jeffrey Nihart