Because their Arab brothers like to keep them there as rabid attack dogs against Israel. It's not as though there is no room for them in 22 Arab Muslim countries.
It's that large group of Arab folks who are living in the area currently designated "the Palestinian Authority."
The author would either have us pretend that those people are not there; or else that there is someplace else for them to go.
They're there, and they have no place else to go.
That's the reality, and recognition of that fact is both part of the problem, and part of the solution. The rest of it is all wishful thinking -- and (dare I say it) bigotry.
Oh puke. They're theives.
Because their Arab brothers like to keep them there as rabid attack dogs against Israel. It's not as though there is no room for them in 22 Arab Muslim countries.
Having said that, I have no respect for the Palestinian State movement until they renounce violence, a la Gandhi or Martin Luther King.
The author would either have us pretend that those people are not there; or else that there is someplace else for them to go.
They're there, and they have no place else to go.
That's the reality, and recognition of that fact is both part of the problem, and part of the solution.
Two comments:
When Jewish people in the Soviet Union, Syria, and Ethiopia were persecuted, the Jewish community worldwide collected funds for resettlement and the Israeli people brought those refugees to Israel. Where is the comparable effort on the part of Arab nations to resettle at least some of the Palestinians in their lands?
There has always been both an Arab presence and a Jewish presence in the land now known as Israel. Certainly when Mark Twain visited the area it was desolate. No surprise that he didn't see many people there. Much of the U.S. was also desolate at that time.
The fact remains that the Jewish people want a state that is uniquely Jewish in character and governance, but if the Palestinian Arabs were to return and become assimilated the state would lose its Jewish majority... actually it is the Israelis who would be assimilated into a Palestinian majority. There might have been a time when the rights of the Palestinians could have received deserved attention and respect from Israelis and vice-versa, but that time is probably about thirty or forty years past.
The United States can certainly provide a neutral meeting ground for the leaders of both peoples, but past that it would do well to not take sides... at least IMHO. Privately, of course, root for whomever.
It's that large group of Arab folks who are living in the area currently designated "the Palestinian Authority." The author would either have us pretend that those people are not there; or else that there is someplace else for them to go.
They're there, and they have no place else to go.
A few facts;
1.Arab and Jewish Refugees: In 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.
2. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.
3. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.
4. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own peoples' lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.
5. The Arab - Israeli Conflict: The Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.
6. The P.L.O.'s Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them.