WaPo vs WaPo on who created Palestinian refugee problem

American Thinker ^ | 6/7/11 | Leo Rennert

[Nachum]

In the April 6 print edition of the Washington Post, Jerusalem correspondent Joel Greenberg blames Israel for creating the Palestinian refugee problem. Palestinian families, he writes, were "pushed out of what is now Israel when the Jewish state was created in 1948." Thus, it was Israel's establishment that was responsible for the Palestinian refugee problem.

However, on the April 6 Washington Post website, Jerusalem correspondent Joel Greenberg offers a completely different explanation for the Palestinian refugee problem. Some Arab families, he writes, were "displaced in the war that followed the establishment of Israel in 1948. So, it wasn't Israel's cration that was at fault. It was the "war" by Arab armies against the nascent Jewish state that created the Palestinian refugee problem

Which brings up an intriguing question: Which of these two contradictory versions reflects Greenberg's dispatch? Which was changed at the copy desk in DC?

Greenberg couldn't possibly have written both -- one blaming Israel for the Palestinian refugee problem and the other blaming Arabs for waging a war against Israel in 1948.

For the sake of maintaining the trust of its readers, to say nothing of the professional integrity of Joel Greenberg, the Post owes to its readers a public explanation of how it managed to serve up two irreconcilable historical versions.

[Red Badger]

For a liberal, mental dissonance is a way of life..............

[rod1]

Simple plausable explanation (trying to help them out here). The WaPo can’t make even a dime with their tripe in this universe so they are Beta testing a parallel universe version (ala Fringe) Clearly it still has some bugs.

[Kenny Bunk]

During the first wars of 1948, it was the Arab League that first encouraged the Arab residents to flee, with the rationale that the League was going to wipe out Israel and that the Arabs would be able to return in triumph to claim the whole region. Many, if not most, of those who became refugees took them up on it.

The Arabs who were smart enough to stay have on the whole, enjoyed a much higher standard of living than available in the rest of the Muslim world. The refugees are still refugees in their 3rd generation of misery. (While Arafat built a personal fortune of over L9 Billion Pounds Sterling, mostly invested in UK Real Estate)

I don't mean to paint an overly rosy picture of Israeli sainthood in the affair, but those are the annoying facts, as opposed to the usual Pali-Arab Bullshiite.

[Sherman Logan]

Some Arab families, he writes, were "displaced in the war that followed the establishment of Israel in 1948. So, it wasn't Israel's cration that was at fault. It was the "war" by Arab armies against the nascent Jewish state that created the Palestinian refugee problem.

The two explanations are not inherently in conflict. He does not say the war was the fault of the Arabs, just that it "followed the establishment of Israel." Which is factually correct.

Of course, had Israel not been established, there would have been no war.

[Joan Kerrey]

Of course, had Israel not been established, there would have been no war.

War against the Jews by Arabs has been going on since early 7th century. Many Jews were already in Palestine and owned much of the land before Israel’s creation. Most of the rest of the land was either Ottoman empire land or owned by absentee arab investors/landlords.

Jews pleaded with Arabs in Israel to stay in their homes but the Arab league needed them to leave so that they could wipe out the Jews once and for all. It was the Arabs who intimidated Arabs willing to stay in the new state, some of whom were murdered for their treasonist deeds.

I’m sure anyone could find some dirt on the action of individual Jews but it was not State of Israel policy.

Just as many Jews were evicted from Arab states, losing everything, as Arabs who fled Israel, mostly through their own choice.