Training Day in Ain al Hilwe

Andrew,

Your comments about the camp were interesting until I came across the following, "...those who fled during the 1948 war that led to the creation of Israel".

It's been over two decades since the British and Israeli archives were opened up and well respected historians and academics documented that the Palestinian refugees were expelled from their homes and land in a strategic manner. Over half of the total population of Palestinian refugees were expelled prior to any fighting breaking out in 1948. The expulsions then continued during the war and after.

It was also documented that the homes and villages of the refugees were deliberately razed, destroyed or sealed to keep the inhabitants from returning. This was part of Plan D (Dalet in Hebrew) to create a Jewish majority demography for the new state of Israel.

You're a better reporter than to distribute misleading information with statements such as 'fled during the 1948 war' which perpetuate old propoganda. Please pay attention to your words.

Andrew,

Your comments about the camp were interesting until I came across the following, "...those who fled during the 1948 war that led to the creation of Israel".

It's been over two decades since the British and Israeli archives were opened up and well respected historians and academics documented that the Palestinian refugees were expelled from their homes and land in a strategic manner. Over half of the total population of Palestinian refugees were expelled prior to any fighting breaking out in 1948. The expulsions then continued during the war and after.

It was also documented that the homes and villages of the refugees were deliberately razed, destroyed or sealed to keep the inhabitants from returning. This was part of Plan D (Dalet in Hebrew) to create a Jewish majority demography for the new state of Israel.

You're a better reporter than to distribute misleading information with statements such as 'fled during the 1948 war' which perpetuate old propoganda. Please pay attention to your words.

In a way your article points out the difficulties Israel will have in making peace with the Palestinians. Under Yassir Arafat, if a deal could be made, he probably could have represented the whole Palestinian faction when he cut a deal- unfortunately he did not. Today, with the Palestinians divided how can a deal be made? The refugee Palestinians in Lebanon want the right of return to homes in Israel. Hamas wants Israel destroyed. The subjugated Syriam Palestians want the Golan for Syria back. The west bank Palestinians want a state in the west bank and Gaza but will probably forgoe the right of return for that state. Some Israelis will want a transfer of the Plestinians in occupied " or liberated Judea and Sumaria" because they know there will never be peace with all the Palestian factions.

In a way your article points out the difficulties Israel will have in making peace with the Palestinians. Under Yassir Arafat, if a deal could be made, he probably could have represented the whole Palestinian faction when he cut a deal- unfortunately he did not. Today, with the Palestinians divided how can a deal be made? The refugee Palestinians in Lebanon want the right of return to homes in Israel. Hamas wants Israel destroyed. The subjugated Syriam Palestians want the Golan for Syria back. The west bank Palestinians want a state in the west bank and Gaza but will probably forego the right of return for that state. Some Israelis will want a transfer of the Palestinians in occupied " or liberated Judea and Sumaria" because they know there will never be peace with all the Palestinan factions.

It's a tragedy that a people have to resort to training young kids like that to prevent further ethnic cleansing and to regain land that was once their's. In Africa, they train young kids like that to facilitate the warlord drug economy. Here, they just want out of a refugee camp in a foreign country.

I don't think Andrew was purposely trying to inflame the issue of the Palestinian refugee situation with his wording... but, I think Edie made some great points.

Jason, how could a deal have been made with Yassir Arafat when he was under house arrest by the Israeli DF?

nk+,
I believe that in Clinton's final weeks in office a deal was on the table that Arafat rejected because it did not include the right of return. At least, this is the way this has often been reported (which has probably been spun by the pro-Israel MSM).

It's rather refreshing to see intelligent commentary before the wingnuts arrive.

Jason, how could a deal have been made with Yassir Arafat when he was under house arrest by the Israeli DF

Well, Arafat was not under house arrest for all the years leading to the Camp David meeting with Clinton and Barak after Oslo. He was under house arrest only when he said he wanted to be a shahid " martyr" and supported suicide bombers - this after he received a nobel prize for peace :) . Well, misinformation type propaganda again for the uninformed is now corrected for those who are now informed about the house arrest issue.

“...any culture that takes pride in having the next generation as a ready supply of cheap weapons has already lost its future. Any leader who cultivates or condones suicide as its war plan has lost all moral standing. What do we say about societies that practice human sacrifice?”

If Israel were to withdraw completely from the West Bank tomorrow it would not end terrorism. Radical Islamic groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad are opposed to the existence of a Jewish state anywhere in what they consider the Islamic heartland. These and other terrorist groups have never said they were prepared to live in peace with Israel if it were to withdraw anywhere short of the border of the Mediterranean Sea.

Long before 1967, when Israel captured the West Bank, Arabs used violence to try to first prevent the establishment of a Jewish state and then to destroy Israel. Anti-Jewish riots began in 1920 and were instigated repeatedly over the years of the British mandate in an effort to either drive out the Jews or convince the British to renege on the promise to create a Jewish homeland. These were the first "intifadas" and were characterized by the cold-blooded murder of innocents.

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“The Arab world is the last bastion of unbridled, unashamed, unhidden and unbelievable anti-Semitism. Hitlerian myths get published in the popular press as incontrovertible truths. The Holocaust either gets minimized or denied....How the Arab world will ever come to terms with Israel when Israelis are portrayed as the devil incarnate is hard to figure out.”

“Israel is the only state in the world today, and the Jews the only people in the world today, that are the object of a standing set of threats from governmental, religious, and terrorist bodies seeking their destruction. And what is most disturbing is the silence, the indifference, and sometimes even the indulgence, in the face of such genocidal anti-Semitism.”