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Palestine: will acceptance ever replace rejection? : Comments
By David Singer, published 15/9/2011If it's like its predecessor next week's Durban 111 Conference on Racism will be full of racism directed against Jews.
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Israel was not created out of Palestine; there was never any such country. ‘The British Mandate for Palestine’ was a remnant of the old Ottoman Empire, inhabited by Jews and Arabs jointly, and largely without conflict. After WWII, the UN recognised both Israel and Jordan as nations; its objective was to give those Jews who survived Nazi persecution someplace to live. France and Italy had cooperated in genocide; going ‘home’ wasn’t an option. And recall that half of Germany and all of Eastern Europe were forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union, then led by Stalin, who was busy exterminating enemies in his infamous labour camps (~18 millions between 1930 and 1960) ... including Jews.
The population of Israel is approximately 75% Jews, 25% Arabs. All Jews have been expelled from most Arab countries; only Tunisia still has a small Jewish community. In Europe, that was called ‘ethnic cleansing’, and loudly denounced.
In 1967 and 1973, Arab nations declared war on Israel with the explicit objective of expelling and/or exterminating the Jewish community. Peace treaties between Israel and the Jordinian territory of Palestine were negotiated in 1978 (Camp David Accords), in 1992 (The Oslo Accords), and in 2000 (Clinton’s Camp David Summit). In all three cases, Israel agreed to recognise Palestine as a nation. In all three cases, Yasser Arafat failed to deliver on his promises to recognise Israel as a nation. Rocket attacks, shelling, and suicide bombing against Israel have been more or less continuous for 30 years. Singer is correct to point out that Hamas, the PLO and others insist, as a matter of policy, that Israel be wiped off the map.
I absolutely support Palestinian statehood, with full rights for its citizens, and have done for decades. So do most nations. But it’s terribly disappointing to see so many people assuming that, if only Jews would make nice to their Arab neighbours, peace would break out in the Middle East. That isn’t what history tells us. That isn’t a serious response to a serious issue.