David f refers to Julian, the least-worst of ancient Rome's sorry line up of Roman tyrants which continues today, masquerading as "Christianity", at the same location.

Julian's demise is a remarkable repetition of the death of Tutankhamen many centuries earlier and for the same reason - each man revived polytheism in an attempt to mitigate the evil of monotheism by dilution and each man failed to watch his back at a critical time.

In Tutankhamen's time the murder was achieved by his venturing out of sight of witnesses where the assassination could be covered up as a "chariot mishap". He had made enemies by pressing for a return to polytheism in the hope that it would dilute the greater evil of monotheism.

Julian's murder was carried out for the same reason. It was enabled in his stupidity in starting a war against Persia (21st century echoes?) and not watching his back in the heat of battle.

As for the Roman war against Christianity, it has continued for 17 centuries and probably claimed even more lives than Islam has managed. The murder rampage is touched on in Foxe's Book of Martyrs and described in detail in a book by a 19th century Sevvo called Ellen White ("The Great Conspiracy").

Dear David F.,

Sorry, I skimped over your last post and commented on it without reading it carefully enough. Specifically, I related to: «The injustice of the founding of Israel can be removed if...» without noticing that the subject of injustice has changed from the previous sentence.

While some regrettable injustice was done in the implementation of founding Israel, and while it needs to be addressed and redressed, the very act of founding Israel did not constitute an injustice in itself.

Note that despite all warts and humps, the Arab citizens of Israel indicated clearly that they would not like to live under any other regime, Muslim or Palestinian. In fact, they protest bitterly against suggestions that their towns and villages might be transferred to Palestinian jurisdiction as part of a land-exchange within a peace deal.

Yuyutsu's family can be made secure after the inevitable end of the last Western colonial possession in the world only by a negotiated dismantlement of the racial supremacist state of Israel (which is the entity guaranteeing danger to all its inhabitants) passing rule to the natives (as in the African colonies) with international involvement if needed in protecting the rights of every individual of any (and preferably no) religion and any genetic origin. America could be a key part of any international guarantee.

It's not fail-safe any more than in the African colonies but learn the lesson of the Mau Maus and the other roving armies for the consequences of trying to deny the natives their right to self-determination in their own homelands.

Otherwise Sharia and dhimmitude here they come.

#davidf

I am pleased that at last you have finally stated:
"I can agree that most left of their own volition"

Now as to your question of why they were not allowed to return:

Every one of your posts ignores that there were three refugee problems caused in 1947-1948:

1. Palestinian Arabs - mostly fleeing of their own volition
2. Palestinian Jews - forcibly expelled from Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria by the invading Transjordanian army
3. Jews fleeing Arab countries.
As to these Jews from Arab countries - the following is instructive:

"Throughout 1947 and 1948, Jews in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Syria, and Yemen (Aden) were persecuted, their property and belongings were confiscated, and they were subjected to severe anti-Jewish riots instigated by the governments. In Iraq, Zionism was made a capital crime. In Syria, anti-Jewish pogroms erupted in Aleppo and the government froze all Jewish bank accounts. In Egypt, bombs were detonated in the Jewish quarter, killing dozens. In Algeria, anti-Jewish decrees were swiftly instituted and in Yemen, bloody pogroms led to the death of nearly 100 Jews.

In January 1948, the president of the World Jewish Congress, Dr. Stephen Wise, appealed to U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall: “Between 800,000 and a million Jews in the Middle East and North Africa, exclusive of Palestine, are in 'the greatest danger of destruction' at the hands of Moslems being incited to holy war over the Partition of Palestine ... Acts of violence already perpetrated, together with those contemplated, being clearly aimed at the total destruction of the Jews, constitute genocide, which under the resolutions of the General Assembly is a crime against humanity." In May 1948, the New York Times echoed Wise's appeal, and ran an article headlined, "Jews in Grave Danger in all Muslim Lands: Nine Hundred Thousand in Africa and Asia face wrath of their foes."
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-refugees-from-arab-countries

Israel welcomed and absorbed these Jews from Arab countries.

The Arab countries refused to similarly absorb the Palestinian Arabs - keeping them in refugee camps in shocking conditions where they still languish today.

That is the real injustice.

Dear Yuyutsu,

Alternatives are continue the present situation or form two states. If two states were formed the Arab state would not allow Jews and would probably persecute Christians. We could expect continual conflict between the two states with many of the people in one state hating the people in the other state. Both states would be ethnic nationalist states. Two ethnic nationalist states are worse than one ethnic nationalist state.

If the present occupation continues we could expect more Arab-Israeli wars. The Arabs could lose those wars and still exist. If the Israelis lost once that would be the end for Israel.

If the area between the Jordan and the Mediterranean became a state for all its citizens your dire consequences might follow. However, they might not. A democratic state for all its citizens might be accepted and continue.

I feel a single democratic state is the best alternative.

Dear All,

Perhaps, it would be for the best to restore polytheism. The gullible and superstitious could worship whatever gods they wished to. There was a spirit of tolerance in the ancient world for those who worshipped other gods. Gods were not jealous of the worship of other gods. In general the ancient polytheistic religions did not prescribe morality. One worshipped and made sacrifices to the gods to obtain their favour. For morality one consulted the philosophers or one’s community. Philosophers were not confused with any deity one could take their opinions or not. The opinion of the philosophers was generally compatible with social reality and not eternally true so their views could change as the situation changed.

Jonathan Kirsch in “God Against the Gods” tells of the struggle between polytheism and monotheism in the ancient world. Here he tells of the role of the philosopher in antiquity:

“Yet another voice that could be heard, quite literally, in the market place of ancient Rome was that of the philosopher. Nowadays, philosophy has come to be regarded as an intellectual pastime that has nothing to do with the practice of religion—and nothing at all to do with real life.

continued

continued

But the philosophers of pagan antiquity were the functional equivalent of what today we would call theologians: they pondered the beginning and ending of the world, the nature and destiny of humankind, the identity and will of the divine. For the same reason that some of the ancients found more spiritual meaning in the mystery religions than in the staid ceremonies of the official cults, others placed themselves under the tutelage of the philosophers who offered to reveal the arcane secrets of the cosmos.

Philosophy was fully as diverse as any other expression of paganism. Just as one might worship one or another of the many gods and goddesses, one might study and practice the teachings of the Stoics or the Epicureans, the Skeptics or the Cynics, the Peripatetics or the Pythagoreans or the Platonists. And, like, the mystery religions, the philosophers offered something that the priests in the official cults ignored-̶̶̶̶̶̶ a concern for the happiness and fulfilment of the men and women who placed themselves under their tutelage. “[T]hey specialised in an activity that one could call in modern language pastoral care, life counselling or psychotherapy,” explains historian Hans-Josef Klauk. [Magic and Paganism in Early Christianity]

While the Pontifex Maximus and the lesser priests and priestesses of the official cults called upon the old gods and goddesses of the Greco-Roman pantheon to preserve the empire, the philosophers were offering advice to ordinary men and women about how to live a decent life.

Here is another example of the moral and ethical concerns that were among the core values of classical paganism—the philosophers instructed their followers on “what is honourable and what is shameful, what is just and what is unjust,” according to one ancient orator, “how a man must bear himself in his relations with the gods, with his parents, with his elders, with the laws, with strangers, with those in authority, with friends, with women, with children with servants.”

Continued