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Path: utzoo!lsuc!dave
From: dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman)
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: Leaving Israel alone
Message-ID: <591@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Apr-85 12:35:43 EST
Article-I.D.: lsuc.591
Posted: Wed Apr 10 12:35:43 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Apr-85 13:07:02 EST
References: <577@lsuc.UUCP> <8@aquila.UUCP>
Reply-To: dave@lsuc.UUCP (David Sherman)
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 60
Summary: how about a bit of Middle Eastern history?

In article <8@aquila.UUCP> chris@aquila.UUCP (chris) writes:
||David Sherman writes:
|| > ... Israel poses no threat to Iraq nor any of the other
|| > countries in the Middle East, if they'd only leave it alone.
||
||Sure, and any invading country is really peace loving, if only the original
||inhabitants would turn over their homes/possessions/et cetera, and
||leave the invaders to enjoy them in peace.

Invaders??
Palestine was a British colony when the Balfour Declaration promised
it as a homeland for the Jews in 1917. Subsequently (1922), 77% of
it was lopped off and handed to the Hashemite Arabs, and became Jordan.
Of the remaining 23%, the Jews settled in a large part, primarily
in barren, unoccupied areas. In 1947, the U.N. partition plan called
for the establishment of two states, one Jewish, one Arab. The Arabs
refused to accept this and invaded the newly-formed State of Israel.

The "original inhabitants" had plenty of room for their own state.
Unfortunately, the Arab mentality does not tolerate the concept of
an independent Jewish state nearby.

||
||			As long as the Palestinians are living
||in refugee camps in Jordan there will be Arab hatred of Israel, and many
||Canadians understand this.

If the Arabs had used a tiny fraction of their oil money towards
resettling the refugees, the problem would have been solved years
ago. The tiny county of Israel absorbed approximately 750,000 Jews
from Arab lands in the late 40's and early 50's. Those Arabs who
stayed in Israel became citizens (and vote, serve in the Parliament,
etc.). Those who left are free to go to Jordan, where Palestinian
Arabs have automatic citizenship. Why blame Israel?

||There are too many arguments and counter arguments to be made by both sides;
||I am sure there are good internal reasons for all the atrocities.
							^^^^^^^^^^^
What?
I object to the blanket suggestion that Israel performs or
condones atrocities. The Israeli army's standards are exceptionally
high. Speak to an ex_Israeli army member sometime.

||as well, there is increasing evidence of the poor treatment
||(i.e. lack of civil rights / legal discrimination) against Arabs living
||in Israel. Is apartheid far from coming now? (Did you know that all Israeli
||identity cards give the religion of the bearer? Do you wonder why?)

Did you know that Israeli Arabs can vote in Israel? How many Arabs
can vote in any other country in the Middle East?
Yes, Israel is a *Jewish* state, so there are certain inherent
preferences given to Jews (e.g., the Law of Return). You will
find that non-Moslems have almost no rights in many Moslem countries -
far fewer rights than Arabs in Israel. If the Arabs don't like it,
they are free to go live in any one of the 22 Arab countries.

Dave Sherman
-- 
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