In a startling and revelatory initiative at the United Nations, Deputy Israeli FM Danny Ayalon (interviewed by PJTV in 2011 here) has asked for the restitution of Jewish land confiscated by Arabs. It is five times the state of Israel.
Israel has launched a new and controversial diplomatic initiative aimed at placing the plight of Jews in Arab countries on an equal footing with that of Palestinian refugees, insisting that the resolution of both problems is a prerequisite to Middle East peace.
Speaking at special conference convened on Friday at UN headquarters in New York, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said “We will not arrive at peace without solving the refugee problem – but that includes the Jewish refugees. Justice does not lie on just one side and equal measures must be applied to both.”
The first-of-its-kind conference, which was convened over the objections of Arab representatives to the UN, attracted several hundred participants, including Israeli diplomats, senior Jewish organizational leaders, New York State and city politicians and a modest number of other countries’ ambassadors to the UN (8) as well as lower ranking representatives (17). The conference heard Israeli and Jewish officials – as well as eyewitness accounts by Jews whose families had been persecuted and expelled from Arab countries.
Delivering an impassioned speech, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor lambasted Arab leaders who “launched a war of terror, incitement, and expulsion to decimate and destroy their Jewish communities. Their effort was systematic. It was deliberate. It was planned.”
Prosor cited Arab statements inciting to violence as well as official decrees depriving them of their rights. He said that “billions of dollars of their property and assets were seized” and that “the total area of land confiscated from Jews in Arab countries amounts to nearly 40,000 square miles. That is five times the size of Israel.”
Ha’aretz has the rest – and it’s interesting. So far, no response from our State Department. But you knew that.
Going back to Mecca and Medina?
I think just the period around the founding of the State. Yes, there are also Jews with keys.
Well, we all realize this won’t happen until pigs fly but I think it is a worthy effort. The Arabs fled Israel voluntarily. Jews have been systematically forced out of Arab nations over several decades.
Why don’t both side just consider it “even” and get on with peace? Oh, wait, the Arabs don’t want peace. They want “a piece” of Tel Aviv and Haifa and Netanya and…. Well you get the picture.
What took them so long? I’d also include most European countries along with the Arabs.
I don’t know if anyone has tried Poland, where Jews were killed after the Holocaust on suspicion they wanted their property back. But certainly Germany has done its part there.
EXACTLY! And, I’ll bet if all of those lands were tallied up, they would probably exceed the total square miles of the original Caanan lands God promised His people in the Bible.
Personally, I think such a tally should be conducted, and then a compromise should be made: Israel gets all the original Caanan lands promised them by God, as is their Right, and the Muslim countries accept all Muslim “refugees” (a.k a., those who call themselves “Palestinians” because they are refused asylum by their own bretheren due to the Muslim agenda to deny Israel her right to exist.).
Sorry folks, but it’s about time we talked Truth. I am sick of all the folks who tip-toe around the Truth to avoid ‘offending’ some Muslim group whose leaders would instruct their ‘useful idiots’ to violently riot in the streets. They use the ‘mob mentallity’ to gain unwarranted attention in the news. Then they blame Israel and America for their unrest; when in reality it’s the high-powered Muslim Clerics who manipulate their own people by whipping them up into violent frenzies over little things to demonstrate their dictatoral power over large populations.
It’s about time. We forget that Iraq had, at one time, one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in the world. They were forced out after the state of Israel was established.
Dating back to the captivity, correct? A community that apostles were sent to, correct?
Twenty years earlier, Turkey had a Greek community that dated back to before the Peloponnesian War. Try finding it now.
The multi-cultis can talk about tolerance and diversity all they want. They don’t believe in it, they won’t practice it, they are simply anti-Western culture (which includes Judaism and Israel), they won’t change absent something making them stop–so, it’s time for things to just come to a head.
Dating back to the Captivity yes, but I was thinking more in terms of the period from 1948 to the 1970′s. Over 120,000 Jews emigrated from Iraq under severe persecution, loosing all their property and most of their money which was confiscated. Some of those Jews had an ancestral presence in Iraq so ancient that in some villages the Jews still spoke Aramaic as a first language.
What about Arabs that have lost land as Israel built the barrier and expanded settlements? Israel refuses to recognize those land claims as documented under the British mandate so there already is “fair play” in that sense.
Wars happen, people are displaced. Should the Poles re-open all the land claims against the Germans for properties taken at the start of WW II? Should the Finns reopen claims against Russia for losses in the winter campaign?
And while we are at it how about Christians driven out of the West Bank, Beruit and just about everywhere else in the Arab world
And then there are the Asians driven out of Uganda under Ida Amin, the Japanese who lost everything in the states under internment in the US. Having your home seized for taxes you can’t pay because your government locked you up for being the wrong type of person isn’t exactly “fair play”
Here’s the long and short of it. Wars happen, both between nations and between factions within nations. People who don’t really derserve it get mudered, displaced, interned, disposessed and made stateless.
Arabs lost all the wars they fought against Israel. As as result they have been displaced, dispossesed etc etc etc. The arabs need to get with the program that
the hated Jews in their midst have won and deal with the new reality that they lost and they are paying for it. Israel has a right to exist and a right to defend itself.
Likewise if Israel needs to wants other to recognize jewish land claims then they need to do likewise and recognize land claims from pre-1948. Otherwise how can it be fair-play?
Your post reads like someone complaining about land confiscated from the Nazis by the USA.
Pretty sure that’s Israel’s point, dude. You Arabs want to claim land we’re living on? Fine, then give us back the land you took from Jews. Either be consistent, or stop bringing it up.
Generally Israel does. You didn’t see the horrific pictures of Israeli officials dragging Jewish children from Migron, a settlement that was built in good faith under the understanding the there were no owners around, just a few weeks ago? And even those claims are questionable.
As far as land affected by security precautions, tell the Palestinian Arabs to stop formenting terrorism.
I think you raise an interesting and important point.
If the central idea here is that the clock can be turned back to solve one problem – specifically, to give back Jewish property seized in Muslim countries since 1948 – a reasonable question is how widely this principle can be applied.
If we can – and SHOULD – undo the wrong of unjust property expropriations affecting Jews in Muslim countries, why shouldn’t we undo other unjust expropriations? Surely there is nothing implicit in the principle that says it should only benefit Jews. Or Jews who once lived in Muslim countries. Or people who lost property since 1948?
What about Jewish property expropriated in non-Muslim countries? What about non-Jewish property expropriated in any country? For example, should the descendents of Russian property-owners who had their property expropriated by the Bolsheviks have it restored? Should the descendents of native Americans who had their property expropriated have it restored? How far back do we want to go to accomplish these restorations?
And what about the consequences of those restorations? What happens to America itself if all the land is given back to native Americans? Where do the descendents of the European settlers go? Or the African slaves?
Indeed, Jewish settlement in what today are Iran and Iraq go back at least 2,500 years. Jews had well developed communities in Cyrenaica (today eastern Libya) back to Roman days, long before the region was Arabized. The property they’re talking about was that held by them in the 20th century prior to their expulsion.
But expulsions actually preceded the 1947 UN GA resolution. In the early 20th century, Jews bought land EAST of the Jordan River and began farming it. When the Kingdom of Transjordan was created by the British, those Jewish lands were seized (without compensation) and the Jews were expelled.
I knew a family back in Montreal many years ago that had been living comfortably in Alexandria, Egypt until right after the 1956 war when they were summarily kicked out with nothing. My father and grandparents left Syria years earlier, before the expulsions began. But my father’s first cousin didn’t get out until the late 1970s.
No reply from State? Probably because Hilary and Obama knew nothing about it beforehand. If only Obama had had a chance to meet with Netanyahu when he was in New York a week and a half ago Netenyahu could have briefed him on it.
Oh, wait.
Heh.
Maybe Netanyahu should ask Letterman to pass along vital security information. Or the Pimp with a Limp. Or that pirate. Maybe Israel should just brief Barbara Streisand or Bayonce or George Clooney.
Finally! What took them so long?
“Israel Demands Restitution of Jewish Land Confiscated by Arabs”
LOL.
I can see lefty heads exploding all across the western world.
Over 60 years ago Arab and Persian states in the Middle East began a process of forcing Jews out of their countries. Subsequently, these states slowly sank into tyranny, repression, wars, civil strife and growing impoverishment.
What’s the reaction of Arabs and Iranians today? “The Jews get the best of everything!”
Ha ha ha! So good!
That’s also what they said in Crown Heights before the pogrom. “The Jews are getting everything.”
It’s about time!!
Yes, my Gosh, what took so long!
The land is Israel’s all the to the Euphrates, who will give it to them?
Count me in with another “About time!”
Welcome news- thanks Roger!
This is splendid news for anyone, Jew or Gentile, who understands that Israel is both (1) the only real U.S. ally in the mid-east and (2) the only functioning democracy in the region. The displaced Jewish populations also need to demand the rights of return, self-determination, and self-defense.
Bravo. Bless Eretz Yisroel.
You can’t swing a cat these days w/o another exploding cigar (Mark Steyn’s concept). Just this week: This restitution, Pissed Jesus, Harry Reid; I’m sure there are several more.
It’s about time!!!! I love it! You wanna play that game?? Take that you suckers!
Probably not very diplomatic but wouldn’t it be hilarious if Israel released a video of Netenyahu explaining Israel’s position to an empty chair?
There’s a better chance that the chair would understand (and accept) the explanation than that Obama would.
They Arab muslims always managed to cover up the real truth; they have murdered, stole and destroyed since the 7th century AD. That’s what they do. Much much more land than what the Israelis have settled for belong to the Jews. And someday, They will get it back, when God says it, take it to the bank.
Genesis 15:
18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,
21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
Genesis 15
17 the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.
18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying,
“To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates:
19 the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite
20 and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim
21 and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite.”
You all are on your own with translating the clans with todays land, but Canaan is the Gaza Strip. Wow Bagdad, Iraq belongs to Israel.
And how about some more restitution when the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem made a pact with Hitler and exterminated tens of thousands of Jews and others in Bosnia and other Baltic countries. I never hear of any Jewish leader talk about this. (Arafat was related to the Grand Mufti, BTW)
And maybe we Christians should get together and demand our countries back too; Egypt, Turkey…to name a few.
If I recall correctly, more than 750,000 Jews were expelled from Arab countries following the founding of Israel, while roughly 650,000 Arabs left those areas controlled by Israel after then end of the 1948 war of Independence…Jews are conveniently forgotten in all the hoopla over the Arab refugees.
Roger:
Certainly our State Department is fully informed on this issue, as it has been thoroughly previewed in the Jerusalem Post. For those of us that are paying attention to this issue, it is remarkably ignored in our broadcast media and urban press. The concept of reparations and restitution will not be successfully addressed unless it is bi-lateral, and that truly reveals the weaknesses within the Arab politic, as their former Jewish populations surrendered far more in terms of blood and treasure than the dis-enfranchised Palestinian Arabs. While Israel absorbed Jews forced from Arab nations, no Arab nation has offered open citizenry to Palestinian Arabs, many who voluntarily left their homes in advance of the Arab attack against Israel in 1948. In fact, many of those Palestinian Arabs were encouraged and actively fought as soldiers with Arab armies that invaded Israel in 1948. The arguments for reparations and restitution shines a bright light on official Arab behavior over the last 64 years.
I want back all of the property that bastard Mohamed took from my Quraysh ancestors.
I have a surmise, and I think it a good one, though perhaps not the only interpretation. The following is from a column by Mona Charen (go to NRO’s Corner)
“The Obama Administration has tirelessly — one might even say tiresomely — proclaimed its rock solid commitment to Israel. The message has been delivered by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Advisor, and most flamboyantly, by the president himself. At a recent fundraiser attended by Jewish donors, President Obama boasted, “I try not to pat myself too much on the back, but this administration has done more for the security of the state of Israel than any previous administration.” Both clauses of that sentence are risible.”
I believe the Vice-President may have said something along the same lines. Now, at first, it is in fact risible. My guess is Israel has severe doubts whether the American relationship is going to last another ten, to say nothing of twenty, years at this rate (and well they should), much less that Barack Obama is some strange Hawaiian-born, Indonesian-raised man-of-the-world who is a Zionist at heart. So how to square what the President is saying?
Well, the first assumption might be that this is the standard propaganda we should now be used to from this man, who learned how to win elections by using such techniques on the low-information voters of Chicago and Illinois. In other words, the man is a sophisticate’s demagogue, but a demagogue none the less.
However, there is another interpretation that should be looked at–that just like show-trials for Bush administration officials that the Left wanted back in 2009 but Obama said “no” to, my guess is that the influential portions of the Left are already ready to embargo Israel right now (not show a cold shoulder to, but embargo) and it is Obama stopping them from publicly trying to make the case. And given his worldview and the MSM complicity, he may assume that only his supporters views ultimately matter in the end as a determiner of what America does. He is, of course, quite quite quite quite quite quite quite quite quite mistaken in this, but I could easily see where he thinks that just because he has quelled an internal Democrat debate on Israel, he has actually done something greater than Truman or Nixon ever did.
If this is true, this should all be very revealing of a detain worldview that says only Progressives really count. I thus believe it to be true.
“certain”, not detain.
And my guess is that he is trying to get Israel to understand “I’m all between you and the pitchforks.” To which the correct answer is, “no, not really” . His Progressive base won’t be able to single-handedly rule on the issue, and he has vastly vastly vastly vastly overrated his ability to sway the Muslim world.
I am not a supporter of the expansion of Israel beyond the 1967 border (if you are stupid enough to challenge the Romans, just be happy to get anything back), and I probably would have tried to find a different solution in the early days of Zionism, but what is done is done, and Israel is a democracy and of the West and is a force for good in the world, and I think it should be preserved.
Banking on the self-hating, guilt-crazed liberalism of the sterotypical Jewish voter. Stiff Israel and insult Netanyahu at every opportunity, while every so often ritually proclaim your friendship at campaign events. The usual suspects may still cling to his protestations.
Just wait till he’s re-elected, then the mask comes off.
Obama’s duplicity has a name: It is called ‘taqiyya’.
For those who do not know the meaning of the word “risible,” (I had to look it up), it means, “laughable, funny.” LOL!
Finally. This move ought to be trumpeted long and loudly, so as to overcome MSM reluctance to report it. And while we’re at it, maybe Christians and Buddhists ought to be demanding reparations or a right of return to Afghanistan.
When representing a defendant, one of the most effective tactics is to give the plaintiff some downside. If there’s a reasonably colorable counterclaim, assert it. When the defendant’s worst case changes from walking away with nothing to coming out of pocket, he starts getting more reasonable. That’s what the Israelis have done with this move. Its about time.
Oops. I meant that, when the plaintiff’s worst case changes, the plaintiff starts getting more reasonable.
The supposed “Romney gaffe” had two elements. The first one, the 47%, got a lot of attention, because it lent itself to political exploitation. The second one (The Palestinian lack of interest in peace) did not. Why no hay was made of this one? Isn’t there enough faith in the 2-state solution around to attack the doubters with the same virulence that is currently applied to the attacks on the “climate change deniers”?
The so-called “peace process” started around 20 years ago, and accomplished nothing of value, as measured by its goal of the two-state “solution”. In only made things worse. What if the time is near when it will become widely accepted that the whole thing was only wishful thinking amplified by political cowardice? I see this new element of symmetry applied to the refugees question as part of the same welcome political shift.
I read the first paragraph and laughed my a** off. That’s a great gambit and could turn out to be a winning one! As Glenn says – punching back twice as hard!
Absolutely brilliant, Roger.
But, also, include European land taken from Jews. Date this whole thing from 1939. Munster in Westphalia, for example: its downtown buildings were almost all Jewish owned until stolen by the Nazis.
And then, there are areas of Cairo, and Teheran, and Damascus, etc etc…
When I have pointed this out to Palestinian supporters, there is even a short silence, with a little (not much) rearrangement going on among the brain cells.
You GO, Israel!
And, I’ll second what heathermc (above) said. Including the bit about (lack of) rearrangement of brains cells – though my comments were made in a strictly European, not Palestinian, context, I got much the same response.