A refugee has a lesson for Arabs

[GabysPoppy]

An amazing reunion took place in Tel Aviv the other day. After being separated for 52 years, 79-year-old Salima Moshe Nissim of the southern Iraqi city of Basra embraced her 83-year-old sister, Marcel Madar.
Madar had immigrated to Israel in 1951, when more than 130,000 Jews fled Iraqi anti-Semitism. Nissim stayed behind. Now, finally, there she was in Israel, one of six aging Iraqi Jews flown there this week in a top-secret exodus coordinated by the U.S. Army, the Jerusalem-based Jewish Agency and New York's Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

snip

Iraq's Jewish community was not the only one to disappear from the Islamic world after 1948. Some 600,000 Jews fled homes in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Afghanistan and Iran.

snip

I say that because at about the time Jews left Arab lands, some 600,000 Palestinians fled the war the Arabs had launched against the newborn state of Israel. Rather than being resettled, most have been forced by their Arab brethren to fester in refugee camps around the Mideast. Palestinians say there are as many as 4 million such refugees today.

The answer to their woes is not a right of return to Israel, where they would destroy its character as a Jewish state. The answer is to learn from the Jews: Care for your brethren, resettle them, improve their lives, live in peace.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/105349p-95292c.html

[cherryperry]

1. Yeah!!!

The reason why 99% of the Iraqi Jewish community departed following Israel's independence — they (like Jews in Syria, Libya, Egypt and other Arab nations) were systematically expelled by the Iraqi government. Iraqi legislation in 1948-51 first outlawed Zionist "behavior," then deprived Jews of their Iraqi nationality, access to education, and finally, of all their property. President Truman helped organize a massive airlift in 1951 to bring the desperate Iraqi Jewish community to Israel.

Read an expose of the persecution suffered by the Iraqi Jewish community:
- Denver's Rocky Mountain News

[Resistance]

2. I agree with caring for your brethren, living in peace,

and improving lives.

The rest is total crap - this person obviously doesn't have a clue about the history of the region. "600,000 Palestinians fled the war the Arabs had launched"? Umm, no - actually the Zionists were engaged in massive ethnic cleansing, terrorism and murders of entire Palestinian villages at the time, and Arab nations stepped in to try and prevent more Zionist massacres of the native inhabitants. It's amazing how many people still believe the 'Arabs started the '48 war' bullshit.

[Jim Sagle]

3. It's not bullshit, it's plain truth.

And everybody goddamn well knows it.

[Resistance]

4. I'm sure it appears that way to you, Sagle

[Darranar]

9. The ethnic cleansing...

occurred on both sides. The mainstream Zionists did not engage in such acts, as today. The Arabs launched the war to destroy Israel and ethnic cleanse the Jews.

You are defending one side and completely ignoring the horrible actions committed by that side.

[Wonder]

26. oh I see

so we forget all about reparation and just get on with a continued almost 56 years of ethnic cleansing (give or take)?

[Darranar]

30. No, we don't...

I just read over my post and realized that mine was one-sided as well. Reparations are needed, and the current process of ethnic cleansing in Israel, or planned ethnic cleansing, must stop.

[Gimel]

25. As long as...

...people are prone to cling to radical views that are unjustifiable by history, there will be no peace. For there to be peace people have to want to make peace, not to destroy.

[Equinox]

31. Gimel...they also have to stop settling and building fences...

and other such things that disrupt the natives.

[StandWatie]

5. what a dick

"Just do what I did, go kick someone out of their house and live on an economy propped up by foreign aid and donations from diaspora Jews"

It reminds me of this letter in the onion this carpet salesman wrote to the kid living in the garbage pile in Calcutta advising him to get rid of his credit card debt, buy a house instead of renting, and start clipping coupons.

[Wonder]

18. Yes!

What a dick! I believe t'was my POINT. I am confident it has been sufficiently made.

[Wonder]

27. PNACer's Speak:

The Author of this Article Belongs to this Illustrious Group. He is a Senior Fellow. Among the other groups members are:

Richard Perle
Frank Gaffney
Bill Kristol

Here read:
http://www.defenddemocracy.org/biographies/biographies.htm

[tinnypriv]

6. "Learn from the Jews"

..."live in peace"?

WTF?

[Wonder]

28. Yes the Advise is Pervasive

It is a variation on the "let's not assign blame mantra". A little curve ball from the PNACer's "hit" parade. Oh do as we do! forget what we say!
Our history is NOT your history. Get with the Jewish progroms!

[bemildred]

7. So what is the lesson?

It was safe to be a Jew in Iraq after all?
Iraq treated its remaining Jews better than Israel
treats Palestinians?
What lesson?

[Wonder]

19. there are a number of takes

on the Iraqi Jewish exodus. Problem is separating the fibs, from the fibers in an effort to cull facts can be somewhat challenging.

[Jackie97]

8. The Jews should NEVER had been forced to resettle.......

And if they were screaming for the right to return like the Palestinians are today, then I would support them, but they're NOT.

Likewise, the Palestinians should not be forced to resettle.

Do you know what it was called when the Iraqis drove the Jews out of Iraq? It was called Ethnic Cleansing because they forced people to leave because of what they were.

Guess what it's called to do the same thing to the Palestinians?

The scriptures say to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Do you think it was okay to make Jews resettle? In that case, why do you think it's okay to make Palestinians resettle?

[Darranar]

10. Almost completely agreed...

I don't think the Israeli government as a whole advocates transfer of the Palestinians-though that would unquestionably be ethnic cleansing.

[bemildred]

11. I am curious.

Perhaps you know.

I have read stories here about how these Baghdad Jews' Muslim
neighbors came running to make sure they were all right during the
recent war, and Saddam seems to have protected them - at least there
they are still - and Saddam is not known for being Mr. Mellow. I
suspect they are in more danger now with the Shiites off the leash
than before the war. So I wonder how much were they were persecuted
in Saddam's Iraq? And how much anti-Jewish violence was there in
Iraq back in the time of the 1948 war? Is there credible information
to be had about these subjects?

[Darranar]

12. No, I don't know...

but I suppose they kept hidden. I sincerely doubt that Saddam would have protected them unless it was to anger the religious rebels.

[bemildred]

14. I don't think they were hidden.

Like I said, the neighbors came to check on them, and this
is a quasi-Stalinist police state.

They probably were under some constraints, of course.
But it's been fifty years, that's why it seemed odd, and
this old lady to be seems fine.

Of course we don't know much.

I see other cases where, contrary to the purple rhetoric
we see here, Muslims and Jews seem to get along fine.

Thanks for answering.

[Wonder]

29. Yes like in Morraco

says, "Jews and Muslims seem to get along fine there. They even share a similar cuisine, and break bread too!"

[GabysPoppy]

13. you may find some answers here

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion/article/0,1299,DRMN_38_2098301,00.html

Iraqi Jews: a case of 'ethnic cleansing'
Persecution began in 1930s and prevailed throughout Mideast

[bemildred]

15. Thanks for the link, I'll get back.

[bemildred]

16. Very nice.

Interesting to compare with events now.

I have been thinking for some time that a truth and
reconciliation commission, or some such thing, might
be needed. It is depressing to think what has been
lost culturally on both sides.

I was aware of Saddam's pro-Nazi roots, or pro-Fascist
if you prefer, totalitarian however you put it, which is
why this story struck me as a bit odd.

[Wonder]

21. truth and reconcilation commission

has already been suggested by Uri's new group. They kicked off this new peace initiative in June.

[Jackie97]

22. Exactly.

There's never going to be peace as long as people don't love their neighbors as they love themselves.

If anybody of any side wants peace, then they need to stop considering only their side of things and start doing onto others as they would have done onto them.

[Wonder]

23. certainly there is some credible information

deciphering it is the issue. I have to read this article again, as well as the link one of the other posters placed here and check on a number of my own reference.

[Equinox]

32. I was listening to NPR today about Noah Feldman...

talking about his book (the name escapes me). He was recanting a story about a village in Iraq and a visit he had with a 90 year old "wise" muslim man. He was asked if he had a problem if Jews decided to return. The "wise" man said a good person is a good person no matter what.


That was paraphrased, but I hope you get the point.

[Jackie97]

17. I didn't mean to make it sound like the whole government advocated that.

Sorry if it sounded that way.

[Wonder]

20. Right to Return for the Palestinian

I do not believe is a matter of force.

[Gimel]

24. Jewish right of return

Now the Jews have a homeland. And you don't support the right of return to that land? Of course they don't want to go back to oppressive situations. Saddam is a chameleon character. He changed his interests and used minorities for experimental purposes when he chose to do so.

What about the India-Pakistan division. Was that also ethnic cleansing in your pt. of view? Are you speaking of Israel or the Palestinians in the territories? Over 1.4 million Arabs live and thrive in Israel. They attend universities (including women) right along with the Jewish youth. They have equal rights. Persecution is punishable by law. No one is making them resettle.

[Equinox]

33. I don't know...it's the whole different ID card and license plate...

..that throws me.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Israel has two sets of citizenhips. One is being a national, the other a citizen.

Strikes me as odd.

[vierundzwanzig]

34. A truly bizarre case

of revisionism. Not even you can fall for that.

[Wonder]

35. Facts on the ground

however baseless, are of no matter for those on the Pro-Israel side who are most interested in wiping the historic slate clean of that history which makes for bad copy. That accomplished an attempt is made to rapidly chalk in a story which serves as more justification in an effort to moralize actions by way of culling sympathy and/or making excuses. Denials are maintained in this manner. Anything, but to admit all the relevant facts in their relevant sequence and context.