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Who's Really Responsible for Palestinian Suffering?
(JNS) Jonathan S. Tobin - Last week the so-called "Squad" in Congress proposed House Resolution 1123, "Recognizing the Nakba and Palestinian Refugee Rights." Through the funhouse mirror of nakba rhetoric, the resolution demands recognition of the Palestinian "right of return" in which 7 million descendants of the 1948 refugees would have the right to reclaim the homes of those who left and essentially eliminate Israel as a Jewish state. The purpose of the resolution is to place on record, congressional support for the elimination of Israel. The Arabs rejected the compromise offered by the 1947 UN Partition Resolution that called for the creation of two states - one Jewish and one Arab. The Arabs were not prepared to accept any Jewish state, even one far smaller than the one that emerged from the 1948 War of Independence. That rejection led to a war that was certainly a disaster for the Palestinian Arabs who started it. Despite suffering 1% of their population being killed in the fighting, the Jews triumphed. Any discussion of the nakba ought to be on the way the Palestinian leadership and the political culture they created are the reason for the original disaster that befell their people and their current plight. Any sympathy for the nakba narrative is not merely built on ignoring the truth about the Palestinians and their wars. It's also inherently anti-Semitic since it is built on a foundation of denial of Jewish rights and the Jewish victims that were created by the Arabs' anti-Zionist hate.