refugees...
Reader comment on item: Pipes criticises Middle East leaders
in response to reader comment: Does Israel have a voice?

Submitted by Nathan BenAvraham (Canada), Jul 26, 2006 at 17:25

1. Does the interviewer even realise that the Palestinians are the victims? He seems to have a short term memory... the post-WW II scenario (supported by the States) that has forced the actual inhabitants of Israel to flee their own homes and lands for so-called refugee camps. Yet these "camps" are barely hundreds of metres from the areas where Israeli immigrants live on land that belonged to Palestinian families for countless generations.

The world gave the territory to Israel. Many muslims sold their land to Israelis. If displaced Palestinians were suing Israel for reparations rather than exploding themselves in cafés and preaching hatred toward their brethren, they'd probably win their case. Isaac and Ishmael are brothers. Allah/Hashem willed them both to grow from Abraham. Can they not live side by side. It will take the acceptance of the existence of Israel to improve the lives of the Palestinians and give them their own country once and for all.

2. Since when do American leaders - or Australian "intellectuals" - have the right to decide what free, independent and self-governing governments, like Iran, do?

Free?? Its a theocracy. There's nothing free about it. Plus, they will use the technology on us. Welcome to real politik. Things are right in the world, when the nations that believe in human rights control the weapons. I know the US is not perfect in this regard, but it has been moving toward that direction since the 1700s and took a big leap forward since the 1960s. Iran is living in the dark ages. I'd hate to be a homosexual, Christian, Zoroastrian, Jew, woman, or atheist living in Iran. In the west, Muslims live free and unmolested. Can Islamist theocracies say the same thing about their own minority populations? historically perhaps, at present, absolutely not.

Can i go and commit violence on neighbours who try to get the same technology that i have? Oh... wait... i forgot... its obvious we trust Americans with nuclear weapons, but anyone else....

Police do it all the time. They say its illegal to have this unless you're a police officer or a soldier. It keeps the wack jobs, zealots, and hate mongers from killing people.

3. The latest Iraq war. The United Nations did not want it. No one else wanted it. Bush definitely wanted it. But we should come in now that the US military is under pressure. WHY?

How about giving Iraq the chance to enjoy its resources in an environment to mutual respect? Shiia and Sunni, Kurd and Arab alike. Sharing power together. Sounds nice doesn't it? Not if the radicals get their way. Bush is far from a saint, but come on... You're sniffing glue if you really think you're on the side of goodness and justice. Hate cannot heal.

Here's a question for you:

1) Why do so many Palestinians live in refugee camps in Jordan while their fellow Palestinians enjoy citizenship and suffrage in Canada and the United States? They are only refugees because of the political pressure a refugee problem places on the world to destroy Israel. Live in peace with Israel. It was created to solve a refugee crisis that existed for 2000 years. You can live as a muslim safely anywhere around the whole middle of the globe. Let your brothers and sisters come back home. Let them return to their ancestral homeland. Live with them in peace. Jerusalem is to Judaism what Mecca is to Islam. let the Jews have Israel and let the Muslims keep Jordan, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Morocco, Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malasia, Indonesia, etc... get my point?

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened for relevance, substance, and tone, and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome, but comments are rejected if scurrilous, off-topic, vulgar, ad hominem, or otherwise viewed as inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the Guidelines for Comments. For informational purposes, we identify countries from which comments are sent.