"Right of return" part of Bush's Yasir Arafat impersonation

Submitted by DrRJP (United States), Jan 14, 2008 at 09:30

From my seat, the "Lurker" was late to the party here. When Bush said in Ramallah last Thursday that "Israeli occupation must end," I blew a gasket and fired off letters to the President and every other media outlet that I know, If there was any doubt that Bush is totally ignorant of Middle Eastern history as it relates to Israel and the "Palestinians," his next bon mot should dispel all doubts:

The agreement must establish a Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people...Palestinians deserve more than a 'Swiss Cheese' state. The Leader of the Free World sounded more like the Leader of Fatah. I'm sure that Bush is also clueless as to the ridiculous terms of the "Right of return." Contrary to what the Lurker said, they are, in fact, spelled out by the "Israel-friendly" UN. According to their interpretation, the so-called, "Right of Return" allows any Arab to claim, without any documentation, to have lived in Israel for only TWO YEARS before the 1948 War began.

They are, in effect, considered to be part of "an indigenous Palestinian population that resided on the land for generations." Furthermore, this "Right" is also extended to every member of their family regardless of where or when they were born! Bush calls Israel "a homeland for the Jewish people." That's like calling New Jersey a homeland for Americans. Obviously, Bush does not know where the Jewish homeland was supposed to be created. After Britain defeated the Ottomans in 1917, they subsequently divided the former Empire into independent Arab states, all except for the land east and west of the Jordan River. Both Britain and the League of Nations mandated this land to become the permanent "Jewish National Homeland."

The US also supported this mandate. Were it not for WWII, and some British double-dealing, the Jewish National Homeland would have replaced all of "Mandated Palestine," instead of only a tiny strip of it that Arabs still refuse to concede. In 1922, the British disregarded their own Mandate for a Jewish Homeland by giving 75 percent of it (everything east of the Jordan River) to an Arab emirate, which today is known as Jordan. Jordan subsequently granted full citizenship to all Palestinian Arabs, while denying entry to all Jews. With over 70 percent of its population being Palestinian Arabs, Jordan became the de jure Palestinian state. (The current demands to create another Palestinian state is nothing more than a political straw man that Arabs started using after 1967 as a way to eliminate Israel.)

Between 1921 and 1948, the British restricted Jewish immigration into Western Palestine to a trickle while simultaneously allowing the unrestricted (and unreported) migration of hundreds of thousands of Arabs into and around existing Jewish settlements. Bush is blindly making policy decisions on the basis of false propaganda fed to him by his Arab "friends," and is just as eager as they are to carve up what little is left of the original Jewish homeland, leaving Israel with totally indefensible borders. By calling for an "end to occupation," the "right of return," and the "redrawing of Israel's borders," he has given legitimacy to Israel's enemies, and validated a century of terrorism used against the Jewish people. Arafat is probably dancing in his grave right now.

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