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How about great-great-great-great-etc-grandparents?

Reader comment on item: Calls to Settle Palestinians Living in Arab Countries
in response to reader comment: It is not the Arabs' problem

Submitted by Peter Herz (United States), Aug 17, 2009 at 17:36

So Shoggoth, why not the irght to live peaceable where one's many-times-great grandparents' were born? History happens, and in 1948, the Arab states and those living in what had been British-mandated Palestine lost. We Americans descend from all kinds of previous losers of various conflicts; and I'm almost willing to bet that when we finally invent a time machine, we'll find that the Amerindians descend from tribes who lost battles over the best mammoth-hunting grounds. By your argument, half of the Chinese population needs to move north and east; and everyone who speaks Turkish should head back to the Tian Shan of Central Asia and leave Anatolia to those who speak Greek, Armenian, Laz, Kurdish, and Syriac.

The trouble with all this talk about historical rights is that in the one instance in which folks reclaimed a piece of ground on which their ancestors lived back in the first century A.D., the whole world condemns them for making refugees of those they found living (squatting?) there --and least those who didn't wait around to become minority-group citizens of the returning aborigines' state.

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Reader comments (17) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Flawed rational [49 words]Abdulkarim Al-HabsiSep 29, 2009 02:00162276
The enemies of Israel. [158 words]LynnSep 5, 2009 11:08161108
6Religion the Greatest Con Job in History [86 words]RobinozSep 26, 2009 00:48161108
There is hope, evil has lost. [169 words]LynnSep 27, 2009 10:27161108
Spengler has got it right [71 words]VijaySep 3, 2009 11:19161028
"Palestinian Arabs" is an Arab "invention." [105 words]M.D.Aug 19, 2009 16:35160431
Is it just me? [27 words]ÉamonnAug 18, 2009 08:02160355
Thought of something else. [120 words]Peter HerzAug 17, 2009 17:43160335
Reply to Islam and Western Militaries Comments [222 words]Harden ErvinAug 17, 2009 11:50160322
to be a palestinian in the middle east... [113 words]david levyAug 17, 2009 10:06160314
It is not the Arabs' problem [40 words]ShoggothAug 17, 2009 03:45160301
How about great-great-great-great-etc-grandparents? [182 words]Peter HerzAug 17, 2009 17:36160301
Palestinian refugees an anachronism [161 words]VijayAug 14, 2009 05:41160183
Palestianians are not Arabs [55 words]btillyAug 16, 2009 17:14160183
The Time Has Come [85 words]ChrisLAAug 13, 2009 11:28160150
Dhimmis [114 words]LynnAug 13, 2009 08:40160146
Israel's Problem said an Islamist [182 words]YnnatchkahAug 13, 2009 00:33160134

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