apology, addendum to remarks about Palestinian refugees

Submitted by Richard Stoecker (United States), Jul 13, 2012 at 09:54

I am sorry that I misrepresented the history of the Palestinians with regard to Jordan.

While I have studied more than the average person the history of Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict, I don't claim to have as much knowledge as people who have specialized more in this than I have.

It would be helpful to me if I knew more about the changes in borders that occurred especially after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. A lot of the national boundaries drawn up at the end of WWI were somewhat arbitrary, although President Woodrow Wilson put a lot of emphasis on respecting the self-determination and customs of indigenous peoples. Because of this Wilson was an admired figure, often more outside the U.S. than inside, where his League of Nations proposal was shot down.

The French and the British at that time had not yet forsaken the desire to hold on to certain lands in the Middle East.

Richard Stoecker

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