Arabs rewriting history

Arabs rewriting history
Op-ed: Arab reaction from 1949 shows Israel isn’t exclusively responsible for refugee problem
Alexander Joffe, Asaf Romirowsky
Published: 07.27.11, 11:22 / Israel Opinion


The late Palestinian intellectual Edward Said called Palestinians “the victims of the victims.” As the September deadline for the Palestinian “Unilateral Declaration of Independence” approaches, and the certain endorsement by the United Nations General Assembly, it is worth asking again who originally victimized the Palestinians. Today, of course, the unanimous consensus among Palestinians, and the Arab and Muslim worlds, is that it was Israel that, in 1948, attacked and expelled Palestinians. But who did Palestinians blame for their fate in 1949?

The two largest Palestinian communities in the US are located in Dearborn Michigan and Jacksonville Florida. On December 15th, 1949 the Michigan Arab newspaper As Sabah (literally the Morning Tribune) published an editorial on the question of the Palestine Arab refugees:

“What is the crime of the refugees in the eyes of the lords of Arabia who stand by and watch the misery of the refugees, and who suck the blood of the poor and needy-without shame before God and the world? Yes the poor refugees committed the crime of listening to those deceivers, they believed the liars, and went to the extreme foolishness of leaving their homes, counting on their deceitful leaders to bring them back! And because of what is happening to the Palestine refugees, Arab public opinion is changing little by little to support the Jews in Israel where not a single Arab dies from starvation and cold! And if there should be another war, it should be against the Arab leaders, the princes and kings who brought this catastrophe upon the poor people of Palestine.”

The editorial’s analysis regarding Arab public opinion favoring Israel was incorrect, to say the least. But the claim that Palestinians fled their homes in response to Arab leaders has been controversial since the events occurred. The Palestinians of Michigan in 1949 thought this was the case.

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http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4100718,00.html

At least the only central point I can perceive is something along the lines of "It's not all Israel's fault", which of course is quite true, but it doesn't get you far, and Israel is also still smack in the middle of it, and plenty to blame, whatever well-deserved blame one may assign to the British, French, Amurkins, Arabs, etc. Israel would do far better to suck it up, admit that whose fault it was and is is a useless subject, admit that if the situation is to be "fixed", Israel is going to have to carry a major part of the effort, and stop all this feckless whining.

Agreed. Criticize, not demonize.