What Really Went Wrong

The Israel Lobby promotes the thesis that the Arab/Muslim nations hate us because, through their own fault, they have a less prosperous and advanced civilization than we do. This thesis conveniently ignores the destabilizing role of Israel in the region.

When the State of Israel was established in Palestine, there was a population of Arab Palestinians there who had lived in Palestine for 1300 years. Then, over 700,000 Arabs were driven out in a process of ethnic cleansing and told they could never return. This was done so that Israel could be a Jewish State not just in name and structure, but in population as well.

Yet, a mass influx of refugees into neighboring countries is intrinsically destabilizing: witness the Iraqi refugee crisis. Many countries simply can not cope. Of course, almost all refugees dream of returning to their homeland and in fact have that right under international law. After 60 years, Palestinian refugees now number around 4 million. Refugees are destabilizing not just because of the demands placed upon the host country for food, housing, jobs, health care, etc., but also because of generated political unrest.

When one country illegally occupies another and drives out its inhabitants, these refugees have the right to fight back. Certainly if the Nazi's had driven us out of our homeland, we would not rest until we returned. Thus, the presence of displaced Palestinians within Lebanon, for instance, has brought about instability and civil wars (which are also fomented by Israel and the Israel Lobby as a matter of policy, as discussed in previous blog "Muslim vs Muslim Wars" 6/4/07). In addition, there have been two Israeli invasions of Lebanon. Indeed, another thesis promoted by the Israel Lobby is that Arab/Muslim countries understand only force. The opposite is true, which is why Israeli hyper-force has only made matters worse. The answer is not force but justice.