Quote:
Originally posted by Noah
Uh, they bought it and cultivated it.
The reality -- and a huge irony -- is that the biggest cause of Arab migration to what is now Israel is the presence of Jews there and the resulting health of the economy. Israel, during the 1800 and early 1900s, was home to very, very few people -- a few hundred thousand Arabs in the whole land, and a smaller number of Jews mostly in Jerusalem. Israel was undeveloped swamp and desert. When the Jews started arriving, they cultivated the land and this attracted Arabs.
But all of this obscures a larger point: Israel is a multi-cultural, modern, western democracy. About 15 percent of Israelis are Arab Muslims, and they have full citizenship rights and representation in Parliament. It has always been the goal of Israel, since it was founded, to include Arabs in the political and cultural life of the country. Ben-Gurion talked about this explicitly in repeated speeches, including his address when he declared statehood. The Arabs, unfortunately, aren't so thrilled with democracy, freedom, and prosperity.
And there's another large point obscured: The biggest refugee population in the Middle East is not Arabs, but Jews. Anyone who's been to Israel knows that a huge percentage -- several million people -- are Middle Eastern Jews. You bump into Persian (Iranian) Jews, Iraqi Jews, Yemeni Jews, etc. The reality of the middle east is that over the past 100 years, Arab governments have chased Jews out of their countries, along with every other kind of religious and ethnic minority. That's why the Druze and Bedouin Arabs have all, for the most part, come to Israel to live in peace.
In your concern for people's land and rights, Pat, why are you not concerned for the land and property of the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were driven out of Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan over the past 100 years?
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I have only the same concern I have for any human that is displaced by government, and no more. I don't care if Israel is a democracy or not, democracy is, hopefully, a fading form of government as people begin to realize more and more than government is too dangerous to have around.
You didn't answer the questions fully, who did the Zionist Movement buy the land, in Palestine since there was no Israel in the 19th century, from?
Who did the Zionist Movement buy the land from during the period of 1918-1930?
And, yes, I'm intentionally removing the National Socialist years from the equation since it clouds the issue and some people's minds.