Justice for Jews from Arab Countries

An organization by the name of "Justice for Jews from Arab Countries" is trying to bring attention to the issue of Jews forced out of Arab countries before, during and after Israel's war of independence. A meeting was to be held in New York this week on this subject; naturally, not well covered by US media, as this would muddy up the great victimhood story of the Palestinians. The NY Times article on the planned meeting (no follow-up) was buried in the back pages, as was the original cause when first brought to the UN in January 1948 - and ever since. The story of the collusive activity of the Arab League back in 1947 (even before the official establishment of Israel) is buried, not ever to be resurrected by the western media (and definitely NOT by any Arab "investigative journalist").

This cause is just and must be pursued. Even if there may never be full compensation for the Jewish victims individually, the Jewish communities in the Muslim world were ancient, educated and relatively wealthy. They had extensive community assets and many historical/religious buildings, literature and artifacts. These must be accounted for and returned to the Jewish world, wherever and whenever possible.

A corollary to this story should be a comparison of the fate and current status of the Jewish and Palestinian refugees who left their respective homelands in nearly equal numbers.

The Arab world left their brethren to fester and suffer in refugee camps until the present time, wards of the United Nations, supported and sustained by the West. There they sit, having babies as their only discernable negative contribution to the world - that and elaborations of violence and terrorist "enterprise". They get sympathetic lip service from the Arabs, and money only to sustain violence and hatred. They are the poster children of victimology; the beloved of the fashionable Left, everywhere.

The Jewish refugees dispersed around the world and managed to prosper and thrive by their own efforts and the support of their fellow Jews, wherever they landed. The majority, of course, went to Israel where, after much hardship (and virtually no international non-Jewish support), they have successfully integrated themselves into Israeli society and gotten on with their lives.

It is emblematic of the ignorance of the western media about the history of the Middle East conflict that no one ever challenges the Arab and Iranian spokesmen about their constant assertions that Israel is essentially populated by European Jews in "compensation" for the Holocaust and that, in the extreme Hamas and Iranian view, these Jews must return to Europe so that "Palestine" can be returned to its rightful owners. In fact, Israel is now largely populated by Sephardi Jews, the refugees from the Arab world (and Iran) and their descendants. Where should they "return" to?