Comments for OneMideast.org

Comment on Israel is an immoral and illegitimate state that should never be recognized by anyone by Nathaniel | SUNY Geneseo | Student (Publish comment) | SUNY Geneseo | Student

Sun, 17 Oct 2010 15:56:20 +0000

In the natural reorder, perhaps all the German civilians expelled from Czechoslovakia and Danzig should be given the right to return, along with the Mizrahi Jews to Baghdad, Damascus, etc. Postwar population swaps and abandonment of inconvenient “territorial rights,” helped prevent another world war and often made sense in the break up of empires.

You’re right to condemn the U.N., but for the wrong reason. It established the UNRWA, the only refugee program to be concerned with a single people, and one that gives the unprecedented guarantee of refugee status and services to all future generations. This arrangement has blocked resettlement and assimilation in host countries (which in every other case the UN High Commission calls for), and created a sickly dependency resulting in rampant joblessness and otherwise unsustainably high birthrates. But the cruelest aspect of the UNRWA was it’s making of a promise it will never be able to fulfill: the right of return, and thus perpetuating the poisonous habit of identity building through historical grievance. Granted Israel played the same game but notice that instead of viewing its Mizrahi refugees as historical errors but as opportunities it’s built a reasonably strong state and cohesive identity.

There were plenty of nationalisms beside Zionism that arose in the wake of imperial break up. And the Palestinian question isn’t that different from all the other reorderings of the 1940s, except for the UNRWA and intransigent Arab neighbors who have held them hostage. Any successful future will entail forgetting some indignities, on all sides.

Comment on Israel is a “Crusaders’ outpost” by Nathaniel | SUNY Geneseo | Student (Publish comment)

Nathaniel | SUNY Geneseo | Student (Publish comment) — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 15:07:45 +0000

I don’t want this to devolve into the usual fights over the history, but it’s disingenuous to call the 1947-8 events an unprovoked or planned ethnic cleansing. After the UN partition, no Arabs were displaced, and the Jews accepted the arrangement. The refugee crisis was created by the ensuing war, which the Palestinians started and in which they intended to take all the land back. It’s a shame to still see things in such zero sum terms, as such thinking has repeatedly and painfully failed the Palestinians more than anyone. Also, don’t expect to garner sympathy while simultaneously being resentful of Jews for fleeing or surviving the Holocaust. What happened to that famed Arab hospitality?

Comment on Syria only understands power by Shaul Cohen | Private | Private

Shaul Cohen | Private | Private — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:29:01 +0000

It is very interesting that “International laws”, the legitimacy of borders and nations are always in the Middle East what the imperialists (that are supposed to be hated) designed and imposed.
The borders of Europe, some newer, were never created by the same “legitimate International laws” that are imposed on us but by “natural laws” deriving from victories at wars, unions of nations or tribes and trading in land between nations. Belgium is one of the only none “natural” countries in Europe and it is not working as a nation 200 years later! Yet all these so called nations created by arrogant and ignorant European people (today legitimized by the US and Russia). They drew lines in the sand and are expecting them to function. Nobody dares comparing the “Illegitimate Basques and Kurds” to the “legitimate Palestinians” or to the “sovereign Lebanese”.
It is such a disgusting hypocrisy that those that for years screamed at the illegitimacy of Imperialism and its consequences defend its results under the so called legitimacy of the impotent and corrupt UN and its tools. This is all over the “ex-colonized world” Middle East, Africa and some parts of Asia. Most conflicts in the world are a result of this yet we insist on protecting this so called “legitimacy”.
Greater Syria should be the one united Middle East with and indigenous name and not a European related one. We are not to East of Europe, they are on our West. We came first in civilization.
“Greater Syria” is not Syria as it stands today and definitely not under the Alawi minority that were themselves denied a nation by the French. The Middle East is not Europe and do not have to necessary work based on a Eurocentric model. It should not be a United Nation State but a United Economic Zone with respect and rights to many minorities that constitute it. The formula must be unique and create to suit the local people that wish to live together and not a formula borrowed from a different place and culture.
If it has to be revived it should include Alexandrun, parts of Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, PLO Palestine, Gaza’s Hamastan and also Israel (including the Golan). As a model it could even grow beyond these borders to include the Kurds and other willing nations. Maybe for the majority Sunny Muslim it should be under the legitimacy of the House of Hashem (with Mecca and Medina), to the many other minorities under their chosen legitimacy and homelands. This can only happen if the economy is first integrated, if the fanatics are tamed.
This is a tall order and we are not going in this direction. Imposing on us a western “peace” vision will only divide us further to exploit us.
Soon the people of this region will feel the pressure from the Turks and the Iranians. They may wake up and realize that they are in the same boat. Their only hope is to embrace their Jewish enemies as the only guaranty for survival as free people. Until then the status quo can go on.
The Golan is the least of the problems. The only so called “oppressed” Arabs there are Druze that lives there with probably the best self determination they could have dreamed off. In their villages it is the colorful Druze flag that is raised not the Syrian or the Israeli (it is the same in pre 67 Israel). The rest of the land is used by Israeli Jews since 1967 and the only refugees in Syria are not regarded refugees like the Palestinians because they are mainly Cherkess and they live now across the border in their “legitimate” countries. They themselves were imported by the Turks in the past to tame the indigenous.

Comment on Syria lost the Golan because it attacked Israel by Brian from Toronto | none | none

Brian from Toronto | none | none — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 01:04:33 +0000

Actually, Israel did not pre-empt against Syria. Both Syria and Jordan launched attacked Israel first.

Comment on Syria supports terrorism against Israel by Elie Elhadj | Banker | www.daringopinion.com | 72661324 (Publish comment)

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:51:26 +0000

Under current regional conditions, Syria’s relationship with Hezbollah (HA) serves two purposes. The first is to use HA as an instrument to pressure Israel. The second is to rely on HA to be a barrier against the infiltration of Saudi political influence and Wahhabi extremism into Syria. With the Hariri clan in Lebanon, Saudia has a serious presence in Lebanon. Such presence poses a nasty threat to Syria’s way of life, societal harmony, and the welfare of Syria’s many religious and sectarian minorities (around a third of the population)–the ruling Alawites, Druzes, Ismailis, and Christian denominations.

It follows that even if Syria concludes a peace treaty in the future with Israel, Syria’s interest in a credible HA in Lebanon will not cease. A powerful HA will keep Wahhabi influence in Lebanon at bay and protect Syria from religious extremism. To expect that Syria would abandon HA under current regional conditions is rather naive.

Elie

Comment on The only satisfactory solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is a one-state solution, which is antithetical to Zionism. by Elie Elhadj | www.daringopinion.com | Banker | 442072661324 (Publish comment)

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:05:28 +0000

Two relevant articles to the discussion are apt to quote here. The first is by Ahmad Salkini titled “Syrian secularism: a model for the Middle East”
in the Christian Science Monitor as Posted on Syria Comment on July 13th, 2010 under “Is the Obama Peace Effort Over?” http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/

Mr. Salkini wrote: “The Syria I grew up in embraced everyone. My own father is a decorated veteran of the 1973 war against Israel. Yet, when his first child was born after the war – and after four previous heartbreaking miscarriages – it was a Syrian Jewish doctor in whose hands he entrusted my life. I owe my life to that doctor, who saved me after a complication during infancy that nearly resulted in my death.
My father was no exception. Syria’s Jewish community was historically among the most successful, with clients and friends from across Syria’s diverse ethnic and religious social fabric.

The second article is titled “One State/Two States: Rethinking Israel and Palestine” by Danny Rubinstein in Dissent as posted, also, on Syria Comment on July 14, 2010 under “News Round Up” http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/

Mr. Rubinstein wrote: “Israeli governments have enabled the settlement of over half a million Jews beyond the 1967 borders. This represents almost 10 percent of the Jews in Israel. About 300,000 of them live in settlements in the West Bank and about 200,000 are in the Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem. There are those among them who will fight with all their strength to prevent an Israeli withdrawal and the establishment of a Palestinian state. But what is no less important is that on the Palestinian side as well a new situation has emerged. National unity has dissolved, the national movement has atrophied and declined, and the idea has become acceptable that if there won’t be two states for two peoples, it is better that there be one state.”

Mr. Rubinstein’s statement is similar in part to my own statement in “De-politicize the Bible and the Quran” above: The Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, estimated at about half a million in more than 125 settlements, could become over time instruments of integration between Palestinians and Jews, not segregation; a mixture of Jews among Arabs as difficult to unscramble as removing the Palestinian Israelis from Israel.

Elie

Comment on The Golan Heights are strategically valuable to Israel by Sami | None | None

Sami | None | None — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:56:21 +0000

Satellites! … why would Israel need the Golan?

Israel has a higher mountain than the Golan Heights and can see all of Syria. Therefore, the above argument should not be on the table at all … just like Syria should not be asking Israel not to use its satellites’ advantage over Syria.

Comment on Onenever knows what new obstacles will appear in Israel that will sabotage an agreement at the last minute by syrian admin 1

syrian admin 1 — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:09:47 +0000

And as suggested few months ago in this Syrian objection #16, it seems Israel is indeed moving ahead with efforts to establish additional difficult requirement of getting a special 2/3 majority in the Knesset and/or conducting a national referendum before an Israeli government can sign an agreement with Syria that includes the full return of the Golan Heights.

http://www.france24.com/en/20100714-israel-mps-push-vote-golan-east-jerusalem-pullout

Israel MPs push vote on Golan, east Jerusalem pullout

Created 14/07/2010 – 12:03

An Israeli parliamentary committee voted Wednesday in favour of a bill requiring a referendum prior to any possible withdrawal from east Jerusalem or the Golan Heights, a committee spokesman said.

“The draft law on the referendum was approved Wednesday by five votes against two,” he told AFP.

The bill had passed a first reading in parliament in 2008 and now has committee approval to go for the two more readings needed before it can become law.

It aims to make it more difficult for the government to cede territory, saying that a public referendum or a special majority of two thirds of MPs, would be necessary before withdrawal from land under Israeli sovereignty.

This refers to east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, both of which Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in moves not recognized by the international community.

Syria has demanded the complete return of the Golan Heights as a condition for peace with Israel, while the Palestinians view east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state.

Comment on The only satisfactory solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is a one-state solution, which is antithetical to Zionism. by Mesopotamian Arab | University | student

Mesopotamian Arab | University | student — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:32:25 +0000

just to correct Noam Bec’s figures, there was no 3.5 million jews in Arab countries prior to the creation of israel. the number is estimated to be between 600 to 900 thousand arab jews, and there are still few thousands of Jews left in Arab countries, few thousands in Tunisia, Morocco and Yemen mostly.
as per your comment about Iraqi farhud, its a complicated story and it was the result of the pro-Nazi Kilani movement. i myself heared about many good stories of true friendship between arabs and Jews in Iraq. if Jews in Iraq were really prosecuted before the israeli-Arab conflict then how can Iraq’s first finance minister be jewish in the 1920s. The Iraqi Jewish community in the first half of the 20th century flourished and was not prosecuted. You would not find this in Europe at that time.

Comment on Historically speaking, the Golan is more Israeli than Syrian by Sami Eini | Self Employed

Sami Eini | Self Employed — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 06:04:23 +0000

The Golan was part of Palestine till 1922. The British decided to give it to the French who made it part of the new Syrian independent State. Syria’s 100% claim to the Golan is not crystal clear.