Wednesday, January 02, 2013

The Right of Return is Good

It looks like the Egyptians are seriously considering allowing Jews and their descendants expelled from Egypt by Nasser to return to Egypt and reclaim their lost property. Morally and strategically regarding the position of the Arab world versus Israel this is the right thing to do. The Zionists have long argued that the expulsion of Jews from Egypt and other Arab countries cancelled out the dispossession of the Palestinians. It obviously does not. Egyptian Jews should be able to return to Egypt and recover their property not take Palestinian property. Likewise the Palestinians have an inalienable right to return to their homeland and reclaim their property which the Israelis have been denying them since 1948. Now that the Egyptians are seriously contemplating solving the grievances of the Arab Jews it seriously undermines the Israeli claim that they confiscated Palestinian property to compensate Jews from Egypt and other Arab states. The Egyptians will compensate the Egyptian Jews in Egypt and it is likewise necessary for the Israelis to compensate the Palestinians in Palestine which properly defined stretches from the River to the Sea.

hat tip: JSF

2 comments:

The Ancient said...

Otto --

You can't be serious. Coptic Christians in Egypt are being persecuted as never before in modern Egyptian history - dispossessed, killed.

Why should Jews elsewhere view that as anything more than an invitation for more of the same?

daquail said...

The Egyptians are hardly serious about the invitation: the Morsi advisor who issued it recently resigned. As to quid-pro-quo implications in your comment, these hardly bear analysis. About 75,000 Jews were expelled from Egypt, or a little more than .0008 percent of the current Egyptian population. Their return would have no real statistical or political impact. 700,000 Palestinians left what is now Israeli territory, or nearly 8 percent of the current Israeli population. Their return could potentially effect a fundamental transformation in Israeli life.