Comment

President Obama Speaks on Middle East

131
SanFranciscoZionist5/19/2011 10:33:48 am PDT

re: #127 sliv_the_eli

SFZ, while I think you are correct that reparations for Jewish refugees will never be discussed, I don’t agree that it is taken for granted that there will be continued clamoring for a so-called “right of return” by Arabs to Israel. To the contrary, one of the great flaws of Western thinking on this subject is that Western elites have wrongly assumed that this is an issue that will be compromised on by the Arabs as part of a final settlement. That is the essence of the oft-recited, but misguided, phrase “We all know what a final settlement will look like”. The Arabs have no intention of giving up on this claim -as Abbas recently made clear, again — because they have no intention as yet to give up on their goal of destroying Israel. Until that mind-set changes, there can be no peace, and until the West acknowledges that that mindset exists, the West will continue to wrongly put the onus on Israel to offer grand gestures and territory in exchange for empty promises.

Sorry, my brain is a little dazed this morning. You mean that you think that I’m right that the right of return will continue to be an issue, but I’m wrong to think that everyone understands it will?

May be.