The saga of the Stateless Arabs from Palestine (SAPs) which have cast their lot with UNRWA for generations may finally be coming to an end. Since 1949, the United Nations has promised Arabs who used to live and work in what became Israel, that they would be entitled to move …
Read More »Nakba 2018 in Sydney.
As Israelis, and Jews around the world, celebrate the 70th anniversary of the re-establishment of the Jewish state, Palestinian Arabs and their supporters protest the very existence of Israel, in what they call Nakba Day (Arabic for ‘catastrophe’) As Israelis, and Jews around the world, celebrate the 70th anniversary of …
Read More »Terms Misused By Anti-Israel Activists.
In the seemingly intractable conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, words are just as powerful weapons as rockets or knives. Words can kill, but they are also a casualty of the conflict. You may remember Newspeak, the fictional language in George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which was an altered …
Read More »A confession of a left-wing Zionist.
Zionism injected controversy into Middle Eastern politics not because there were competing nationalist claims for the same land, or because it entailed the creation of a Palestinian refugee issue. There was a time when being a “Leftist Zionist” was no contradiction. Zionism was built on principles of equality, common ownership …
Read More »An Open Letter to a Jewish Friend in England
I don’t know, Kate. Sometimes it just seems pointless. Sorry to be downbeat, but I feel like I am glaring into a howling thunderstorm. In California we could use the weather, but I worry about my friends elsewhere. You may be aware that the Washington Post just published an infographic …
Read More »Arlene from Israel: Sound of the Shofar.
Rosh Hashana begins Sunday night. I hope to post one more time after this, before I go into Shabbat and then the holiday, but I cannot be sure time will allow. And so I want to take this opportunity to wish my readers a Shana Tova. May this be a …
Read More »Another Wall and not a peep from the Israel haters?
Yes another wall and where, oh where, are the Israel haters. Until a week ago I was under the impression at the last count there were more than 45 walls separating countries and territories. Now it seems there are more being built elsewhere in Europe. In Hungary the government is …
Read More »Delivery of the Fictional Palestinian Keys.
Summary: Imagine perceiving the future when you cannot see the present nor recognize the past. One of the most famous paintings in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican is by Pietro Perugino, entitled “Christ Handing the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter”. The painting itself is notable for several …
Read More »Of Nakbas, fools and fingers.
Nakba week is over. The demonstrators have gone home. The Palestinian Authority have delivered their speeches and sounded their sirens. The Arab and ‘liberal’ western press and media have duly commiserated. But while Palestinians marked the 66th anniversary of the ‘catastrophic’ mass flight of Arab refugees from Israel in 1948, …
Read More »Helping Refugees: Shutting the UNRWA, Funding the UNHCR
The Fleeing Refugees There is a mass migration occurring in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). People are fleeing their home countries due to turmoil and are crossing land and sea to escape to more stable societies. Fleeing Syria: Over 3 million people have poured into Lebanon, Jordan, …
Read More »Palestinian “Refugees” or “SAPs”?
Wards of the World The well-know secret (but not discussed, as honesty is considered impolite in politics) in the halls of governments around the world is that there are currently only 30,000 Palestinian refugees as defined by the United Nations. That definition states: “Palestine refugees are defined as “persons whose …
Read More »News & Views from Arlene in Israel: ‘Preposterous’
Written and submitted by Arlene Kushner. Preposterous. That’s the diplomatic, political charade called “the peace process.” And it is only growing more outrageous with every passing week. I would like to begin with a superb article – “The Palestinian narrative: The missing link in the ‘peace process’ – by Eric …
Read More »News & Views from ‘Arlene in Israel’
Submitted and written by Arlene Kushner. January 26, 2014: Legal Grounds. These are the legal grounds Israel has in Judea and Samaria – charges by the international community not withstanding. It is what I – and my co-chair on this effort, Jeff Daube, head of the Israel office of ZOA – …
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