Monday, May 05, 2008

Picking at the scab

'But the Palestinians reply: if we don't have an acknowledgement of the Naqba (catastrophe), and our right under international law to the land our grandfathers fled, how can we move on?'

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-israel-is-suppressing-a-secret-it-must-face-816661.html

That is the nub isn't it? In 1948, the Palestinians fought a war of national existence against the Jews. They lost. In 1967 they fought another one. Again they lost. But because the Jews aren't the Germans, they didn't wage a campaign of extermination against the defeated people. What did that get them? The opportunity to fight another war of national existence every ten years or so.

Why can't the Palestinians move on? I love the repetition in the quote of 'under international law'. Where does it say in international law that if you don't like a decision of the General Assembly of the United Nations you can overturn it by assembling eight Arab armies and killing all the Jews in Palestine? International law is only so useful... if you're going to pay attention to all of it.

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