Speech #910085922

In many states the largest part of the nations merchant classes left with the clothes they could pack in a duffel bag. In the 21 years since. the energies and compassion of Israel have absorbed almost all of this second diaspora. It was an act of faith that embraced the dispossessed and sponsored in the first months of Israel nationhood. the largest refugee settlement program the world has ever seen. The problem was very similar to the problem facing the Arab States. There were 450.000 Jewish refugees. perhaps a hundred thousand more than the original Arab exodus. They were Sephardic Jews. often illiterate. with Arabic backgrounds completely foreign to the Westtern. modern culture of Israel. They had been expelled from communities with nearly 2.000 years of family and tradition. All of the rhetoric of imperialism selfrighteously used by Arab socialiststhe expropriation of land traditionally belonging to the native. the displacement of the native artisanapplies as well to the Middle Eastern Jew expelled by Arab socialists. Like many other third world refugees. he too was suddenly deprived of property valued for thousands of years. he too faced a new and incomprehensible world. he too suffered the trauma of scampering from a reign of terror. Unlike the Arab refugee. though. the Middle Eastern Jew had no offer of compensation and surely no offer to return to the home of his fathers. Unlike the Arab refugee. he escaped to a world of technology. industry. and knowledge which he barely. if at all. understood. And unlike the Arab refugee. he and onehalf million others fled to a nation already burdened with the survivors of Auschwitz. It is one of the human wonders of our age that nearly no American has ever heard of a Middle Eastern Jewish refugee. Twenty years later. they are the citizens of Israel. the sinews of one of the worlds newest and fastest growing nations and a reproach to every nation that has refused its compassion to the poor. The fate of the Arab refugees is a chilling contrast. In the paroxysm of Israels birth. with Arab armies poised on three sides. terrified Arabs succumbed to the urging of Palestinian newspapers and Egyptian radios and fled their homes. Believing that the victorious Arab legions would wipe the Israelis off the face of the earth. they left with their kitchenware. children and clothes. expecting to return in a matter of weeks and share in the spoils of a new Palestine. The bravado of Arab airwaves in 1948 began the wandering trek. that over 21 years has led to hopelessness. Rejected. despite the rhetoric of Arab brotherhood. by the states surrounding Palestine. the refugees languish in explosive boredom. Life degenerates to a fantasy where violence and violence alone intersects reality. It is here that Al Fatah recruits. It is here that the Middle East burns. It is here that hatred is fueled by squalor. Until the Arab refugee is embraced by societies that want him. the Middle East will continue to burn. The responsibility for the million lives that waste in refugee camps belongs uniquely to no one source. but should lie heavily on the Arab conscience. Even the Israelis have been more willing to bear their burden of responsibility for the Arab refugee. Lands formerly belonging to Arabs have long since become part of the Israeli economy and should either be returned or compensated for. While obviously reluctant. since Palestinian Arabs would be an extraordinary security problem.