I don’t know what you think is so funny, and I don’t know why you think everyone agrees with you, but the document specifically states that the refugee solution would be negotiated, presumbly under the auspices of the UN. It seems to me that is more encouraging than then-PM Olmert’s 2007 statement after the API was reaffirmed by the Arab countries, when he said he refused to consider the return of a single refugee:
"Olmert reiterated that Israel would not accept the return to Israel of any refugees. It is “out of the question,” he said. “I’ll never accept a solution that is based on their return to Israel, any number.”
He added, “I will not agree to accept any kind of Israel responsibility for the refugees. Full stop…It’s a moral issue of the highest level. I don’t think that we should accept any kind of responsibility for the creation of this problem.”
I’d’a thought it was tribalism, myself, in which one is expected (if not required, under penalty of scandal) to side with a member of one’s clan/family/ethnic subgroup no matter what, who will then be expected to show favoritism in return. Hence, voters don’t care about political or economic issues - just who “their” candidate is, and how, if elected, he’ll throw jobs and contracts to his specific people, regardless of the effect on the state overall.
Heck, if my third cousin came to me and said “we have to vote for Smith!” my first question would be “Who the heck are you?”, since I don’t know my third cousins, nor feel any reason to take political guidance from them.
What’s funny is that you seriously believe that the Arab world is on board with a peace plan which doesn’t destroy Israel as a Jewish state.
So in your view, the “Arab Peace Initiative” does not offer a specific proposal for the “refugee” issue, it’s just an agreement to negotiate on that issue?
And in your view, what exactly did Prince Abdullah mean when he referred to “return of refugees.”?
Let’s assume that’s true – so what? It doesn’t change the fact that the Arab goal is to destroy Israel as a Jewish state.
Another interesting thing: Pretty much all of the Arab states are in agreement that Palestinian Arabs should not be eligible for citizenship. This causes a lot of suffering for Palestinian Arabs who were born in Lebanon, Syria, etc. And yet the policy continues in effect since the Arabs perceive that it helps to undermine Israel.
Even the leadership of Fatah have announced that if they get a Palestinian State on the West Bank, they will not offer citizenship to Palestinian Arabs from places like Lebanon and Syria.
Even today, there are Palestinian Arabs sitting in refugee camps in Jordan – people who fled Gaza back in 1967. Nobody is attempting to return them to Gaza.
The reasonable conclusion from all of this is that the Arabs (generally speaking) hate Israel far more than they love their own people.
The much more likely scenario is that they like to use Israel for their own political purposes. Israel’s been in a few wars in its history but not a combined attack of all its Arab neighbors. If the hatred was as much as you claimed, no ME country would be in a peace with them. However, the distraction of Israel serves to divert attention away from their own policies. Most of the other ME countries want Israel around
Are you saying that Israel has been in a war with all of its neighbors except Lebanon? Which war was that?
No, almost all countries in the ME are peaceful with Israel with few exceptions. They may make pronouncements about its legitimacy and idiot politicians are often misquoted as to wanting Israel destroyed, but nobody really does anything. Actions are louder than words, and it plays to the next part below:
They don’t want to. Those are illegal immigrants to them, and like I said, keeping them around and Israel around as a distraction to their own policies is beneficial to them. Why get rid of a wholly manufactured enemy? Do you think Saudi Arabia or Turkey or Qatar really believes Israel’s a threat to them? No, so they enjoy having Israel around so that whenever people talk about reform or regime change, those in charge can rattle the cages and get some angry protests about Israel to drown out the failures of their own policy
Its kind of like abortion in the US. There is a population that wants abortion completely banned, but almost no conservative GOP wants that to happen. That’s why they make these pathetic bills limiting abortion but not banning it, because 1) they know they will lose a SCOTUS challenge and 2) they can use the issue to rally people to their side
And again in 1967. If you really don’t know that, then you should consider taking a break to study the history of the region before making assertions and arguments about the Arab/Israeli conflict.
Again, if you really believe that you are completely ignorant of the situation in the Middle East. Israel has conducted hostile military operations in Lebanon and Syria just in the last 10 years. A few years ago, Israel bombed a Syrian nuclear project. Try entering Lebanon, Syria, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, or Iraq with an Israeli passport and see what happens.
Why do you suppose Syria has not launched a military assault against Israel for bombing its nuclear reactor project? Are the Syrians that peace-loving? Or do they just know that Israel will kick their asses again?
Illegal immigrants can come from a lot of different places, but typically they do not merit a special resolution of the Arab League:
As far as I know, that resolution is still in effect today.
But actually, it gets better. Because you would think that of all Arab nations, a “Palestinian State” would grant citizenship to Palestinian Arabs. Not so. The plan is to deny citizenship to Palestinian Arabs, even those living in “refugee camps” on the West Bank.
No I don’t. (By the way, Turkey is not an Arab country.) But that’s not the issue.
Actually this is a pretty good analogy. It may very well be true that your typical conservative GOP leader does not want abortion banned. Or does not have strong feelings about the issue. Just like your typical Saudi Prince probably doesn’t care too much about Israel, he probably cares far more about chasing girls and partying.
But if things got to a point where conservative GOPers were in complete control of the United States for long enough to impose its agenda, what would happen is that the hard-core pro-lifers would push hard for abortion restrictions and party leadership would tend to go along with it because they don’t want to take a pro-choice stand.
Something similar would happen with Israel if the Arab states were strong enough to conquer Israel militarily.
Let me ask you this: Why did Iraq participate in the 1948 war against Israel, and again in 1967? Surely the Iraqis did not consider Israel to be a threat.