# Why the fuss over the "relocating Israel to Germany" comment? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 9, 2005, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843 "2005-12-09T06:37:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![marky33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@marky33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marky33)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/1 "2005-12-09T06:37:23Z")
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has [called for the relocation of Israel to Germany.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4510922.stm) "An outrageous gaffe, " said Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel. “I condemn [the comments] unreservedly. They have no place in civilised political debate,” said UK FS Jack Straw. “This is not the first time, unfortunately, that the Iranian president has expressed the most outrageous ideas concerning Jews and Israel,” Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. Ignoring the practicalities and accepting that it could not have been done in 1948, why is everyone so “outraged” at this suggestion? It’s no secret that Israel is not welcome in the region, and the Palestinians did rather have them thrust on them through no fault of their own. Obviously it’ll never happen, but why the fuss over the mere suggestion? ---
**Author:** ![marky33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@marky33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marky33)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/2 "2005-12-09T06:45:40Z")
… BTW, I do realise this man’s credibility was shot with his “wipe Israel off the map” comment, but does that mean everything he says from now on related to Israel will be greeted with an overkill of outrage? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/3 "2005-12-09T07:04:20Z")
> [@marky33](#): > > Obviously it’ll never happen, but why the fuss over the mere suggestion? I’m guessing that the subtext is ‘since the Germans didn’t do a really complete job on killing off the jews last time, lets put them back there and give em another shot.’ Whether this bone head meant it like that or not is debatable…but I think thats how its being read. Its a ridiculous suggestion. The thing is a done deal and there is no way even if you went back in a time machine that you could change things. The jews were already there. They were already working towards declaring themselves as a soveriegn nation. The region really didn’t belong to any power since WWI. The Euro’s were slicing and dicing the region as they saw fit. Post WWII the US was onboard with a jewish homeland (they had major sympathy at the time). The Palestinians were given their shot at getting half the pie right then…but chose to want the whole thing. Their ‘buddies’ in the region (and with friends like that who needs enemies) decided to settle things through force of arms…and had their collective asses handed to them. Several times. Its done…its finished. There is no going back at this point. So…it was kind of a stupid thing for Ahmadinejad if he was being serious (of course he probably wasn’t…he was playing to the crowd and giving them the code words they wanted to hear). -XT ---
**Author:** ![gooftroopag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gooftroopag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gooftroopag)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/4 "2005-12-09T07:10:12Z")
> [@marky33](#): > > Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has [called for the relocation of Israel to Germany.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4510922.stm) > "An outrageous gaffe, " said Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel. “I condemn [the comments] unreservedly. They have no place in civilised political debate,” said UK FS Jack Straw. “This is not the first time, unfortunately, that the Iranian president has expressed the most outrageous ideas concerning Jews and Israel,” Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. > Ignoring the practicalities and accepting that it could not have been done in 1948, why is everyone so “outraged” at this suggestion? > It’s no secret that Israel is not welcome in the region, and the Palestinians did rather have them thrust on them through no fault of their own. > Obviously it’ll never happen, but why the fuss over the mere suggestion? Part of the problem is that in the same statement he denied the Holocaust happened ([here](http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article331998.ece)) and made comments along the lines of if Europe feels so bad about this happening maybe they should give the Jews land in Europe. ---
**Author:** ![marky33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@marky33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marky33)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/5 "2005-12-09T07:16:14Z")
I understand what you’re saying **Xtisme** , but isn’t there some justification behind asking: “They faced injustice in Europe, so why do the repercussions fall on the Palestinians?” (from \*\*Gooftroopag’\*\*s cite)? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/6 "2005-12-09T07:17:10Z")
[ol] [li]Removing any established people for the "convenience " of others is wrong. (We call it ethnic cleansing.)[/li][li]Who is going to compensate all the Israelis for their lost land, businesses, and other real investents that they will be forced to surrender? (That Israel faces a similar issue regarding land taken from Palestinians hardly justifies extending that injustice to the Israelis–particularly ALL the Israelis.[/li][li]A significant percentage of Israelis are descended from Jews who already lived in the region before the formation of the state of Israel. Why are they supposed to be removed?[/li][li]Germany has its own troubles, reconciling East and West and dealing with Turkish migrant workers. Why impose another 6 1/4 million people on them? [/li][li]Prior to WWII, there were only around 300,000 Jews in Germany. The majority of immigrants to the region came from Polnd, the USSR, the Netherlands, and other German-occupied countries, not Germany. Since no German alive, today, had anything to do with the rise of the Nazis, why is Germany selected to be the dumping ground for all these people?[/li][li]Ahmadinejad is a hate-mongering kook; why should anyone consider doing anything he suggests?[/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![Cronos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@Cronos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cronos1)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/7 "2005-12-09T07:40:09Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > [ol] > [li]Removing any established people for the "convenience " of others is wrong. (We call it ethnic cleansing.)[/li][li]Who is going to compensate all the Israelis for their lost land, businesses, and other real investents that they will be forced to surrender? (That Israel faces a similar issue regarding land taken from Palestinians hardly justifies extending that injustice to the Israelis–particularly ALL the Israelis.[/li][li]A significant percentage of Israelis are descended from Jews who already lived in the region before the formation of the state of Israel. Why are they supposed to be removed?[/li][li]Germany has its own troubles, reconciling East and West and dealing with Turkish migrant workers. Why impose another 6 1/4 million people on them? [/li][li]Prior to WWII, there were only around 300,000 Jews in Germany. The majority of immigrants to the region came from Polnd, the USSR, the Netherlands, and other German-occupied countries, not Germany. Since no German alive, today, had anything to do with the rise of the Nazis, why is Germany selected to be the dumping ground for all these people?[/li][li]Ahmadinejad is a hate-mongering kook; why should anyone consider doing anything he suggests?[/li][/ol] 1- That’s what Israel has done to the Palestenians, and they don’t want 300,000 of them, which were pushed off, to have the right to ever come back. They attempted, as best as they could, to ethincally cleanse the place to create a Jewish state. 2- Who is going to compesate the Jews for their displacement? I suggest Germany. 3- Why should Germany be left with dealing with so many displaced Jews? Are you kidding?! No, really, are you kidding? 4- Because even a hate-mongering kook could stumble onto something, even if it’s by pure conincidence. ;j ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/8 "2005-12-09T07:45:50Z")
> [@Cronos1](#): > > 1- That’s what Israel has done to the Palestenians, and they don’t want 300,000 of them, which were pushed off, to have the right to ever come back. They attempted, as best as they could, to ethincally cleanse the place to create a Jewish state. And so the solution now is to tell the Jews to go to Germany (as if that’s where they all came from)? Substituting one set of problems for another is not what I’d call productive. > [@](#): > > 2- Who is going to compesate the Jews for their displacement? I suggest Germany. **tom** dealt with why this doesn’t make sense. > [@](#): > > 3- Why should Germany be left with dealing with so many displaced Jews? Are you kidding?! No, really, are you kidding? He’s not, and he’s right. > [@](#): > > 4- Because even a hate-mongering kook could stumble onto something, even if it’s by pure conincidence. Doesn’t seem that he has, though. ---
**Author:** ![Cronos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@Cronos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cronos1)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/9 "2005-12-09T07:52:01Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > And so the solution now is to tell the Jews to go to Germany (as if that’s where they all came from)? Substituting one set of problems for another is not what I’d call productive. > > **tom** dealt with why this doesn’t make sense. > > He’s not, and he’s right. > > Doesn’t seem that he has, though. Your one-liners don’t make lick of sense. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/10 "2005-12-09T08:05:01Z")
> [@Cronos1](#): > > Your one-liners don’t make lick of sense. You want to explain why, or are you on your way out the door? ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/11 "2005-12-09T08:56:02Z")
[slight hijack] What would happen if Israel somehow _did_ move to Europe? Would anti-Americanism in the Middle East increase now that they were devoid of their regular scapegoat? Would anti-Europeanism increase instead? How would the Germans react to having Israel plopped down in, oh, say, the Black Forest? [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/12 "2005-12-09T10:18:38Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > [3)] A significant percentage of Israelis are descended from Jews who already lived in the region before the formation of the state of Israel. Why are they supposed to be removed? And even if they all were descended from people who originally came from Berlin, so what, if they themselves were born in Israel? Also a large percentage are immigrants and refugees from the rest of the Middle East, so just as reasonable suggestion as Germany would be giving them land somewhere in the Middle East, like Iran or say Israel. ---
**Author:** ![marky33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@marky33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marky33)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/13 "2005-12-09T10:32:23Z")
Out of interest, was Germany ever made to pay any reparations to Israel (or individual Jews for that matter)? ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/14 "2005-12-09T10:35:49Z")
How could saying that a whole country full of people should just pack up and leave _not_ be outrageous? ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/15 "2005-12-09T10:38:28Z")
> [@marky33](#): > > Out of interest, was Germany ever made to pay any reparations to Israel (or individual Jews for that matter)? Yes they’ve paid quite a large sum. $850 million I think. A large amount for the time. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/16 "2005-12-09T10:51:51Z")
[Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel end in Luxembourg - Germany will pay 3 billion Deutsche Marks.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1952) Also private owned companies have paid large sums over the years. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/17 "2005-12-09T11:05:44Z")
> [@Cronos1](#): > > 1- That’s what Israel has done to the Palestenians, and they don’t want 300,000 of them, which were pushed off, to have the right to ever come back. They attempted, as best as they could, to ethincally cleanse the place to create a Jewish state. Simply untrue. Yes, there was terrorism on both sides at the founding of the state of Israel. But there was also a concerted effort to get the Palestinians to stay. The Arab leadership told them to get out of the way of their planned genocide. Some cites, some online, some from hardcopy. [ > [@](#): > > The Arabs refused any compromise and rejected the United Nations partition plan. On May 15, 1948, Azzam Pasha, Secretary General of the Arab League, made the Arab intentions unambiguously plain to the British Broadcasting Company: “This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.” ]([http://www.stanforddaily.com/tempo?page=content&id=8324&repository=0001\_article](http://www.stanforddaily.com/tempo?page=content&id=8324&repository=0001_article)) [ > [@](#): > > The Economist reported on Oct. 2, 1948: “Various factors influenced [the Arabs’] decision to seek safety in flight. There is but little doubt that the most potent of the factors were the announcements made over the air by the Higher Arab Executive, urging the Arabs to quit. . . . It was clearly intimated that those Arabs who remained in Haifa and accepted Jewish protection would be regarded as renegades.” ]([http://www.stanforddaily.com/tempo?page=content&id=8324&repository=0001\_article](http://www.stanforddaily.com/tempo?page=content&id=8324&repository=0001_article)) [ > [@](#): > > Egyptian Foreign Minister Muhammad Salah al-Din affirmed this logic in 1949: “It is well-known and understood that the Arabs, in demanding the return of the refugees to Palestine, mean their return as masters of the Homeland and not as slaves. With a greater clarity, they mean the liquidation of the State of Israel.” ]([http://www.stanforddaily.com/tempo?page=content&id=8324&repository=0001\_article](http://www.stanforddaily.com/tempo?page=content&id=8324&repository=0001_article)) [ > [@](#): > > Even the foreign press, in regular contact with all sides during the conflict of 1948, wrote nothing to suggest that the flight of the Palestinians was not voluntary. Nor did Arab spokesmen, such as the Palestinian representative to the U.N., Jamal Husseini, or the secretary general of the Arab League, blame the Jews contemporaneously with the 1948 war for the flight of Arabs and Palestinians. In fact, those who fled were urged to do so by other Arabs. As then Prime Minister of Iraq Nuri Said put it, “the Arabs should conduct their wives and children to safe areas until the fighting has died down.” One Arab who fled encapsulated this thinking in the Jordanian newspaper Al-Difaa: “The Arab governments told us, `Get out so that we can get in.’ So we got out, but they did not get in.” ]([http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/031103/3anti\_6.htm](http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/031103/3anti_6.htm)) [ > [@](#): > > As a former prime minister of Syria, Khaled al Azm, wrote in his memoirs, “It is we who demanded the return of the refugees while it is we who made them leave. We brought disaster upon them. [We] exploited them in executing crimes of murder and throwing bombs. All this in the service of political purposes.” ]([http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/031103/3anti\_6.htm](http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/031103/3anti_6.htm)) [ > [@](#): > > Fact: The majority of Jews came to Israel in the late 19th century and early 20th century not as conquering Europeans backed by a national army and treasury but as the wretched of the earth in search of respite from ceaseless persecution. They were not wealthy; they were young, poor, and desperate. The notion that the traditional position of the Arabs in Palestine was jeopardized by Jewish settlements is belied by another fact: that when the Jews arrived, Palestine was a sparsely populated, poorly cultivated, and wildly neglected land of sandy deserts and malarial marshes. Mark Twain, in The Innocents Abroad, described it as a “desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given over wholly to weeds–a silent, mournful expanse. . . . We never saw a human being on the whole route. There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.” ]([http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/031103/3anti\_6.htm](http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/031103/3anti_6.htm)) [ > [@](#): > > In 1957, the Refugee Conference at Homs, Syria, passed a resolution stating: “Any discussion aimed at a solution of the Palestine problem which will not be based on ensuring the refugees’ right to annihilate Israel will be regarded as a desecration of the Arab people and an act of treason.” ]([http://www.stanforddaily.com/tempo?page=content&id=8324&repository=0001\_article](http://www.stanforddaily.com/tempo?page=content&id=8324&repository=0001_article)) [ > [@](#): > > There are hundreds of thousands of Arabs who, following the commencement of hostilities in Palestine, left their domiciles at the call of Arab leaders from outside. The case of Haifa is especially well authenticated. When the British prepared to leave the city, they practically suggested that the two sides contest for it. After a day or two of battle, the Arab leaders appeared before the British General with a request that he negotiate the surrender. > > The conditions offered by the Jewish forces included full freedom and all civil rights for the Arab residents of Haifa; the Arabs who came from foreign countries to fight were to leave Palestine; and the surrender of only the German (Nazi) officers of the Arab “irregulars” was demanded. The Arab emissaries accepted the conditions transmitted to them by the British General. > > A few hours later, however, they returned and, wiping the sweat from their brows, informed the General that they had received orders from abroad not to go through with the agreement and to alert the Arab population that they should hurriedly leave the city. An exodus followed. ]([The Arab Refugees](http://www.varchive.org/obs/481130.htm)) > [@](#): > > This wholesale exodus was due partly to the belief of the Arabs, encouraged by the boasting of an unrealistic Arab press and the irresponsible utterances of some of the Arab leaders that it could be only a matter of some weeks before the Jews were defeated by the armies of the Arab States and the Palestinian Arabs enabled to re-enter and retake possession of their country." > > - Edward Atiyah (then Secretary of the Arab League Office in London) in The Arabs (London, 1955), p. 183 > [@](#): > > I do not want to impugn anybody but only to help the refugees. The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the action of the Arab States in opposing Partition and the Jewish State. The Arab States agreed upon this policy unanimously and they must share in the solution of the problem, > > - Emil Ghoury, Secretary of the Arab Higher Committee, the official leadership of the Palestinian Arabs, in the Beirut newspaper, Daily Telegraph, September 6, 1948 > [@](#): > > Every effort is being made by the Jews to persuade the Arab populace to stay and carry on with their normal lives, to get their shops and businesses open and to be assured that their lives and interests will be safe. [However] …A large road convoy, escorted by [British] military . . . left Haifa for Beirut yesterday. . . . Evacuation by sea goes on steadily. …[Two days later, the Jews were] still making every effort to persuade the Arab populace to remain and to settle back into their normal lives in the towns… [as for the Arabs,] another convoy left Tireh for Transjordan, and the evacuation by sea continues. The quays and harbor are still crowded with refugees and their household effects, all omitting no opportunity to get a place an one of the boats leaving Haifa."" > > - Haifa District HQ of the British Police, April 26, 1948, quoted in Battleground by Samuel Katz > [@](#): > > “Since 1948 we have been demanding the return of the refugees to their homes. But we ourselves are the ones who encouraged them to leave. Only a few months separated our call to them to leave and our appeal to the United Nations to resolve on their return.” > > - Haled al Azm, the Syrian Prime Minister in 1948-49, The Memoirs of Haled al Azm, (Beirut, 1973), Part 1, pp. 386-387 Some from a PDF [ > [@](#): > > Arab leadership from among the para-military forces and the forces of Syria were vociferous in their announcements that they wanted Arabs to leave so that the armies would have a clear field in which to perpetrate their genocide of the Jews. When the war was over and the Jews were driven out or killed, the Arab residents could come > back and have both their own lands and those of the Jews. > We cannot know how many Arabs fled because of these announcements; but since a number of Arab spokespersons after the war admitted to having done this, and wrung their hands publicly in painful repentance of having created the refugee problem, it is clear that the Arab leadership’s own message to many Arabs in the area was a major factor in the Arab flight.1 > It is also important to point out at this time that there were a number of cases where Jewish leaders got out in public and pleaded with Arabs not to leave. The mayor of Haifa is the best example of this. At the risk of his own life, he drove through the Arab section of Haifa with a loudspeaker on his jeep, and in Arabic called out to the residents of his city to disregard the Arab propaganda. > Nonetheless, tens of thousands fled. The incredulous British officers who witnessed this, documented it in a variety of sources. Those Arabs who stayed were unharmed and became citizens of Israel.2 ]([http://www.frontpagemag.com/media/pdf/BigLies.pdf](http://www.frontpagemag.com/media/pdf/BigLies.pdf)) Etc… No, the situation certainly was not one sided. Yes, there were some bloody incidents on both sides, but the fact of the matter is that it simply was not a campaign of ethnic cleansing on Israel’s part. > [@Cronos1](#): > > 2- Who is going to compesate the Jews for their displacement? I suggest Germany. Why? Even those Jews, like many of my relatives, whose ancestors were part of the first wave of Aliah and who owned the land they lived on fair and square? > [@Cronos1](#): > > 3- Why should Germany be left with dealing with so many displaced Jews? Are you kidding?! No, really, are you kidding? Considering that most of the Jews living in Israel did not come from Germany, doesn’t it strike you as a bit odd to make Germany absorb them all? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/18 "2005-12-09T12:21:48Z")
So supposedly the Jews are wrong because they exiled the Palestinians. So Ahmadinejad says the only right thing to do is exile the Jews. There seems to be a slight gap in the logic there. I guess the question is where do the Jews “belong”? Ahmadinejad apparently doesn’t want to base this on where they’re living now. So he wants to send them back to Germany where some of their ancestors lived. As others have pointed out, before the Jews were living in Germany, their ancestors were living in Russia. And before the Jews were living in Russia, their ancestors were living in … Israel. The Jews were in fact living in Israel for a few thousand years before the Muslims arrived there. Ahmadinejad’s arguments don’t make sense even if you accept his flawed premises. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/19 "2005-12-09T12:30:41Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > How could saying that a whole country full of people should just pack up and leave _not_ be outrageous? [The Trail of Tears](http://ngeorgia.com/history/nghisttt.html) ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2005, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843/20 "2005-12-09T12:42:49Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > The Jews were in fact living in Israel for a few thousand years before the Muslims arrived there. The muslims currently present in Palestine probably descent for the most part from people who were present before the arabs took over. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-fuss-over-the-relocating-israel-to-germany-comment/334843.md?page=2)