‘CiF’ reader comment of the day: An alternative “refugee camp”

H/T Margie

On Oct. 31, ‘Comment is Free’ published an interesting open thread titled Which leftwing (or rightwing) articles of faith bother you?

There were some interesting ideas among the more than 500 reader comments, but one in particular caught our attention.

In response to an accusation by one evidently avid Harriet Sherwood or Gideon Levy reader that Israel behaves like an apartheid state, there was this:

A bit over-the-top you say?

No, I don’t think so.

In the years after the Holocaust, 1945-1952, between 240-250,000 Jewish displaced persons (DPs) were living in camps and urban centers in Germany, Austria and Italy.  Yet, by 1952 almost all of the DP camps had closed, with over 80,000 settling in the United States, another 20,000 in other nations, and about 136,000 settling in Israel (a huge percentage of Israel’s population at the time).

The Jewish refugee problem came to an end due, in large measure, to the birth of Israel.

Additionally, consider that the overwhelming majority of Jews who were cruelly and systematically expelled from Arab lands between 1947 and 1967 were absorbed by Israel – roughly 600,000 out of 850,000.

Israel’s mission, its raison d’être – as enunciated by Zionist leaders since Herzl, and as practiced by leaders of the Zionist state since its birth – is to be the Guardian of the Jews, a tiny national refuge where Jewish culture will thrive and entry will never be denied.

You don’t hear about “Jewish Refugee Camps” because Israel is the world’s national Jewish refuge – a state which is not only fulfilling its basic mission but, by any measure, succeeding phenomenally at the art of statecraft.  

As the CiF commenter above noted, it’s indeed perplexing why the simple Zionist idea is so hard for some people to understand.

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