tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post3204233613225104233..comments2024-03-14T02:22:26.957+00:00Comments on Point of No Return: Jewish Refugees from Arab and Muslim Countries: 'In Ishmael's House' used to rebutt 'right of return'Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post-90266050174686287982010-09-13T23:12:46.827+01:002010-09-13T23:12:46.827+01:00Sylvia, if it's any consolation for you, educa...Sylvia, if it's any consolation for you, education is lousy in Jerusalem too. Indeed, education is one of the country's big problems. But the politicians over the decades have done nothing serious to improve education here. They were too busy making "peace." <br /><br />A lot has to be changed in education and it's not all a matter of how much money is spent.Eliyahu m'Tsiyonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07973268399414290195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post-84340848654422134882010-09-13T15:16:32.612+01:002010-09-13T15:16:32.612+01:00I quite agree with you Sylvia that 'successful...I quite agree with you Sylvia that 'successful integration' is relative: many Jews never recovered from their uprooting and find themsleves on the margins of Israeli society. But at least they are not subject to the systemic and institutionalised discrimination they suffered in Arab countries and that dreadful gnawing sense of insecurity.<br />You are right too to draw a distinction between those Arab governments who practised state-sanctioned theft of Jewish property (- Syria, Iraq, Egypt) and countries like Morocco and Lebanon where there was no such policy. However the net result has been the same, with the government sequestering abandoned Jewish property without paying any compensation to the previous Jewish owners. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think offers of compensation have been few and far between.bataweenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15829104245735619972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12677825.post-22030075950693534652010-09-13T14:58:08.624+01:002010-09-13T14:58:08.624+01:00Some Arab governments made those equivalences long...Some Arab governments made those equivalences long before the Israelis and even applied them. Syria, for example, confiscated Jewish property under an Emergency Act and settled Palestinians refugees in the Jewish quarters and Jewish homes in Damascus. In fact, the children of Palestinians there went to school in the then brand new Alliance Israelite school - and they probably do to this day. <br /><br />While I agree with the thrust of Richard Chesnoff's article, I must say that I have a profound distaste for the "all-good-on-this-side of the Pyrenees all-bad on the other side or vice-versa" type argument, reminiscent of the pronoucements of the radical left propagandists found at Mondoweiss or Silverstein's. Frankly, what were those "ma'abarot" and border development towns if not refugee camps? True, there is a de jure equality of rights in Israel for Jews from Arab countries, there is citizenship and right to work, unlike Palestinians in Lebanon, but how can Chesnoff write with a straight face that Jews from Arab lands have "successfully integrated?" in Israel? I live in one of those development towns and I see every day the misery, the scarcity of jobs, the hopelessness. Every little extra for the youth and the children here is financed by Jews from America, France, England or Canada. Sure, some made fortunes in construction or the like. But the great majority is still stagnating and education has nothing to do with it. There are simply no opportunities for them. They are too far from the pie. Some sought to make it through politics. But look who's on Netanyahu's government. And please don't tell me Shas, Shas electorate is in the big cities.<br /><br />Another distinction that must absolutely be made is between those criminal Arab governments who have passed legislation to rob the Jews of their property and their nationality after unciting pogroms, such as Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Algeria, and those Arab countries where no such legislation was passed but the Jews fled after sustained attacks at the hands of Muslim mobs incited by greedy clerics and wannabe rulers, and where Jews could sue later to get their properties. To say "the Arab world" or "Arab governments" is to put all of them on equal footing, which is not useful. Some nuance please.Sylvianoreply@blogger.com