The big refugee lie revisited

Re-issued as one document entitled Big Lies: Demolishing the myths of the propaganda war against Israel, David Meir-Levi's series of well-researched and lucid articles in Front Page magazine.

His words bear repeating again. One of the principal myths is, of course, the myth of the Arab refugee problem. When it comes to a solution, Meir-Levi points out that nobody has suggested the obvious: that Arab refugees should be resettled on lands in Arab countries once owned by Jews.

"One reason no one has suggested this is that no Arab state with the exception of Jordan will even allow Palestinians to be citizens. Another point: Taking into account the assets of the Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim lands, one can conclude that the Jews have already paid massive “reparations” to the Arabs whether warranted or not.

The property and belongings of the Jewish refugees, confiscated by the Arab governments, has been conservatively estimated at about $2.5 billion in 1948 dollars. Invest that money at a modest 6.5% over 57 years and you have today a sum of $80 billion, which the Arab and Muslim governments of the lands from which the Jews were expelled could apply to the benefit of the Arab refugees. That sum is quite sufficient for reparations to Arab refugees. There is no way of accurately assessing the value of Arab property left in Israel’s control; but there are no estimates as high as a 1948 value of $2,500,000,000. So, hypothetically, the Arab side would be getting the better of such a deal."

Read the whole thing!

Here's what the unmatchable Melanie Phillips has to say on this topic:

"What Meir-Levi brings forward is the evidence – none of it new, but all of it overlooked or denied in today’s climate of profound ignorance and malice – that the Arab refugee problem was caused by the Arabs and that the flight of Arabs from Palestine was largely the result of being told to flee by the Arabs, who at around the same time forced out, often at gunpoint, some 800,000 Jews from Arab lands who had been living there peacefully for hundreds of years but were ethnically cleansed from countries which even today practice racist restrictions against any Jewish entry, a fact which goes unremarked by a majority opinion which portrays instead the Jews of Israel, the victims not the perpetrators of aggression – and who include those refugees from Arab lands and their descendants – as racist aggressors.