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Once Again, the Jewish Question

(National Post-Canada) Jonathan Kay - In Ramallah, construction seems to be taking place on every block - proper office buildings, stores and apartments. Arab Jerusalemites and British Arabs come here for parties and fancy weddings. At a local museum, a major Picasso exhibition has opened up. The Western-trained police strut about with polish and confidence. Scarred by the example of Gaza, where Fatah activists were rounded up and killed by Hamas, Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces have made common cause with Israel (whose military presence here is non-existent - at least during the day) in eradicating Hamas from public life. The PA's media director, Ghassan Khatib, tells me: "The experience of 2000-2003 [the Second Intifada] was very costly for us. Violence is to Israel's advantage. It is not wise for us to be dragged into Israel's area of strength." Mahmoud Labadi, a charismatic, old-guard PA apparatchik, launched himself into the realm of fantasy by claiming that the entire Jewish historical claim to Jerusalem's core is bogus, because no Jewish temple ever existed in the area. Palestinian leaders have fallen back on this insulting conspiracy theory for years. Remaining firmly in the sphere of conspiracy theory, Labadi then rehashed the debunked claim that Israeli archeologists are plotting to destroy the Dome of the Rock, which sits on the Temple Mount. These conspiracy theories are being used to advance an agenda - which is to strip Israel of its historical identity as the homeland for the Jewish people. An Israel disconnected from Jewish history wouldn't have any basis to reject the "right of return" claimed by the descendants of 1948-era Palestinian refugees. The writer is a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington.
2011-07-21 00:00:00
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