The Right of Return

In the latest issue of Commentary magazine, Michael J. Totten writes on "the mother of all quagmires" (i.e. the Arab-Israeli Conflict) including the so-called "right of return":

Fatah Party leader Mahmoud Abbas is clearly more moderate and reasonable than the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but even he can't compromise on the “right of return,” the so-far non-negotiable demand that all Palestinian refugees and their descendants from the 1948 war be allowed to return to settle in Israel. Israel would become an Arab-majority country if that were to happen, and most of the would-be arrivals have been radicalized in politically toxic refugee camps. The “right of return” would ignite a civil war worse than Lebanon’s.

Listen to Ran Cohen, Member of the Knesset for the left-wing Meretz Party and former leader of the Left Camp of Israel peace movement. “Even I refuse the right of return,” he said. “It's impossible. It's the opposite of a solution. Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] and the others know our position on the right of return. Who are they going [to] negotiate this with? Not me, not Meretz, not Peace Now. Who? The Communist Party? Not even the radical left supports this."

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Ending the West's Proxy War Against Israel

Excellent article in the Wall Street Journal, by Gunnar Heinsohn, explaining the role of UNRWA, the United States, and the European Union in perpetuating the Gazan problem and setting the stage for another generation of war against Israel.

Most interesting quotes:

The reason for Gaza's endless youth bulge is that a large majority of its population does not have to provide for its offspring. Most babies are fed, clothed, vaccinated and educated by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. Unlike the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, which deals with the rest of the world's refugees and aims to settle them in their respective host countries, UNRWA perpetuates the Palestinian problem by classifying as refugees not only those who originally fled their homes, but all of their descendents as well.

[...]

The West pays for food, schools, medicine and housing, while Muslim nations help out with the military hardware. Unrestrained by such necessities as having to earn a living, the young have plenty of time on their hands for digging tunnels, smuggling, assembling missiles and firing 4,500 of them at Israel since 2006. While this gruesome activity has slowed the Palestinian internecine slaughter, it forced some 250,000 Israelis into bomb shelters.

[...]

If we seriously want to avoid another generation of war in Gaza, we must have the courage to tell the Gazans that they will have to start looking after their children themselves, without UNRWA's help. This would force Palestinians to focus on building an economy instead of freeing them up to wage war.

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Stanford Gaza protest

Stanford got its own piece of the worldwide intifada last week. Here's SOS' report.


The festivities began on Thursday, January 9, with a "vigil" for the victims of the conflict. The picture above shows the size of the crowd. It was actually pretty substantial. Unfortunately, the vigil was little more than a parade of anti-Israel speakers, with the Raging Grannies thrown in for good measure.


The three speakers were Professor Hilton Zimmerman, Professor Khalil Barhoum, and local reporter Eduardo Cohen. The first and last speakers were actually Jewish, but that didn't stop them from decrying the "massacre" in Gaza and, in the case of the latter, spout conspiracy theories about how the entire situation was planned years ago by Ariel Sharon. The only non-Jewish speaker, Professor Khalil Barhoum, has become somewhat of a regular at pro-Palestinian events. Professor Barhoum introduced Palestinian Ambassador to the United States Afif Safiyeh when he spoke at Stanford last year, and was also the keynote speaker at an anti-Israel film screening at Foothill Community College last spring. He is pictured below standing with Fadi Quran, president of Students Confronting Apartheid by Israel (SCAI).


The following day was the actual protest against what is going on in Gaza. A fair number of protesters and a significant amount of counter-protesters showed up and...mostly stood around doing nothing. First, though, the two sides came together and shook hands, at the request of Fadi Quran, president of Students Confronting Apartheid by Israel. A video of this is included below. If only solving problems were really that easy...



After that, there were chants from both sides for several minutes, and scattered heated arguments, but nothing too crazy.

I thought it was ironic that the pro-Palestinian side was standing in front of the blood donation truck.

Pro-Israel demonstrators walk past the line of Palestine supporters.

Better view of the pro-Palestinian side's signs.

Leaders of the Stanford Israel Alliance being interviewed by local media.

The pro-Israel side.

Take a look at the Stanford Daily's article on the protest.
Check out Palo Alto Online's coverage (with video).
Check the Stanford Review Web site the week of January 25 for their article about the events.

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