Jerusalem Post Editorial: Refugees and Peace

‘Palestinians" are the first people to come to mind when the word "refugee" is uttered in a Middle East context. And Palestinians have paid dearly to reinforce this misconception.

Largely dispossessed by their fellow Arabs, Palestinians have lived as second-class citizens in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere in the region. Palestinians’ dismal treatment by their Arab brethren is undoubtedly due in part to strongly held prejudices and exclusionary nationalist loyalties.

But the perpetuation of the Palestinian "refugee" problem has also served as a means of undermining the legitimacy of Israel, as if it was the Jewish state – not extremist, uncompromising and sorrowfully incompetent Palestinian leadership – which was responsible for the flight of Palestinians from Palestine after the failed attempt to violently snuff out the State of Israel at conception.

In reality, however, there was at least one additional population movement in the region around the same time...