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David Souers's avatar

True. Arabs are not a homogenous group. They have not wanted Palestinian influence anymore than Palestinians wanted growing European Jewish influence, nor Israel wanted a Palestinian majority in their new state, or expanding state.

Arabs have given Palestinians nominal support since the Jewish militias drove 750,000 Palestinians out in the 1947-48 war to establish Israel. Arabs have had varying attitudes of acceptance or rejection of Israel based on their concerns for their own situation. Jordan though most friendly to Israel, deals with Palestinian refugees being the majority of their population. Lebanon has dealt with large numbers of Palestinian refugees in refugee camps, with small numbers of Palestinian leaders and freedom fighters fighting Israel, drawing responding & preemptive strikes from Israel similar to the strikes on Gaza, making Lebanon dysfunctional.

Egypt (1956 from Britain), Jordan (1946 from Britain) & Lebanon (1943-46 from France) were given their independence around the time of Israel’s establishment. Saudi Arabia was recognized as independent by Britain in 1927.

The interpretation of this history to favor Israel and disfavor Palestinians is similar to our interpretation of Vietnam history. We did not talk about Vietnam as a U.S. ally in WWII with Ho Chi Minh after 1945. We then saw them as an enemy as we supported France’s colonial interests. We then called Ho Chi Minh’s freedom fighters “communists” as we supported puppet governments left by the French. We lost much and gained nothing for these distortions.

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James Burnham's avatar

To compare US support of French colonial interests in Vietnam to US support of Israel is absurd. The Vietnam war was our folly, a war of immense hubris and greed. It was also falsely contrived. There is no parallel to European and Middle East history, immersed as it is in the persecution and murder of Jews for centuries, no matter whether the Jew being persecuted was a accused of being a communist or a capitalist. (Hitler accused them of both).

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