Such influence!

Letters

Editor: One is amazed at the extent of the influence of your newspaper. Readers in Toronto, California, Oregon and central Connecticut - and all expressing the same theme.

Abba Eban once said publicly that "the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity." The sad part is, he said that 25 or so years ago and they keep missing the opportunities - or are they?

Their first opportunity for a state was in 1947-'48 by UN resolution. They opted for war. Then, for 19 years (1948-1967), they had ample opportunity while occupied by their brethren, the Jordanians and Egyptians. They squandered that opportunity, opting for war instead. All this debate today would have been unnecessary had they established their state somewhere in that 20-year period. Had they done so, they would not have had the "problem" of settlers. Indeed they would have had half of Jerusalem, to the dismay of the Israelis, since Jews would not now be permitted into the Old City. In retrospect, they would also have had time to finish destroying synagogues and other Jewish and possibly Christian places of worship at which they had made ample progress by the time they lost East Jerusalem by war they engineered.

They had plenty of opportunity since the 1993 Oslo Accords. Again, they opted for war - which is what they find themselves in now. Former prime minister Ehud Barak attempted to give away the shop, only to be rejected again. It is clear that their intentions have nothing to do with a state - rather, they are striving to rid the Mideast of any Jewish presence and eliminate Israel entirely.

Those striving for "the right of return" never mention the Jewish refugees from Arab lands; nor do they mention that the Arabs turfed out all Jews living in the Old City of Jerusalem when it was captured by the Jordanians in 1948. Nor is there mention of the millions of refugees who have been "displaced" by war all over the world; for example, Germans sent out of Czechoslovakia, Germans displaced by Poland which took over Eastern Germany or Poles displaced by Russia - all after the Second World War. And what about the millions of Indians and Pakistanis displaced in 1947, following the departure of Britain and the establishment of those two nations? Needless to say, Jews, Romanis and hordes of others were displaced by German atrocities during the war.

All these are old arguments which apparently are needing repetition since the issues keep being recycled.

I. Bill Gruenthal
Burnaby

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