Arab world must take some responsibility for refugee suffering

In his rambling rant against just about everybody, Naseem Tuffaha manages to reveal what he wants to see after the Palestinian Arabs “take control of their own destiny.” [“Palestinian people must take control of their own destiny,” Opinion, Sept. 24]

He inserts the phrase “inalienable right of return,” which is Arab code for the flooding of Israel with Palestinian Arabs who fled from the war the Arabs started in 1948, along with their descendants. No such right has ever been claimed by anybody, except the Palestinian Arabs. Nobody has ever granted the offspring of refugees the status of refugees themselves, except for the Palestinian Arabs. None of the refugees from the wars of the 1940s are still confined to camps, except for the Palestinian Arabs.

The war of 1948 created more Jewish refugees than Arab ones, as 850,000 Jews living in Arab lands fled from anti-Jewish violence when the Arabs failed to destroy Israel. Most of them are now living as full citizens in Israel, along with more than a million Arabs whose ancestors elected to remain there.

When are the Arabs and their supporters going to grow up and accept the fact that all the suffering of the Palestinian refugees is due to the relentless and illegal war the Arab world has waged for decades, to prevent a just settlement for all of the peoples of the Middle East?

— Robert G. Kaufman, Seattle