NYTimes Review of Our Primary Book - A Safe Haven

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Please see especially “U.N. Information on Palestinian Refugees” and “General Arab Population + Income Stats”

The Suggested Answers to the Short Quiz in the Preceding Section on “Participant Comments” traced the history of Israel-Palestine for the last 2,000 years – AND ENDED WITH THE OBSERVATION THAT MERE “COST EFFECTIVENESS” WOULD DICTATE THAT THE UNITED STATES OFFER TO MAKE EACH PALESTINIAN REFUGEE (WOMAN, MAN OR CHILD) A MILLIONAIRE ON CONDITION THAT S/HE USE THE MONEY TO LEAVE THE REFUGEE CAMPS AND GET A REAL LIFE!!! BECAUSE DECIDING (EVEN UNCONSCIOUSLY) TO LET THIS SITUATION FESTER FOR ANOTHER 60 YEARS WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY END SOONER IN A NUCLEAR BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON PRODUCING A WORLDWIDE “TWILIGHT OF THE HUMANS”!!!

The 9/28/2009 posting on “U.N. Information on Palestinian Refugees” takes a look at the United Nation’s own web site for the U.N. Relief and Agency Works which, since 1950, has registered the Palestinian refugees and run refugee camps for them. In 1950, there were only 750,000 Palestinian refugees. Today, they have multiplied to 4.6 million – with 1.3 million of that total living in the U.N. refugee camps in near-abject poverty and the remainder faring little better. The U.N. camps are located in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza.

The 10/4/2009 posting on “General Arab Population + Income Stats” estimates that to raise the standard-of-living of the 4.6 million Palestinian refugees to the level prevailing in the 12 countries in the Arab League whose economies are not primarily based on oil, would require annual underwriting of $6 billion/year.

HOWEVER, WHAT WAS INTENDED BY THE OFF-HAND THOUGHT OF MAKING PALESTINIAN REFUGEES MILLIONAIRES WAS TO DO MORE THAN SIMPLY GIVE THE PALESTINIANS A “COUNTRY” COMPRISING THE WEST BANK AND GAZA – WITH ALL THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEES CONTINUING TO LIVE IN POVERTY IN THE REFUGEE CAMPS!!!

Obviously what is needed is more than a “land for peace” deal – SOMEONE NEEDS TO DESIGN AN ECONOMIC PROGRAM THAT WILL TAKE THE REFUGEES OUT OF THEIR CAMPS AND MAKE THEM PROSPEROUS!!!

The “first step” was the estimate of how much it would cost/year to simply raise the standard of living of the Palestinian refugees to the level prevailing in the other 12 non-oil Arab countries at $6 billion/year.

Now think about what could be accomplished if you took that amount of money for, say, 10 years and designed a real economic-development program for all 4.6 million Palestinian refugees – bringing all of them together in the New Palestine (or how many ever of them can be enticed to leave the refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria). AFTER ALL, $6 BILLION/YEAR FOR 10 YEARS IS ONLY 33% OF GIVING EGYPT $3 BILLION/YEAR OF FOREIGN ECONOMIC AID AND ISRAEL $3 BILLION/YEAR OF FOREIGN ECONOMIC AID BEGINNING IN 1979 WHEN THEY SIGNED THEIR PEACE AGREEMENT – AND WE ARE STILL GIVING BOTH CLOSE TO THAT 30 YEARS LATER!!!

As a “ball park” estimate of what would be required, let’s assume that half of the 4.6 million Palestinian refugees are minors and that what we should be doing is providing each of them with a good education that will equip them to compete successfully in the modern world, and let’s assume that the other half are adults who, with some basic training, could handle the jobs that would go with economic development – construction, irrigation, agriculture, manufacturing, etc. If a careful assessment were made about what the comparative strengths would be for the new country of Palestine (assuming appropriate education for minors and training for adults), it should be possible to get rid of the refugee camps and bring prosperity to the Palestinians.

Unfortunately, it does not appear that anyone is giving any thought to doing this!!! Instead, everyone appears to be taking the attitude toward the Palestinians – “You can have your own country if you stop bothering everyone else” – BUT THAT WON’T SOLVE THE REAL PROBLEM!!!
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johnkarls
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NYTimes Review of Our Primary Book - A Safe Haven

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NY Times Book Review – Sunday 26 July 2009

Book =
A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel
By Allis Radosh and Ronald Radosh
428 pages – HarperCollins – available from your local library or from Amazon.com ($18.47 new or $15.11 new – plus shipping, or $9.99 electronically)

Book Review =
Zionist in the White House
By Jonathan Tepperman (Deputy Editor - Newsweek International)

Although Harry Truman left office widely disliked and dismissed more than half a century ago, the effort to resurrect his reputation is now a thriving industry, with politicians and pundits of all stripes trying to tie themselves to the tough, blunt old cold warrior. Contributing to this effort, the husband-and-wife team Allis and Ronald Radosh have written “A Safe Haven,” the story of Truman’s integral role in the birth of Israel.

While some of Truman’s foreign policy accomplishments — the creation of the Marshall Plan, the United Nations and NATO, and his defiance of the Soviets — have gotten the credit they deserve, the Radoshes say, his involvement in the creation of Israel remains overlooked. That may not be quite right. Most modern histories already acknowledge Truman’s early support of the Jewish state; it’s hard to overlook the fact that he recognized newborn Israel just 10 minutes after its delivery. That said, what these histories don’t recognize — and here’s where the Radoshes make their contribution — is just how hard Truman had to work to get there, battling enemies, allies and many in his own administration to make certain that Israel made it to independence with American backing.

It was, as the Radoshes make clear, a long, tough slog. Truman, who fell into the presidency unprepared after the death of Franklin Roosevelt, inherited a mess in the Middle East. The suave and urbane Roosevelt (one of the Radoshes’ villains) had pursued a policy of “obfuscation” on Palestine, assuring both Jews and Arabs that he was sensitive to their concerns. This meant that on taking office, Truman had to deal with a tangle of contradictory commitments. He also had to face down two implacable opponents of Jewish statehood: Great Britain, the colonial power in Palestine, and his own State Department, which bitterly opposed granting the Jews a homeland.

Yet Truman — a biblical literalist and a Christian Zionist — had long been a fierce believer in Jewish statehood for reasons both religious and moral. The Old Testament said that Jews belonged in Israel. And Truman was appalled by the Holocaust (which gave him nightmares), as well as by the scandalously poor treatment of postwar Jewish refugees in European displaced-persons camps. And so this “simple man” waged a long and often bitter diplomatic campaign to help ensure that the Jews got a country of their own.

Truman’s remarkable perseverance is recounted by the Radoshes in readable prose, with good anecdotal color, a general sense of fair-mindedness (except perhaps toward the Arabs) and impressive detail. How much of this will be interesting to the general reader is another question. At times the detail slips from impressive to oppressive. And the authors don’t help matters by failing to adequately signpost their narrative, stopping their recounting of events to explain why various moments were particularly important.

Nor do they do quite enough to substantiate their claims that without Truman’s help, Israel might never have come into being or have survived its first few years. After all, the real work of midwifing the nation wasn’t done in Washington conference rooms but on the rocky soil of Palestine itself, where a ragtag bunch of European immigrants fought to establish a new country. Nor do the Radoshes sufficiently account for the fact that early American support for Israel was actually quite limited — Israel initially got its arms, for example, from the Soviet bloc.

And then there’s Truman himself, who proves a slightly awkward hero. The problem is his philo-Semitism, which was of the creepy sort that relies heavily on Jewish stereotypes and could easily curdle into its opposite when the president was annoyed by the Zionists’ endless badgering, leading to anti-Semitic tirades.

Still, the creation of Israel remains a remarkable, odds-defying story that bears retelling from different angles. And at a time when Washington and Jerusalem find themselves at odds and some are questioning the future of the alliance, it’s worth recalling how the relationship began, and the role of the straight-talking haberdasher from Missouri who worked so hard to make it happen.

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