To do so would be suicidal to Israel and the "Homeland For the Jewish People." Obama can bow to Mecca and his Saudi boss, Israel never shall. Israel won the land by defeating her arab aggressors. If they want Israel, come and get it.

... out on his behind next year (must we wait that long?).

The Arabs don't care about their own. Look what's going on in the Arab countries. Corrupted regimes, deprived masses. poverty, lack of human rights. That's not Israel's fault. That's the fault of the Arab mentality which hasn't produced anything positive or prograssive in years (beside humus and falafel). Do you think that the Jordanians, Syrians or Lebanese care about their Arab brothers - the Palestinians? They don't care about their fellow country men, why would they care about the Palestinian refugees?

There're no Palestinians refugees, so why is there a problem? Benny Morris did not write "The Palestinian Refugee Problem" and "The Palestinian Refugee Problem- Revisited" both to international acclaim. All those Palestinian refugees in camps in Gaza and the West Bank, and Jordan and Lebanon - they don't exist. It's like saying there were no Jewish refugees from Tsarist Russia or the USSR. It's simple enough. There will be financial compensation for those refugees who do not wish to return and those who do will return to the Palestinian state Israel - and sadly the US - doesn't want to come into existence. BTW the same herd instinct that got Congressmen to applaud Bibi, can effect the US at the General Assembly in September.

There is no Arab who says there is a "refugee problem". The only problem is the "Nakba", the existence of Jewish sovereignty in Israel. Every single Arab says that the only acceptable solution is to reverse the "Nakba".

...to give a reason for his terror games...let's say it all;Arafat bullshitt needed a reason to be,so he invented that he rappresented the Pali...let's say it all:the Pali would like other candidates to rap resent them...Like any other Dictactor,Arafat was full ok smoke and use violence to submit anyone to his wicked will...

Could you give me your sources for this. I'm doing research and this would be helpful. Rav Todot.

The summary of this article is Lucidity. I hope that ,more and more, this sort of key is tapped. As for Obama in: "President Obama can establish a pattern of pragmatic diplomacy that alerts both the new and old Arab regimes that the United States is interested not in ceaseless dogmatic whining but in brass-tacks negotiating intended to produce real payoffs." This is the only part the article gets delusional ,since Obama will not change. What must be changed is Obama by American electors ,and the next choice must take into account Lucidity and not the current delusional,pathological pattern that has prevailed in western politics.A pattern that has been, heavily and perniciously, influenced by a primitive,ignorant,insensitive,obsessed "Arab world".

his usefulness. The puppet master no longer sees utility in his presents. Soon Abbas will be gone and Hamas will rule the roost.

The 20th century had many refugee instances. Jews from Arab countries, Germans from Eastern Europe, Hindus and Muslims from the division of India, and many others. The second and third generation of these people are integrated in to the countries they moved to. The only perpetual “refugees” are the descendents of Arab from the British mandate area

If he truly believes that if he "fixes" the problem of the ersatz "Palestinians" (by giving them whatever they want out of Israel while requiring them to give nothing in return), that will solve the issues between, say, the Shia and the Sunni Moslems, the problem of the Polisario, the problems in the Spanish Sahara, civil unrest in Libya, Tunisia, Yehmen, Jordan, Bahrain and Syria, et cetera, et cetera, ad Arab world nauseum, then he is really too stupid to wash the White House floors, let alone serve as president of the United States. Most of you will remember that Netanyahu's address to the Knesset in the days before he left for the United States was quite soft, and included a very conciliatory approach to the ersatz "Palestinians," this despite the fact that there was now in place a "unity agreement" between Fatah and Hamas. Then Obama gave his speech to the nation, in which he accused Israel of being the source of the problems in the Middle East (!) and suggested -- no, stated flat out -- that Israel must withdraw to the 1967 borders. Netanyahu greeted this in the only way he could -- he rewrote the very tempered speech that he was doubtless planning to give before the United States Congress, and gave the speech he did give -- which resounded wildly through the halls of the United States Congressional buildings. Basically, Netanyahu smacked down Obama -- as well he should have, and as Obama richly deserved -- and humiliated him. Well, good. Obama richly deserved that, too. A day or so later, we had the amazingly favorable response from the G8 countries, and Canada and "some others" (I'm guessing Germany and Italy, at least; possibly more) refusing to issue a statement which would have urged Israel to return to the 1967 borders (and, by extension, give up part of Jerusalem). No fools they, G8 heads of state. They know who controls the purse strings in the United States (the Congress), and those standing ovations received by Netanyahu must have echoed all the way to the assorted G8 capitals. It would appear that Obama has truly lost touch with reality. His obsession with bringing Israel to its knees is pathological. He ignores other major perils in the world in order to pump up the legitimacy and push the cause of a terrorist rabble, merely because that rabble is arrayed against Israel. What a fool and an idiot. 2012 cannot come soon enough. The problem of displaced Arabs should be addressed by the 21 Arab nations, who should be convinced to take in their brother Arabs and give them homes. Pressure should be applied upon Jordan to convinve the monarch that he should voluntarily go into exile, and allow the ersatz "Palestinians" from both the West Bank and within Jordan to accede to power. That's the pressure that should be applied; leave Israel out of it. We're the Jewish state, and the problems which everyone in the U.S. administration wrings their hands about and weeps and wails are exclusively Arab problems. Obama really is an idiot.

one particluar point, but the vast sum of articles i have read on the subject state that queen rania of jordan is of palestinian descent (they had moved to kuwait until they were kicked out)

Using Mr.Obama's logic, why doesn't the U. S. give back land to the Native Americans? When Mr. Obama and others finally wake up and realize the key to peace is the recognition of Israel's right to exist, then and only then will there be peace

of problem of refugees would be to don't expell anyone from his home.

The definition of a refugee is: A PERSON WHO HAS BEEN FORCED TO LEAVE THEIR COUNTRY IN ORDER TOP ESCAPE WAR, PERSECUTION OR NATURAL DISASTER. In 1948 around 700,000 arabs left their homes to escape a war. Today we have 6 million palestinians calling themselves refugees. To the palestinians if doesn't matter how many generations pass if your descended from a refugee then your a refugee in your own right. Pregnant palestinian women are not going to give birth to babies they are going to give birth to refugees with a right of return to the home where the childs now dead great, grandparents once lived. If all the descendants of the millions of Jews who were made refugees during WW2 were all considered refugees the way the palestinians are then there would probably be hundreds of millions of Jewish refugees all with a right to return to Germany, Austria and Poland. I don't even understand the logic behind forming UNRWA. Every other refugee group in the world is dealt with by the UNCHR who try to find new homes for the refugees as quickly as possible. For the arabs the UN decided to create a brand new body specifically to deal with their cause. Instead of trying to rehouse them it built refugee camps and it today gets paid billions to maintain them. In 63 years UNRWA has never once considered its mission to rehouse the arabs just to keep them in and maintaining the camps. The organization should have been dissolved decades ago but nobody wants to get rid of it. UNRWA has become a political body in its own right.

The Arab nations deliberately refuse to resettle the "Palestinians" because they provide a constant excuse for attacking Israel. Arab regimes are autocratic and Arab leaders welcome a foreign entity to blame all their problems on. Israel, of course. The answer is to resettle the "Palestinians". Not fictional statehood for them. Israel's goal should be to entice as many of them to leave as possible.

world, 5.5 millions ( I beleive the number is unproportionally overblown) of them are so called Palest. refugees. But the budget of UNRWA, the agency for Pal. refugees is almost half of the UNHCR, the agency for the rest of the world refugees.

Lord, he does have you breathing fire and pounding the walls. That was a healthy rant.

"However, the president – and the Department of State – is still convinced that the “root cause” of problems in the Middle East is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." The root cause....This is Tony Blair's claim that he never missed an opportunity to tell the UK public while he was PM. It's persistence goes to show the poison that Blair released.Obama is the US Blair who keeps it in circulation. New Labour,new danger. New Labor,new danger. THREE CHEERS FOR ISRAEL!!!

I take it that you agree with Sarah?

I love the do as I say not as I do in both sides of these arguments. Most European countries have incorporated territory from other countries or expelled other groups. The Czechs have the evil Benes laws, they also massacred tens of thousands on Germans in 45 to 50. They ethnically cleansed the Sudetenland. SInce this predates 67 lets see if Jarda can correct the evil of the Czech first. Well Jarda over to you.

There Geneva Convention adds the following requirement: (2) As a result of events occurring before 1 January 1951 and owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it. Since 80% of the Arabs were in fact non-residents they cannot and are not refugees under international law. Nor are their millions of spawn refugees.

Why did you expel the Sudeten Germans?

You're from the Czech Republic? How about letting back all of the Sudeten Germans you expelled?

so too late to close that barn door. By the way, you realise the authors of this article are talking about Arab "refugees" not the people who ran away when their leaders failed in a war they chose to launch?

Rarely does a short article such as the one you wrote make such an impact. I'd just like to congratulate the two of you for writing it. Are you planning to write a book about Palestinian refugees. Such a tomb written by the two of you would be a welcome contribution to our state of knowledge on the subject. Once again, thank you!

I believe that the Palestinian who were expelled from Israel should have the right to choose either to go back to Palestine or to be compensated and given the Citezenship of another country The same thing applies for Jews who were expelled from arab countries.

Doesn't much matter what Rania is (although one can argue that being born in Kuwait makes her Kuwaiti). She is the royal consort; not a member by birth of the "royal family." The so-called "royal family" of Jordan happens to be Iraqi. The present "king" of Jordan is half British and half Iraqi.

Thats the crux of the so called refugee problem. They are brainwashed into believing that even a new born baby is a refugee in its own right and has the right to return to live in the idilic little village that somebody lived in 63 years ago. Its made worse by the liberal European countries and the millions if palestinian supporters around the world who all support the idea of right of return. They need to be told straight by the entire world its a fantasy thats never going to happen.