A Jordanian's Realism on the Refugees' Return

In their zeal to eradicate the Zionist Entity, the Western demonstratrators pictured, and others of their ilk, may continue to be divorced from reality, screaming for a policy that would end Israel's existence as a Jewish State, but Dr Fahd Al-Fanek, formerly chairman of the board of the Jordanian government daily Al-Rai, is one man in the Arab world who knows better - and says so openly.

In an op-ed in that newspaper he's advised the Palestinian Authority to drop its demand that the "refugees" of 1948 (with whom, of course, it lumps not only the people who actually left their homes at that time, but their descendants, bringing the total to several million persons).

Writes Dr Al-Fanek:

“The realistic commentator is entitled to say that the Palestinian Authority's rejection of Obama's plan... means that the Palestinians will get neither a state nor the [right of] return – because the rejection of this paradigm does not mean that the Palestinians will [obtain the right to] return to [the lands] that have become Israel [ie: the 1948 territories].”

It seems that the Palestinian Authority has hope, however small, that the refugees' right to return to Israel will [actually] be realized. But a realistic analysis must recognize that the [refugees'] return is impossible under the framework of a peaceful resolution, since Israel has no intention of [relinquishing its identity] as a Jewish state...

As for the distant future, as time goes on, the return [of the refugees] will be less and less feasible, even if it becomes a formal possibility. Even now, no Palestinian in the diaspora under the age of 70 is [actually] familiar with Palestine. Moreover, most of the Palestinian villages to which [the refugees] demand to return no longer exist, and most of the Palestinians living in the diaspora have received foreign citizenship and settled in their countries of residence.

We still remember how dozens of senior Palestinian officials for whom Yasser Arafat obtained the right of return, and for whom a farewell [ceremony] was held at the [Allenby] Bridge, came back to Amman within two weeks!”

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/144072