Paul Johnson writes: “The Arab population of Palestine was 93 per cent in 1918, when the Balfour Declaration first began to take effect, and 65 per cent in 1947, when the crisis broke.”
I’ll never forget Dennis Prager saying to a caller about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, “It’s their land too.”
Chaim Amalek: “The transfer of these lands to Jewish control was never mandated by concerns for any democratic idea, but by Torah. And Torah is not a democracy.”
Jewish Journal:
‘1913: Seeds of Conflict’ traces the roots of Arab-Israeli unrest
…some Jewish viewers at the festivals and synagogues where it has played have expressed other worries.
“They think it doesn’t turn out very well for the Jews,” Loeterman said. “There has been, to me, an out-of-proportion concern for what the film could mean for the Jews rather than what the film itself says. There is a range of issues and questions. We tried to be very fair but we also tried to be fair to history.”
Loeterman expressed disappointment “at the degree to which some Jewish people have prided themselves on holding ourselves — and Israel — to a higher standard, and are willing to cling to their mythology in the face of history. People are having so much difficulty facing history and facing our own role in it, no matter how difficult that is. I believe that the film could have the possibility of providing fodder for those who have ill will toward Jews, but that doesn’t absolve us as Jews from having to ask the hard questions of ourselves. I feel that is a greater danger.”
