Not the Hero We Deserve, But the Hero We Need

CNN revises history by not telling enough:



CNN.com - Mideast 101: Who are Palestinian refugees? - April 10, 2002

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency defines "Palestinian refugees" as "persons [and their descendants] whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict."

Interesting UN definition. "1948 Arab-Israeli conflict" was Israel's War of Independence.

While there only 914,000 such refugees in 1950, the number had grown to 3.9 million by 2001. The vast majority -- some 2.7 million people -- do not live in camps, but in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

The remainder live in 59 poor, crowded camps -- about half in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon and the rest in the West Bank and Gaza.

So, somehow the overwhelming majority of these "refugees" have been able to acquire jobs and setup households in other countries.

The United Nations runs the camps, but other nations foot the bill. Most of the $414 million for the camps last year came from European countries, $123 million (or 30 percent) from the United States, while Arab countries -- including Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority -- paid a total of $7 million.

I thought all the Arab countries were terribly concerned about the "Palestinian issue." So why don't they contribute any money to these camps, instead leaving the bill to Europe and the US? I guess they just can't afford it....