Israel's Spending on Illegal Settlements Hits Two-Decade High of NIS 1.1 Billion

[Shaktimaan]

33. untrue.

the Palestinians themselves bore no responsibility for the displacement of the Mizrahi.

Except for the instances where they WERE responsible for it. Such as when they directly expelled them from parts of Palestine, like Hebron or East Jerusalem. Or when Palestinians like the Mufti partnered with the Nazis in an attempt at exacting revenge and succeeded in instigating widespread attacks against native Jews. Look at what happened in Iraq.

But while that is all true, it really misses the forest for the trees. You see, you are trying to look at these two events as though they are entirely separate actions that in no way were influenced by one another. You are looking at it strictly from the perspective of the victims and deducing that they are both victims; neither of which can be held accountable for the injuries against the other. A more accurate way of looking at this would be to take the broad angle into account. This never was just a conflict between the Palestinians and the Zionists. It was a conflict that encompassed the entire region. No single act can be taken out of context or disconnected from all of the other acts surrounding it... what helped cause it, what it helped cause, etc. And while it is certainly true that the poorest victims amongst the Palestinians are not to blame for the plight of the Mizrahim, neither can you remove that plight from the conflict that so deeply involves the Palestinians.

Just as the Mizrahim would not have been expelled had the Palestinians chosen to not fight the Zionists, we can not extract the blame for the Nakba from the blame for the initiation of violence from the decision of the Arab League to use the Palestinians as pawn to their eternal detriment. It was the same Arab states who came to fight the Israelis in 1948 supposedly in the name of aiding the Palestinians who expelled all of their Jewish citizens.

the Palestinians themselves bore no responsibility for the displacement of the Mizrahi

But that's my point. Of course they did! The Mizrahi are victims of the conflict after all. And as one of the two key players in the conflict's instigation and continuation, it was their actions that influenced events leading to their expulsion. This isn't to say that they bear sole responsibility for what occurred. But neither are they blameless in the Mizrahi's plight either.

But the worst possible response is to take the Palestinian and Mizrahi exodi together and act as if the two events somehow cancel each other out and erase the injustice involved.

Is it? Why? The Arabs threw out the Jews and Israel took them in and made them citizens. The Arab states involved refused to do the same for the Palestinian refugees of this same conflict that they expelled their Jews in the name of. But these states can not fight a series of wars against Israel in the name of the Palestinians only to then assume no responsibility for the result. This is a tribal conflict. The Arab states are enough of a shared tribe with Palestine to fight in their name? Then they are equally tribe enough to play the role for the refugees that Israel did for theirs.