December 7, 2006

Dear Hugh: ISG Report Doesn't Claim "Right" of Return

Hatched by Dafydd

Just a quick note responding to something Hugh Hewitt just said on his radio show, during the interview with Sen. and presidential perspirant Sam Brownback (R-KS, 100%).

(But first, a quick note to Sen. Brownback: Sam, "terrorism" is a noun, not a verb.)

Back to Hugh. Hugh Hewitt asked what Brownback thought about the ISG report -- I'm paraphrasing from memory, but this is the gist -- 'claiming a right of return' of Palestinians to Israel.

Fortunately, the ISG report says no such thing.

Here is the relevant section, the only time the term "right of return" is mentioned:

RECOMMENDATION 17: Concerning the Palestinian issue, elements of that negotiated peace should include....

Sustainable negotiations leading to a final peace settlement along the lines of President Bush’s two-state solution, which would address the key final status issues of borders, settlements, Jerusalem, the right of return, and the end of conflict.

Now maybe James Baker had in mind that the Israelis should give the Palestinians that right, so that millions of Arabs calling themselves Palestinians can move "back" to the land they never lived in a day of their lives (nor their fathers or mothers either), become the majority, and vote Israel out of existence.

I don't know. But it's irrelevant, because that is not what he and the other commissioners actually wrote in the document. They say only that the putative "right of return" must be addressed. And of course it must, because it's regularly raised by Arab countries and by Palestinians who hope to win via negotiation everything they've been unable to seize by war.

But the Iraq Study Group's final report says absolutely nothing about how it must be addressed. That question is left up to Israel. And in any event, as I wrote in the Big Lizards analysis of the report:

This entire section is imminently ignorable, as the five recommendations it contains all boil down to nothing beyond "the unconditional calling and holding of meetings."

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, December 7, 2006, at the time of 4:08 PM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: Big D

To paraphrase Chruchill:

"Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Jihadis and all the odious apparatus of Islamic rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall meet in France, we shall negotiate on the seas and oceans, we shall conference with growing confidence and growing strength, we shall discuss our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall debate on the beaches, we shall dialogue on the landing grounds, we shall conclave in the fields and in the streets, we shall arbitrate in the hills; and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas would carry on the mediation, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to surrender and at last appease Islam."

That pretty much cover it?

The above hissed in response by: Big D [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 7, 2006 4:24 PM

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

Big D:

That pretty much cover it?

Certainly for far too many!

Excellent well done, sir.

Dafydd

The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 7, 2006 4:54 PM

The following hissed in response by: CajunKate

It seems you're the only who does not see this in the document. Mark Steyn has a withering column today on the ISG report and he too agrees with Hugh.

The above hissed in response by: CajunKate [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 10, 2006 9:43 AM

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

CajunKate:

It seems you're the only who does not see this in the document.

Nevertheless, there is isn't, in black and white. Has any of these other people quoted a passage?

Dafydd

The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh [TypeKey Profile Page] at December 10, 2006 1:48 PM

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