Personally, I question the propriety of enforcing a pre-1948 property claim in territory lost then, but occupied in 1967, when the Israeli government does not recognize pre-1948 Arab property claims in Israel.

I’ve said for years that ’48 and what came after (such as expulsion of Jews from Arab countries) are water under the bridge. The wrongs and injuries on all sides roughly balance (_very_ roughly). If everyone accepted this, the conflict would end. But the core basis of Arab rejectionism is the perpetuation of their ancient grievances.

It is thus very dangerous for Israel to say now that a pre-1948 claim can be enforced: it opens up a very big can of worms. At the very least, it confirms the Palestinian delusion that they should seek to conquer Israel to regain what is “rightfully” theirs.

Meanwhile, I was in Washington, DC last week and read in the newspaper that a conservative estimate of the number of lives lost in the Congo’s civil war is five million…five million. Nobody gives a damn.