Tuesday
Jun092009
Op-Ed Contributor - The Exodus Obama Forgot to Mention - NYTimes.com
Issandr El Amrani
Op-Ed Contributor - The Exodus Obama Forgot to Mention - NYTimes.com
André Aciman, from a wealthy Egyptian Jewish family, takes Obama to task for not mentioning the dispossession of Egyptian Jews in the late 1950s and 1960s, when many had their wealth nationalized and were forced into exile. That much is true. Yet strangely Aciman also makes an omission: Israel's false flag terror operations, such as the Lavon Affair, to frighten Arab Jews; the unprovoked 1956 land grab by Israel (and Britain and France) that was the Suez War; or indeed the manner of Israel's creation are not mentioned.
André Aciman, from a wealthy Egyptian Jewish family, takes Obama to task for not mentioning the dispossession of Egyptian Jews in the late 1950s and 1960s, when many had their wealth nationalized and were forced into exile. That much is true. Yet strangely Aciman also makes an omission: Israel's false flag terror operations, such as the Lavon Affair, to frighten Arab Jews; the unprovoked 1956 land grab by Israel (and Britain and France) that was the Suez War; or indeed the manner of Israel's creation are not mentioned.
Reader Comments (7)
Let me get this straight -- the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII was justified because of active U.S. hostilities with Japan, and the U.S. would be justified expropriating Arab property and forcing Arabs out of the United States because of 9/11? I think you're unusually short-sighted on this -- and wrong.
It's not a question of justification - of course the expulsion and the confiscation of the property of Arab Jews was wrong. But Aciman did not provide the crucial context: that the Zionist, and later the state of Israel, conspired to get Arab Jews to move to Israel. You cannot not mention that. I think my note was pretty clear that is what's wrong with the Aciman op-ed, not that the expulsions and confiscations were correct (I should also add that many others had property confiscated by the Nasser regime). But if you're trying to imply that I think Egyptian Jews (or Iraqi or whatever) deserved this treatment, then you've got me wrong: I fully condemn what happened, and am saddened when I think that the country I was born in, Morocco, has so few Jews left (in this case they left for different reasons - partly deals between Hassan II and Israel, partly post-colonial expropriations that were part of a wider attempt to restructure the Moroccan economy after French colonization that operated on divide-and-rule among elite Moroccan Berbers, Jews and Arabs.
"But Aciman did not provide the crucial context: that the Zionist, and later the state of Israel, conspired to get Arab Jews to move to Israel."
It's not worth fighting over it, but I think that is also a simplification of the history involved. In Egypt too, as in the Maghreb, the expulsion of the Jews (particularly rich families like the Acimans) was part of the nationalist Egyptian project of the Nasser era (i.e., the Acimans left after their factory was expropriated, and from what I've read of his memoir, they weren't Zionists--Andre's father made him study Arabic so the regime wouldn't kick them out). So, it's fair to argue that the "crucial context" isn't Zionist agitation, but Egyptian nationalism. It's also fair to argue the opposite, that Nasser was responding to Israel's creation rather than his own nationalist agenda. But the fact that in Aciman's native Alex, all the foreigners -- the Greeks, Italians, etc -- were kicked out around the same time, and not just the Jews, probably influences his decision to highlight the impact of nationalism on his family's expulsion rather than anti-Semitism or anti-Zionism.
I agree, Egyptian nationalism / economic populism was the key motivator.
Sam and Arabist bring up contextual points that, to me, are very important and are never brought up (I know plenty of Muslim Syrians who talk about their familys' wealth pre-Baathism). From what I understand, Jews in Western controlled countries were given colonial citizenship. So although they were people of the land, they were despised by the new ruling elite. So for the example of Algeria, which had a small Jewish population, the lines were blurred between Algerian Jews and pied noirs.
Obama forgot about a lot of people, such as the Palestinians living in Israel. I would like to see the New York Times publish an article by a Palestinian living in Israel complaining about how this Jewish state is not really Jewish and maybe describe past and present discrimination that make life difficult.
Anyways, I would like to thank ze Arabist for the great work lately. I was worried he would spoil us with excessive posting then return to his old habits, but he has kept up, keeping us all happy!
Didn't Ben Gurion bomb synagogues in Baghdad to spur Iraqi Jews into the Zion?
You have to look at it globally in the region... Ok, zionists may have conspired to ensure arab jews migrate to the new state of Israel, but does it justify the fact that Arab countries from North Africa to Iraq all betrayed a section of their population, the iraqi, syrian, lebanese, egyptian, libyan people of Jewish faith, you can find all kind of excuses but the truth is that there are really none that can justify it... the same way there is no excuse for dispossessing the Palestinians who lived on their land.... the same way there is no excuse against the racism and the abuse of power we witnessed against Arab americans.... If we accept it for one group, then it means you accept it for all because it is so easy to dig and find some forms of justification regarding injustices that have been committed.... That's what intellectuals do all the time....