The Arabs of 1948

Yeah, "Palestine" is always a good issue for Arab leaders to exploit when they need to unify their populations in the face of some domestic political threat, but funny how no one has been able to do anything about the atrocious conditions of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon since 1948. The only argument this blogger would make with Nir Rosen's otherwise-worthy piece in Sunday's Washington Post is that Arab autocrats and intellectuals -- for all the empty words issued from the mouths regarding their Palestinian "brothers" -- deserve some of the blame for the squalor and legal limbo in which the Palestinians of Lebanon have lived for almost 60 years now. It's not just Lebanon's shame.

NOTE: This is not an invitation for Abu Muqawama's readership to fight out the Israel-Palestine conflict in the comments. We here at this blog studiously avoid that powder keg. But if you have a comment on the plight of the Palestinian refugee population in Lebanon, go for it.