To the Editor:
Justine Simon seems to suggest that there is another side to the story of terrorism ("The Other Side of the Story," Jan. 18). However, the protagonists in the "the harsh arid land" she portrays have been denied justice by their very Arab brethren for over 50 years.
What occurred in 1948, although not recognized as such by the Arab world, was a population exchange. Seven hundred fifty thousand Arabs voluntarily, for the most part, left Israel. Eight hundred fifty thousand Jews involuntarily left their homes in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and other Arab countries.
A similar event had occurred the year before in India. Seven million Muslims left what would become the new Indian nation as six million Hindus and Sikhs left what would become Pakistan.
One difference between the two phenomena is that the displaced Muslims were resettled into their new land and the displaced Hindus and Sikhs into theirs. There is no attempt by either side to reverse the process. In the Arab world today, there is moaning about repatriation of the Arabs but no mention of the plight of the Jews who were expelled from Arab lands, where they had lived "from time immemorial." Where was the great outcry at that event? Where is the constant whining for repatriation of these individuals?
What Ms. Simon and the Arab world seem to be unable to do is to view the situation in Israel through the same lens through which they judge the politics of the rest of the world. Until they do, there will be no peace in the Middle East.
