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in an ordinary American business
suit.
He received me very cordially,
and spoke good English . With
Prince Faisal, he was the leader of
the Arab delegation, and the man in
charge of Palestine relations for the
Saudi Arabian government.
"Why do the Arabs oppose the
Jews in returning to Palestine?" I
asked.
"We do not oppose the presence
of Jews in Palestine," he corrected
me. "We only oppose further and
unlimited immigration of Jews into
Palestine."
"But the Jews claim Palestine as
their Holy Land," 1 said. "They be–
lieve Almighty God
promised
that
land to Abraham, and that they are
the children of Abraham, and there–
fore that Palestine belongs to them
by divine right. Now 1 understand
the Arabs are also the children of
Abraham, descended through Ish–
mael. Do you believe that, and
claim the right to possess Palestine
on those grounds?"
"We are the children of Abram,"
he replied, pronouncing it "Uh–
brahm," with the accent on the last
syllable, "and we are descended
through Ishmael. yes, and Ishmael
was the firstborn son of Abram and
therefore the rightful birthright
holder and heir to the land prom–
ised Abram. But," and he empha–
sized the point, "we do not present
our claim to Palestine, or oppose
further and unlimited Jewish immi–
gration, on those grounds."
Then he explained the Arab posi–
tion-and he gave me an UNAN–
SWERABLE ARGUMENT-yet the
Zionist director in New York later
gave me a sizzling answer to the
unanswerable argument! "Let me
put it this way," the sheik contin–
ued. "How long have you Ameri–
cans been here in California- when
did your first white men come
here?"
"Only sorne three or four hun–
dred years ago," I replied.
"Exactly! And you have only
been established as a government
here a much shorter time than that.
Now you are still at war against Ja–
pan. [This was in the spring of
1945.) A considerable number of
Japanese had immigrated into Cali–
fornia before the war and estab-
The
PLAIN TRUTH February 1979
lished homes here. You did not
object or fight against this limited
Japanese immigration and residence
here, just as we did not , for a long
time, against the Jews' immigration
into Palestine. But now suppose the
Japanese wanted to increase their
immigration into California until
there would be more Japanese than
Americans here, and then they also
demanded that you let them take
over the State of California and set
up a new Japanese NATION here on
your soil. Tell me, would you op–
pose that? Would you call out your
armed forces to fight against it?"
There was only one answer to
that! Of course the United States
would fight to prevent it, with all the
power and resources of the nation, if
need be!
"Would you think you were right
in doing so?" he asked.
We would!
"Well," he explained, "the Arabs
have lived in, and had possession of
Palestine, for thousands of years.
Our bornes are there. We didn't ob–
ject to a few Jews coming into our
land. We know they have brought
us many benefits. They have
brought with them money, energy,
industry. Our people have benefited
by the additional prosperity and
other advantages they have brought
us. That we welcomed, as long as
they were a beneficia! minority in
our midst. But now Jewish immigra–
tion has been increasing at such a
rate that soon there will be more
Jews than Arabs. Now the Jews
want to take our land away from us
and make it their own NATION! That
land has belonged to us many times
longer than California has belonged
to Americans. You say
yo
u
would
oppose and fight against Japanese
immigration flooding California
with more Japanese than Ameri–
cans, taking your fair state away
from you and turning it into a new
Japanese nation. Well, that is
exactly why we oppose further Jew–
ish immigration and will fight to the
last man against the Jews setting up
a NATION On OUT Jand!"
There is his "UNANSWERABLE AR–
GUMENT"!
Can
you
answer it? Of course, in
due time, when God Himself steps
in to take rule away from men and
to rule the earth by divine fiat
through Christ as King of kings, it
will be different. But, from the
standpoint of the present time and
the present world, I had no answer!
" But ," I questioned "His Ex–
cellency" further, "what about the
pitiful condition of hundreds of
thousands of persecuted homeless
Jews driven out of Europe by Hit–
ler? Can you deny these poor refu–
gees a home in what they consider
as their own ancient homeland?"
"Why should the Arabs be called
upon to bear
al!
the burden of shel–
tering homeless Jews?" he asked in
reply. "Why do America and Britain
expect u.s to accept them when you
yourselves refuse them? You could
absorb them and they would only
be a small and unnoticed addition
to your famous 'melting pot.' But
every other nation on earth turns
these homeless Jews away from its
borders and then expects the Arabs
to take them all into Palestine,
where they would then outnumber
Arabs and take our country away
from us! ls that right? ls that inter–
national justice?"
In London, late February 1947,
Mrs. Armstrong and 1were specially
invited by the Arabian plenipoten–
tiary to a royal reception in honor of
the crown prince Emir Saud, eldest
son of King lbn Saud. After we and
the other guests had been formally
presented to "His Royal Highness,"
1 had a few words once again in
private with Sheik Hafiz Wabba.
"If only Great Britain, America,
and all the other nations would quit
interfering and stirring up all this
emotional feeling in favor of more
and more Jews going to Palestine
until they drive our people out, we
would have no troubles at all in Pal–
estine. The fires of trouble are being
fanned by the interference of other
nations and their sentimental and
unthinking emotion about Jews be–
coming a nation in Palestine. Stop
all this propaganda and interference
by so many nations not directly con–
cerned, and the Arabs and the Jews
will get along all right together in
Palestine."
And there, again, he put bis
fin–
ger directly on the source of the
trouble: so many nations not per–
sonally concerned burdening them–
selves with Palestine!
Do you know the prophesied fate
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