Brown: Israel one of 20th century's 'greatest achievements'

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called Israel one of the "greatest achievements" of the 20th century.

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown wears a kippa during celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of Israel, Wednesday.
Photo: AP
Speaking in a rare visit to Finchley Synagogue on Wednesday night, Brown called for a future in which the "children of Abraham" would live together in peace as part of the same extended family.
"Let us all stand ready to help Israel find a truly secure place in a peaceful Middle East," he said. "Let us celebrate a country that even people thousands of miles away, in the remotest corners of the world, think of as home. And it is this that gives me faith in the future."

Greetings from world leaders on the occasion of Israel's 60th anniversary have arrived in abundance at Beit Hanassi over the past week.

One of the first was from Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, who wrote: "It gives me particular pleasure to send Your Excellency my congratulations on the celebration of your National Day on the 60th anniversary of your independence. I extend my best wishes for the happiness and prosperity of the government and people of Israel in the coming year."

Jordan's King Abdullah expressed the hope that the 60th anniversary year in Israel would be crowned by Israel's and Jordan's joint obligation to achieve a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian people, and Israel and all the Arab States.

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That nagging little fact does get left out of many of these speeches lately doesn't it?

Wouldn't want to cause an upset though would we.

When was the last time you heard a speech praising Palestinians where the subject of their violent expulsion of the native Jewish population from their homes in Gaza and the West Bank was raised?

How many Palestinians do you actually think were violently forced out of their homes in 1948-49 anyway?

Somehow, I doubt it.

Nobody knows about violently forcing native populations out of their homes better than Americans!

America surely comes in behind a few others. Think of the Arab's history of conquest for instance. It's pretty impressive. Or How about the Russians? Like under Stalin maybe? Let's see... there's also China, Japan, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Iraq, the entire African continent, Australia, Iran, oh I give up. Does it count if someone displaces their own native people? If so then Zimbabwe, South Africa and Cambodia are probably after the US but only because their nations are so small, there weren't enough people to displace.

You know what's funny? Israel's definitely on the list, there's no question. But they might actually be dead last in terms of the actual numbers of people who they've violently ejected out of every nation who has ever violently ejected a native population from somewhere. I mean, how many has Israel actually done this to anyway? Maybe 50,000? 100,000 tops?

The rest of the horrific population expulsions, genocides, displacements all dwarf anything done to the Palestinians by Israel by a magnitude of a hundred to one.

Israel has never known a day of true peace. It is the only nation in the world whose legitimacy is routinely called into question. It still has enemies who want it wiped off the map. Uniquely, the Jewish state came into being with the imprimatur of both the League of Nations and the United Nations. Yet time and again it is told it has no right to exist. Of course that is fatuous; few nations can present a birth certificate as storied as Israel's. Nonetheless, Israel's fundamental right to exist doesn't derive from UN votes, or promises in the Bible, or its own Declaration of Independence.

For the right of statehood ultimately accrues only to those who can fashion and sustain a nation. "The land of Israel belongs to Israelis," Yale's David Gelernter wrote in 2002, "for the same reason America belongs to Americans: Because Israelis conceived and built it - and what you create is yours. If you want a homeland, you must create one. You drain swamps, lay out farms, build houses, schools, roads, hospitals . . .

"That's how America got its homeland. And that is why Israel belongs to the Israelis."

and forcing Meccans to live until Muslim rule.

Nor did he display a copy of the receipt for land allegedly purchased by the people who decided to build the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.