ZFboxcar,
well, this begs the question, if the state of israel had not been formed (with the accompanying expulsion of the arabs) would the jews in the arab countries been kicked out, or for that matter left on their own will anyways?
especially in regards to this:
Quote:
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Some countries told Jews to get out by date x or they would be banned from leaving ever. And the Jews in Arab countries had for the most part been living there for hundreds of years.
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obviously if they lived there hundreds of years, then the threat of being "banned from leaving ever" doesn't seem all that great of a threat.
it's been a while since i've read up that period of middle east history, so now i'm getting to wondering if the pogroms were indeed a response TO the formation of israel, or if the creation of the israeli state served as a "lifeline" for jews already undergoing persecution.
even the threat of pogroms, bad as that sounds, seems to me like it would have not been threat enough to have moved the jews already living there. after all, there were absolutely massive wholesale slaughters of jews throughout the middle ages in europe and north africa, yet there were still jewish communities there. the most horrific pogroms set up by the nazis wasn't enough to scare all the jews off, even when hitler ominously announced that he was going to close the borders.
it seems that for the jews living there, they had no choice prior to 1948 but to take the pain, much as the european jews flourished when the atmosphere was tolerant, but tried to just keep their heads down when things grew nasty. but the formation of israel gave them an alternative to this lifestyle.
of course, i may be completely wrong
thanks for the links, i'll go through them and some other materials, and stand ready to give a mea culpa if things turn out otherwise.