A peculiar people

Reading through a collection of quotations from Eric Hoffer, I came across one that seems especially relevant today:

The Jews are a peculiar people: Things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.

Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people, and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it. Poland and Czechoslovakia did it. Turkey threw out a million Greeks and Algeria a million Frenchmen. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese--and no one says a word about refugees.

But in the case of Israel, the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace.

Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world.

Among the many countries excused for driving out people are Arab countries after 1948, driving out Jews in numbers approximating the number of Palestinians who fled Israel.

Eric Hoffer, "Notable & Quotable: Eric Hoffer on Israel, 1968," Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2014.