Maen Rashid Areikat is a Liar

I found this letter in today's, where else?, New York Times:

Re “Group Spotlights Jews Who Left Arab Lands” (news article, Nov. 5):

The Palestinian people, being the victims of mass expulsion and exile, understand fully what it means to be a refugee; however, there is no reason to link the Palestinian refugee problem that was caused by the creation of the state of Israel in historic Palestine in 1948 (which led to the dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians) and any claims by Jews in other countries.

Any solution to the Palestinian refugee question should be based on the internationally recognized United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948, with all its components.

The Annapolis conference is expected to deal with this thorny issue, without which there will be no solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and to the Arab-Israeli conflict at large.

Maen Rashid Areikat
Director General
P.L.O. Negotiations Affairs Dept.
Ramallah, West Bank

Is there is really "no reason to link the Palestinian refugee problem that was caused by the creation of the state of Israel in historic Palestine in 1948 (which led to the dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians) and any claims by Jews in other countries"?

But of course there is.

Why were there pogroms and riots and official discriminatory government policy in various Arab countries if not as a reaction to the failure of Pals. to eliminate the state of Israel?

Here's the plain truth:

Discrimination against Jews in Arab countries took a dramatic turn for the worse in 1948 after the birth of the State of Israel. Between the 1940s and 1980s, the Jews of Arab countries endured humiliation, discrimination, human rights abuses, organized persecution and expulsion by the governments of the countries of their origin.

During this time, Jewish property was seized without compensation, Jewish quarters were sacked and looted, and cemeteries were desecrated. Synagogues, Jewish shops, schools and houses were ransacked, burned and destroyed, and hundreds of Jews were murdered in anti-Semitic riots and pogroms. Of the over 850,000 Jewish refugees who left Arab countries, approximately 600,000 sought refuge in the State of Israel and were resettled there at great expense. Arab states have refused to acknowledge these human rights violations and provide relief to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were forced to abandon their homes, businesses and possessions as they fled those countries.

Here is another source.