I found this article, written in 1968, on another blog.  Funny how it's still relevant 50 years later.

I will remind you that Hoffer is commenting on the "Palestinian refugees" in 1968 and we are still dealing with this issue 50 years later.  Every other "refugee", from every other war, displacement, etc. has moved on with their lives, found a new home, started a new life somewhere else.
But not the "Palestinians".
No.
They are still in camps waiting to "go home".
Kids who were born in the "Palestinian refugee" camps in 1968 are now grandparents.
But still they wait.

Remember the "boat people"?
Fleeing Asia in the '70's?
And the Vietnamese fleeing the Viet Cong, trying to get on those last helicopters out of Saigon?
And the "Cuban refugees", when Castro emptied his prisons?
And the Haitians?

All of those people have moved on with their lives - some have been successful some have not - but they at least made an attempt, right, wrong, or indifferent to leave the past and start anew.
But not the "Palestinian refugees".
No.
Their precious souls can never be at peace until they have "retaken" Israel, pushed the Jews into the ocean, and rightfully reclaimed that land.
I'm sure it will be heaven on earth when they do.

I wonder if we'll still be talking about the Syrian refugees in 2060?

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Remembering Eric Hoffer’s prophetic words from 1968:

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 Frenchman.

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 one.

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. Other nations, when they are defeated, survive and recover but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June [1967], he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.

No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on. There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Blacks are executed in Rhodesia. But, when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him.

The Swedes, who are ready to break off diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway.

The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at this moment, Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer [1967] had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war, to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.

I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the Holocaust will be upon us all.


By Eric Hoffer, 1968.

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Also worth mentioning:

Hoffer came to public attention with the 1951 publication of his first book, The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements. Concerned about the rise of totalitarian governments, especially those of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, he tried to find the roots of these "madhouses" in human psychology.

Hoffer argued that fanatical and extremist cultural movements, whether religious or political, arose under predictable circumstances: when large numbers of people come to believe that their individual lives are worthless and ruined, that the modern world is irreparably corrupt, and that hope lies only in joining a larger group that demands radical changes. Hoffer believed that self-esteem and a sense of satisfaction with one's life was of central importance to psychological well-being. He thus focused on what he viewed as the consequences of a lack of self-esteem. For example, Hoffer noted that leaders of mass movements were often frustrated intellectuals, from Adolf Hitler in 20th Century Europe to Hong Xiuquan's failure to advance in the Chinese bureaucracy of the 19th Century.

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I read a bit about Hoffer on Wikipedia and he's an interesting guy.  Worth looking into.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Hoffer

Boat people:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_boat_people

Mariel boatlift/Cuban refugee crisis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariel_boatlift

The Guardian ran an article on some of the largest refugee crises in history here:
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/interactive/2013/jul/25/what-happened-history-refugees#Israelites