THE Ql'ESlTON OF PALESTINE 45 Much the same is true about the Palestinians as refugees. There is some dispute about how many Palestinians were forced out of their country and off their land during [948 (the figures range between 500,000 and 800,000; even Israeli sources dispute the numbers but not the exodus itself), yet there is total agreem ent now that refugees exist. Alm ost thirty years o f existence away from their territory, as well as the absence for them o f the right o f self-determ ination, ‘'p rove” (the word is unfortunate when its human meaning in this context is seen for what it is) some measure o f injustice done them. But when one asks by whom or what they were made refugees, when the question o f agency is posed, Israel is not only seen as exempt from blame or responsibility (according to President C arter for one, who similarly absolved the United States o f responsibility for the devastation o f Indochina), Israel (like the United States) is praised for its humanity. W e are told that the Palestinians were an "exchan ge” for the Jews who left the A rab countries to come to Israel; that they left in spite of Haganah urgings that they not leave; that those who stayed are better off than their brethren in surrounding A rab countries; that there is only one haven for Jews and there arc twenty-odd for A rabs, and why can’t Arabs be like Jews and take in their own refugees; that the occupation o f more Palestinian territory in 1967 produced in fact a “ binational” existence between A rab and Jew; that the West Bank occupation is a fulfillment of biblical prophecies; that there is a Palestine, and that it is in Transjordan; that other refugees (from Muslim India, from Nazi Germ any) have resettled elsew here, and w'hy don’t the Palestinians understand this; that the Palestinians are simply a political pawn (or football) used by the A rab regimes, and therefore do not really pose a problem once those regimes are made to see that they cannot get away with such tactics indefinitely. A ll this o f course simply moves around the issue, which seems to have been converted into powerful evidence for Zionism 's morality and high standards o f conduct.