One striking example was the revival of an anti-Jewish slogan from the Middle East, chanted in Arabic, “Filastin arduna wa al-yahud kilabuna!” (“Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs!”) − documented at rallies in San Francisco, Chicago and New York City, among others. These demonstrations were organized by the IAC, ANSWER Coalition, the ADC, and CAIR. Another common catchphrase at anti-Israel and anti-war rallies in recent years (also in Arabic) has been: “Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return!” evoking the Qur’an’s account of a battle between the Islamic Prophet and a Jewish tribe, which resulted in the subjugation of the Jews of Arabia. Notably, some of the more radical chants were in Arabic.

Filastin arduna wa al-yahud kilabuna!” - that is the real slogan of those who commemorate Nakba day, and all the "liberals" who sympathize with them, whether it is Yaffo in 1920 or San Francisco in 2007. It seems nothing much has changed. When you participate in Nakba day commemorations, you are carrying on in a hallowed liberal tradition that began with the pogroms of the 1920s - and even before.

Words are translated into actions. In many places there was a record number of anti-Semitic incidents in 2006. The Hezbollah had a Khaybar II missile, used against Israeli towns. In the Middle East, people have long memories.

These progressive sentiments are now being exported to a city near you, wherever you live.

Imagine please, that each year on VE day, the oppressed German people commemorated the disaster of the allied victory. Crowds of national-socialist Germans and their sympathizers congregated in universities and public places, insisting on the right of return and "justice" for the wrongfully evicted refugees of Polish occupied East Prussia, Gdansk (Polish occupied Danzig) and the Czech occupied south-east Reich (Sudetenland). The crowds would be chanting, "Death to the Jews," "Germany is our land and the Czechs are our dogs" and similar slogans. There might be a "Jews for Justice in Germany" movement in this twisted reality, supporting this "progressive" movement to revive the Third Reich. This not so very far from the spectacle that takes place every May 15, but the demonstrators are followers of a different Nazi, the Grand Mufti, carrying on the struggle that he initiated in 1920, to get "justice" for the Arabs of Palestine.

What is the real disaster, and what is the real justice? Until the mentality of Nakba day is banished, how can we have peace in the Middle East?

Ami Isseroff