At the same time [see item below in Tel Aviv's Haaretz] that "freedom and democracy" guru Natan Sharansky [above with U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman] is looking for lost Jewish property in Poland, may I be so bold to suggest a similar "comprehensive report drawn up at the request of the Israeli government"?  This report would also be compiled by "experts from the government, the business sector and non-profit and non-governmental organizations" but would address the issue of "how to proceed" in returning Palestinian property to the individuals involved and to "a joint body recognized as representing the Palestinian people".

Yeah. How about something along those lines with respect to Palestinian property expropriated by the Zionists in Palestine over the past 80 or so years? Good for the goose, good for the gander, to coin a phrase.  And what could be more logical and more timely to investigate? For some murky reason, this entire issue has been studiously overlooked by G. W. Bush's hero, Natan Sharansky, not to mention Bush himself and guys like Lieberman who grease aid from Capitol Hill to Tel Aviv. Where to start and how to proceed?

First, Natan, Mr. human rights activist, take a good look around where you are, and it’s not Poland. Let's return all the property to its rightful owners, Natan, even if that means returning an entire country to its dispossessed inhabitants. In this case, Palestine. Get the drift?

Talk it over with Lieberman. You might consider returning to the wilds of Siberia, where you came from, to dream up new schemes to impress the the naive, the gullible and the culturally deprived in America and Europe.

Like the Communist apparatchiki of former times, the Zionists of today will try anything, no matter how brazen. Communism or Zionism--whatever works. Only the victims are different.

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March 29th, 2005

WWII-era Jewish land in Poland now said to be worth $30 billion

The Jewish property left in Poland on the eve of World War II is today worth more than $30 billion, according to a comprehensive report drawn up at the request of the Israeli government.

By Amiram Barkat

The Jewish property left in Poland on the eve of World War II is today worth more than $30 billion, according to a comprehensive report drawn up at the request of the Israeli government.

The estimate does not include communal buildings and facilities held by the various Jewish communities in different parts of Poland. The report was drawn up by experts from the government, the business sector and non-profit and non-governmental organizations.

Some 10 percent of Poland's population was Jewish before the Holocaust.

The report relates not only to the value of the property but also to its legal status, and proposes to the government how to proceed. It will be discussed at the upcoming meeting of the ministerial committee on returning Jewish property.

The Foreign Ministry is opposed to explicit government intervention in returning Jewish property in eastern Europe, saying it could affect ties with these countries, particularly with Poland.

The government approved a proposal by Diaspora Affairs Minister Natan Sharansky at the end of 2003 to set up under his leadership a ministerial committee on the subject. A steering committee, headed by Sharansky's adviser on Jewish property affairs, subsequently heard historians, legal experts and representatives of Jewish organizations, and examined archival material in various places including Yad Vashem and Poland.

According to a source close to the committee, many of the Polish Jews were very wealthy.

"They controlled the oil and textile industries, and held expensive properties, many of which are now in the downtown areas of the cities," the source said.

The Hebrew daily Maariv reported yesterday that the Polish government had proposed a new draft law permitting heirs to receive 15 percent of the worth of their property. Sources said it was unlikely that the law would be approved, and that the sum was insufficient, but expressed satisfaction that such a precedent had been set.

Since 90 percent of Polish Jewry perished in the Holocaust, it was unlikely that there would be many heirs, they said, and therefore a joint Jewish body should be set up and recognized as representing the Jewish people, as had been done in Germany.

Foreign Ministry sources say that the issue of returning property is a very sensitive one in Polish society today, and should be handled by Jewish organizations rather than the Israeli government.

There is a great deal of tension over German demands for possible restitution for German citizens who were forced to leave Poland, they say. However, the former Israeli ambassador to Poland, Shevah Weiss, said yesterday that there was a strong moral responsibility to return the property to the Jews of Poland.

"I don't believe the Poles will break off diplomatic relations over this moral issue," he said, "particularly in light of the fact that the elite in Poland certainly has an awareness of the issue and the readiness to make amends."