[Iraqi-Palestinians.]

The United States State Department has confirmed reports that it intends to admit and resettle Palestinian refugees.

The Palestinians are those whom have been forced out of their homes in Iraq. Under Saddam Hussein, the Palestinians were often favored by the late dictator in terms that they received subsidized housing and the like. Saddam treated the Palestinians in such a manner more out of cynical public relations calculations toward the fiercely pro-Palestinian Arab world rather than pure altruism.

Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq and occupation, the oppressed Shias under Saddam have attacked Palestinians as a substitute for venting their built-up hatred of Saddam. Palestinians have been killed, often after being brutally tortured, and most of them have been forced out of their homes. As a very small minority - Iraqi Palestinians number 30,000 - the Palestinians were defenseless.

Palestinians, lacking a passport, were made double-refugees and forced into a no-mans-land between the Iraqi-Syrian border. Huddled in tents in the sweltering desert heat, the United Nations declared these Palestinians to be the most vulnerable people in the world. It asked Arab governments to take them in. All shamefully refused. Thus far, only a handful of nations have agreed to take in Palestinians: Brazil, Chile, Iceland and Norway [there may some other nations as well].

Despite being the cause of their great misfortune, the United States has until now refused to admit any Palestinian refugees and even admitted only a relative handful of Iraqi refugees. For the Palestinians, the United States has traditionally refused to admit any Palestinian refugees. Although the United States admits 80,000 refugees every year, Palestinian admissions usually number in the single digits [just 9 in 2008, 7 in 2007]; the United States has repeatedly to admit Palestinians because - according to a Mid-East diplomat - the United States “doesn’t want the refugee program to become an issue in its relationship with Israel.” Of course not.

Which is ironic because the more Palestinian refugees are settled in nations where they can claim citizenship, the less potent the right-of-return issue is for Palestinians. Or does Israel object to resettlement in the United States because it’s pleased to see Palestinians suffer and/or worries that a large Palestinian-American community may influence U.S. policy?

But these Palestinians will be processed not as refugees originating in Palestine, but as Iraqi refugees thus allowing the State Department to avoid showing any concern for Palestinians in their White Paper.

1,350 Palestinians will start to be admitted and settled this fall, most of whom will be sent to southern California. The United States intends to also admit more Iraqi refugees as the Obama administration recognizes and seeks responsibility for the horror the U.S. war has unleashed.