United States - Current Administration

Rights for Jewish refugees was underscored by Prime Minster Netanyahu during his May 20, 2011 meeting in the Oval Office with President Barak Obama when he stated, during a live worldwide press conference, that:

The Arab attack in 1948 on Israel resulted in two refugee problems -- Palestinian refugee problem and Jewish refugees, roughly the same numbers, who were expelled from Arab lands. Now, tiny Israel absorbed the Jewish refugees, but the vast Arab world refused to absorb the Palestinian refugees….

Full remarks: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/20/remarks-president-obama-and-prime-minister-netanyahu-israel-after-bilate.

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Ben Rhodes, the Deputy National Security Advisor for Communications, and President Barack Obama's chief speechwriter on foreign policy, talked about what's known as the "Jewish right of return" during a conference call with Jewish community leaders on May 21st, only one day after Obama's major speech on the Middle East. A recording of the call was provided to The Cable.
Here's the full exchange:

Question: "While Palestinian refugees have concerns that are understandable and need to be dealt with in the peace process, there was no reference in the president's speech to the approximately one million Jewish refugees that emerged from the same Middle East conflict. I'm talking about Jews from Arab and Muslim countries who were forced out of their homelands where they had lived for centuries," asked B'nai B'rith International Director of Legislative Affairs Eric Fusfield.

Rhodes responded: "Certainly the U.S., in our role, is attuned to all the concerns on both sides to include interests among Israel and others in Jewish refugees, so it is something that would come up in the context of negotiations. And certainly, we believe that ultimately the parties themselves should negotiate this. We can introduce ideas, we can introduce parameters for potential negotiation...We believe those types of issues that you alluded to could certainly be a part of that discussion and put on the table and it's something that we would obviously be involved in."

Previous Administrations

US Presidential Statements

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton made the following assertion after the rights of Jews displaced from Arab countries were discussed at 'Camp David II' in July, 2000 (From White House Transcript of Israeli television interview):

 

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U.S. House Resolution 185

In a rare display of bi-partisanship, Congressmen, representing both parties, have joined in co-sponsoring this landmark Resolution on Middle East refugees that underscores the fact that Jews living in Arab countries suffered human rights violations, were uprooted from their homes, and were made refugees.

The Resolution declares that "it would be inappropriate and unjust for the United States to recognize rights for Palestinian refugees without recognizing equal rights for former Jewish, Christian, and other refugees from Arab countries."
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Unanimously adopted by the House on April 1, 2008, HRes 185 affirms that all victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict must be treated with equality, including Jewish, Christian and other refugees from countries in the Middle East and urges the President to henceforth, US officials participating in Middle East discussions must ensure: "That any explicit reference to Palestinian refugees is matched by a similar explicit reference to Jewish and other refugees, as a matter of law and equity."

The Resolution is the strongest declarations adopted by the U.S. Congress, on the rights of Jewish and others refugees that were forced to flee Arab countries.

LINK TO HRes185

Photos

VIDEO (House Remarks: Start Video at 12:53PM)