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Monday, December 1, 2014

Transference

Michael L.

{Originally published at the Elder of Ziyon and cross-posted at Jews Down Under.}

Get Out Final Logo SQDue to never-ending Arab hostility toward Jews in the Middle East I am reading more and more people talking about the possibility of transference.  Mainly in the comments of various pro-Israel blogs and news websites, but among some well respected high-profile analysts, as well, the idea of inducing Israeli-Arabs to move out of the area seems to be growing.

This is a natural response to the efforts of Arabs within Israel to murder Jews, up to and including ramming babies with automobiles.  My sense is that Jewish people around the world, although particularly in Israel, have about had it.  From my perspective, Jewish people have a tendency to be rather passive.  As a historically persecuted minority our tendency has been to keep our head down so that others do not take a kick at it, but there must come a point wherein even the most intimidated minority is forced to stand up for itself in order to defend its own survival.

The Arabs have pushed the Jews to the point wherein physical coercion looks more and more likely.  We are, after all, directly within the midst of the Third Arab Terror War (Intifada) against the Jews of the Middle East and my suspicion is that however much fun the previous two were, that Israeli Jews may no longer be in the mood to take the abuse and they should not have to.

Thus some people talk about the necessity of financially inducing Arabs to leave the Land of Israel, while others even discuss the possibility of using armed force to push them out of Jewish lives.  I just want to take a brief moment in order to suggest what a terrible idea forced transference is and I have to assume that most Jews who care about Israel are in opposition to any such policy. The first reason that such a thing needs to be opposed is because it violates Jewish ethics.  Any policy of forced transference would mean that untold numbers of perfectly innocent people would be dragged from their homes and placed within internment camps in preparation for deportation... to G-d Knows Where.

Polling indicates that the Israeli-Arab population despises Jews and looks fondly upon violence toward us.  Nonetheless, not all Arabs of Israel hate Jews and not all want to see violence against us.  To push such people out of their homes would be highly unethical and therefore entirely unJewish.

To my ear the previous sentence sounds a bit too vacuous, a bit too obvious, but maybe it needs to be said, anyway.  While World War II gives us plenty of historical precedents for population transference, any such move would, in truth, be a moral and practical non-starter... if I may steal another man's line.

Also, of course, the rest of the world community might have a thing or two to say about any such operation.  Vicious left-wing anti-Semites already tend to think of Jews as Nazis.  Can you imagine what people around the world will say once they start processing images of the IDF pushing old Arab women and young children into deportation camps?  If you think that they hate us already and it cannot get much worse,  I suspect that you should think again.

The western-left despises Jewish self-defense which they interpret as a form of aggression.  Prior to the strangely named Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, the Gazans shot thousands of rockets into southern Israel, ruining communities and lives.  The rest of the world did not notice, nor did they care.  It was only when Israel finally stood up to undermine Hamas's terrorist infrastructure and destroy those Jihadi kidnapping tunnels that people throughout the world leaped out of their chairs and denounced the Jews of Israel for committing a "genocide" against the perfectly innocent, bunny-like "indigenous" population.

If the Jews were to push the Arabs out of Israel, Europe would go entirely nuts.  If you think that BDS is an annoyance now wait until the boost it gets from any Israeli policy of forced transference.  The Europeans, who are already generally unfriendly toward Israel, would take harsh measures against what would be perceived as a fascistic Israeli policy.  Some might think that due to economic reasons, or reasons to do with scientific exchange and trade, that the Europeans and the rest of the world would gripe, but shortly get over it.  That might be the case, but I would not count on it and it would make for a terrible gamble.

As a poker player, I would not make that bet.

This, however, does not mean that there are not forceful measures that Israel can take in order make Arab hatred toward Jews unpleasant for the Arabs, themselves.

This is what my friend Caroline Glick has to say:
Rather than destroy their homes, Israel should adopt the US anti-narcotics policy of asset seizure.

All assets directly or indirectly tied to terrorists, including their homes and any other structure where they planned their crimes, and all remittances to them, should be seized and transferred to their victims, to do with what they will.

If Israel hands over the homes of the synagogue butchers to the 24 orphans of Rabbi Moshe Twersky, Rabbi Kalman Levine, Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky and Rabbi Avraham Goldberg, not only will justice be served. The children’s inheritance of the homes of their fathers’ killers will send a clear and demoralizing message to other would-be killers.

Not only will their atrocities fail to remove the Jews from Israel. Every terrorist will contribute to the Zionist project by donating his home to the Jewish settlement enterprise.
There are any number of creative measures that Israel can take short of housing destruction or forced transference to show the Arabs that the government means business and will simply not allow this kind of violence toward the Jewish people in the Jewish State.  Seizing assets is one way of showing Israeli-Arabs that if they seek violence toward Jews their family will pay a major price for it.

Another thing that must be done is liberalizing Israeli policy toward the Temple Mount.

That the Arabs have intimidated the Jews into giving up sovereignty of our holiest site is galling, counterproductive, and should not be tolerated.  All people should be allowed free and equal access to the Mount and all people - not just Muslims - should be allowed to pray there.  Jews and Christians and Rastafarians and Rosicrucians and Hindus and Buddhists and Taoists and NeoPagans and the Bahai and the Sikhs, and any and all heathens, should all be allowed equal access to the site with Muslims and all must be allowed to pray there.

Anything else represents deference to Arab-Muslim race-hatred toward Jews and others right in the heart of Jerusalem.

And, needless to say, rock throwing and other attempts at murder should be met with ferocity.  I may be opposed to home demolitions and forced transference of a hostile population, but I also very much believe in Jewish self-defense.

11 comments:

  1. I cannot advocate for the transference of people out of Israel merely for the crime of being Arab-Muslim.

    At some point we all face a line that maybe we should not cross and I have no intention of crossing this one unless I am faced with much stronger arguments in favor.

    I am with fizziks on this one.

    I am with Jay on this one.

    It is a moral, practical, and diplomatic non-starter.

    Fortunately, I have enough faith in the people of Israel that I do not believe for one second that any such initiative would come to fruition.

    It is simply NOT going to happen.

    I sincerely empathize, and it is very easy for me to sit here in the foothills of Oakland and tell Israel what to do about its own security, but any policy of forced transference would likely backfire.

    Y'know, one guy over at EOZ suggested that maybe I am a coward, but it is not my neck that is at risk.

    Hell, I'm an American. The US is the country that will go down last after does Israel, but Israel is not going down any time soon.

    Of that you can be certain.

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  2. I have never read a word about this before and wonder where you have Mike

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    1. Shirlee, I respect you and I very much appreciate what you have created at JDU, but are you honestly suggesting that you are unfamiliar with the notion of population transference viz-a-viz the Arab-Israel conflict?

      Given the recent violence against the Jews in Israel, it is not unusual that people in the comments in various places would call for forced removal, as did Kahane under certain circumstances.

      There are people on the Jewish Right who are calling for either forced or induced removal.

      Avigdor Lieberman argues for induced transference.

      My argument - at least today - is not against induced transference, but forced transference.

      I simply will not support a government that drags innocent people out of their homes, but you and I both know Israel is not about to do any such thing.

      However, if you think such things are not being discussed than maybe you should take a closer gander at what people say in the comments of any number of pro-Israel blogs.

      I guess that, for what little it may be worth, I am drawing my personal line in the sand and I would rather do that now, while transference is not popular, than later when it might be too late.

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  3. Mike I heard something about it somewhere once and that was it.
    The much larger push, and one I am heavily involved with, and have done a good deal of fund raising for, is for one State as per the Mandate, with Jordan being an Arab State as was originally intended. I think some 95% are those the invented people who call themselves Palestinian.

    http://thelevyreport.org/

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  4. If only in a very hard nosed practical minded view of things it's impossible. It can't be done. You can't in this world simply transport several hundred thousand people. But similarly there is NO CHANCE that the EU/Arabs' dream of ethnically cleansing all of Yesha of Jews simply by passing a law decreeing it would ever work either. Good for the goose and all that.

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  5. Unfortunately, the Arabs didn't intimidate the Jews into giving up sovereignty of our holiest site, we did that all on our own.
    Kinda hard to believe, right?

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    1. What was Moshe Dayan thinking?

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    2. Like so many in Israeli politics of that era no matter what their jobs were they were ideology wedded to the left, the far left or worse. Dayan wasn't a politician but he pretended to act like one and no one in the government ever attempted to correct him on this point perhaps fearing there would be too much backlash given his stature.

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  6. Part of the problem was that, being defiantly secular he only viewed the Temple Mount as an archeological find, and not the glue of the Jewish People.
    For all his military successes, that one decision haunts his legacy forever.

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  7. I would only add.....just imagine how our "neighborhood" would look today had he not handed the keys to the Waqf.

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    Replies
    1. Is it wrong of me as an American Jew to suggest that perhaps Israel should take the keys back?

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