Pulver
2003-08-27 13:16:55 UTC
Transfer is not a dirty word
by Ben Shapiro
August 27, 2003
Raise your hand if you were shocked at the breakdown of
the so-called Middle East "road map." If you are
raising your hand, give yourself a nice, hard slap
across the chops. Maybe that will wake you up from
your reverie of self-delusion.
The "road map" was doomed from the start. The Arab
enmity for Jews and the state of Israel allows for no
peace process.
The time for half measures has passed. Bulldozing
houses of homicide bombers is useless. Instituting
ongoing curfews in Arab-populated cities is useless.
Roadblocks, touch fences, midnight negotiations and
cease-fires are useless.
Some have rightly suggested that Israel be allowed to
decapitate the terrorist leadership of the Palestinian
Authority. But this too is only a half measure. The
ideology of the Palestinian population is
indistinguishable from that of the terrorist
leadership.
Half measures merely postpone our realization that the
Arabs dream of Israel's destruction. Without drastic
measures, the Arab dream will come true. In the short
term, the establishment of a "Palestinian state" based
in Judea, Samaria and Gaza cuts Israel to the bone. In
some places, Israel would be an unthinkable 9 miles
wide. In the long term, the growth of the hostile
Israeli-Arab population within pre-1967 Israel bodes
ill for the future of the Jewish state. As University
of Haifa professor Arnon Soffer says, "The trends and
indicators all point to an economic and ecological
catastrophe waiting to happen and of the death knell of
the ideological dream of a Jewish state."
Here is the bottom line: If you believe that the Jewish
state has a right to exist,
then you must allow Israel to transfer the Palestinians
and the Israeli-Arabs from Judea, Samaria, Gaza and
Israel proper. It's an ugly solution, but it is the
only solution. And it is far less ugly than the
prospect of bloody conflict ad
infinitum. When two populations are constantly
enmeshed in conflict, it is insane to suggest that
somehow deep-seated ideological change will
miraculously occur, allowing the two sides to live
together.
Unfortunately, this insanity is generally accepted as
"the only way forward."
President Bush accepts it because it is politically
palatable. The Arabs accept it because for them, it is
a Trojan horse. The Israelis accept it because they
are afraid that if they expel the Arabs, they will be
called Nazis.
For anyone who lived through the Holocaust, or who has
relatives who died in it, being called a Nazi is
unspeakably terrible. That is the secret weapon of the
Arabs. Any time the Jews get wise and threaten mass
expulsion of Arabs, the Arabs pull out their big stick,
equating Nazism with Zionism. Their cartoons merge
swastikas with stars of David. Their newspapers call
Ariel Sharon another Adolf Hitler. Their spokespeople
cry "Genocide!" And the Jews cower in fear that they
could be equated with their parents' murderers.
The Jews don't realize that expelling a hostile
population is a commonly used and generally effective
way of preventing violent entanglements. There are no
gas chambers here. It's not genocide; it's transfer.
It's not Hitler; it's Churchill.
After World War II, Poland was recreated by the Allied
Powers. In doing so, the Allies sliced off a chunk of
Germany and extended Poland west to the Oder-Neisse
line. Anywhere from 3.5 million to 9 million Germans
were forcibly expelled from the new Polish territory
and relocated in Germany.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was pleased
with the result. In 1944, he had explained to the House
of Commons that "expulsion is the method which, so far
as we have been able to see, will be the most
satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of
populations to cause endless trouble ... a clean sweep
will be made. I am not alarmed by the prospect of the
disentanglement of populations, nor even by these large
transferences, which are more possible in modern
conditions than they ever were before." Churchill was
right. The Germans accepted the new border, and
decades of conflict between Poles and Germans ended.
Arab-Jewish conflict is exponentially more volatile
than German-Polish conflict ever was. And the solution
is far easier. If there was "room in Germany for the
German populations of East Prussia and of the other
territories," as Churchill stated, there is certainly
room in the spacious Muslim states of the Middle East
for 5 million Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. If
Germans, who had a centuries-old connection to the
newly created Polish territory, could be expelled, then
surely Palestinians, whose claim to Judea, Samaria and
Gaza is dubious at best, can be expelled.
It's time to stop being squeamish. Jews are not Nazis.
Transfer is not genocide. And anything else isn't a solution.
©2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Posted by permission
Ben Shapiro's columns are printed nationwide in major
newspapers and websites, including Townhall.com, the
Orlando Sentinel, Jewish World Review and the
Conservative Chronicle. He is a regular guest on
numerous radio shows around the United States and Canada.
Not too shabby for a 20 year old!!!
by Ben Shapiro
August 27, 2003
Raise your hand if you were shocked at the breakdown of
the so-called Middle East "road map." If you are
raising your hand, give yourself a nice, hard slap
across the chops. Maybe that will wake you up from
your reverie of self-delusion.
The "road map" was doomed from the start. The Arab
enmity for Jews and the state of Israel allows for no
peace process.
The time for half measures has passed. Bulldozing
houses of homicide bombers is useless. Instituting
ongoing curfews in Arab-populated cities is useless.
Roadblocks, touch fences, midnight negotiations and
cease-fires are useless.
Some have rightly suggested that Israel be allowed to
decapitate the terrorist leadership of the Palestinian
Authority. But this too is only a half measure. The
ideology of the Palestinian population is
indistinguishable from that of the terrorist
leadership.
Half measures merely postpone our realization that the
Arabs dream of Israel's destruction. Without drastic
measures, the Arab dream will come true. In the short
term, the establishment of a "Palestinian state" based
in Judea, Samaria and Gaza cuts Israel to the bone. In
some places, Israel would be an unthinkable 9 miles
wide. In the long term, the growth of the hostile
Israeli-Arab population within pre-1967 Israel bodes
ill for the future of the Jewish state. As University
of Haifa professor Arnon Soffer says, "The trends and
indicators all point to an economic and ecological
catastrophe waiting to happen and of the death knell of
the ideological dream of a Jewish state."
Here is the bottom line: If you believe that the Jewish
state has a right to exist,
then you must allow Israel to transfer the Palestinians
and the Israeli-Arabs from Judea, Samaria, Gaza and
Israel proper. It's an ugly solution, but it is the
only solution. And it is far less ugly than the
prospect of bloody conflict ad
infinitum. When two populations are constantly
enmeshed in conflict, it is insane to suggest that
somehow deep-seated ideological change will
miraculously occur, allowing the two sides to live
together.
Unfortunately, this insanity is generally accepted as
"the only way forward."
President Bush accepts it because it is politically
palatable. The Arabs accept it because for them, it is
a Trojan horse. The Israelis accept it because they
are afraid that if they expel the Arabs, they will be
called Nazis.
For anyone who lived through the Holocaust, or who has
relatives who died in it, being called a Nazi is
unspeakably terrible. That is the secret weapon of the
Arabs. Any time the Jews get wise and threaten mass
expulsion of Arabs, the Arabs pull out their big stick,
equating Nazism with Zionism. Their cartoons merge
swastikas with stars of David. Their newspapers call
Ariel Sharon another Adolf Hitler. Their spokespeople
cry "Genocide!" And the Jews cower in fear that they
could be equated with their parents' murderers.
The Jews don't realize that expelling a hostile
population is a commonly used and generally effective
way of preventing violent entanglements. There are no
gas chambers here. It's not genocide; it's transfer.
It's not Hitler; it's Churchill.
After World War II, Poland was recreated by the Allied
Powers. In doing so, the Allies sliced off a chunk of
Germany and extended Poland west to the Oder-Neisse
line. Anywhere from 3.5 million to 9 million Germans
were forcibly expelled from the new Polish territory
and relocated in Germany.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was pleased
with the result. In 1944, he had explained to the House
of Commons that "expulsion is the method which, so far
as we have been able to see, will be the most
satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of
populations to cause endless trouble ... a clean sweep
will be made. I am not alarmed by the prospect of the
disentanglement of populations, nor even by these large
transferences, which are more possible in modern
conditions than they ever were before." Churchill was
right. The Germans accepted the new border, and
decades of conflict between Poles and Germans ended.
Arab-Jewish conflict is exponentially more volatile
than German-Polish conflict ever was. And the solution
is far easier. If there was "room in Germany for the
German populations of East Prussia and of the other
territories," as Churchill stated, there is certainly
room in the spacious Muslim states of the Middle East
for 5 million Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. If
Germans, who had a centuries-old connection to the
newly created Polish territory, could be expelled, then
surely Palestinians, whose claim to Judea, Samaria and
Gaza is dubious at best, can be expelled.
It's time to stop being squeamish. Jews are not Nazis.
Transfer is not genocide. And anything else isn't a solution.
©2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
Posted by permission
Ben Shapiro's columns are printed nationwide in major
newspapers and websites, including Townhall.com, the
Orlando Sentinel, Jewish World Review and the
Conservative Chronicle. He is a regular guest on
numerous radio shows around the United States and Canada.
Not too shabby for a 20 year old!!!