Saturday, November 19, 2005

A Question to the Israeli Left (and her supporters)

The Israeli Left have found a new cause to champion. All of the sudden, the left are concerned for the safety and well-being of their Jewish brothers and sisters living over the Green Line (post Six Day War borders), whom they refer to as "settlers".

A new organization has been established, One House movement, headed by MKs Avshalom Vilan (Meretz) and Colette Avital (Labor), which seeks to compensate any of the 80,000 Jews who are currently living in Judea and Samaria that will not be included in the route of the "security fenceā€ for the cost of their homes should they want to leave, and move within the Green Line (courtesy of the Jerusalem Post):
In a gesture designed to heighten public awareness of the plight of the 80,000 Israelis living outside the security fence, MKs Colette Avital (Labor) and Avshalom Vilan (Meretz-Yahad) plan to file a bill on Monday offering money to compensate those who want to move.

Unlike the compensation packages offered to the Gaza settlers, which took into account loss of employment and number of years spent living in the settlement, this bill offers them only replacement value for their house, which she estimates will be between $100,000 and $200,000.

The One House movement recently released the results of a poll that seem to indicate support within the country for such an initiative, claiming the 74% of the respondents favored such legislation.

The reason that the Left give for their newfound love and concern for their brothers and sisters living in Judea and Samaria can be summed up as such (Ha'aretz):
Alon Pinkas, one of the movement's leaders, said that "it is clear that their will be a second disengagement in Judea and Samaria, it is clear that it will take place before a permanent agreement, and it is clear that it will include the 80,000 settlers living outside of the fence. Therefore, the government must stop using settlers as bargaining chips and hostages and enable them to voluntary leave right now."

If that's the case, then would the Israeli Left be willing to accept a similar type of legislation that proposed to offer compensation (within the same range of the figures listed above) that would encourage Israeli Arabs to emigrate from Israel?

After all, everyone knows that the Israeli Arabs pose a serious demographic threat to the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish State, an issue that will ultimately need to be dealt with, so why not start dealing with the issue now in a way where everyone wins - the Jews keep Israel as a Jewish State, and the Israeli Arabs are able to rebuild their lives somewhere else, on their own terms, with enough money to do so)?

There is much support for this idea, as can be seen from a recent study that found More Israeli Jews favor transfer of Palestinians, Israeli Arabs (A must read article).

If the Left would oppose such legislation, then they would appear to be racists (anti-Semites) and enemies of the idea of Israel being a Jewish State, as they would only find it acceptable to ask Jews to leave their homes, but not Arabs. If the Left would support such legislation, then, at the very least would be acting in a consistent manner, trying to maintain as large a Jewish majority within Israel as possible.

Time will tell which is the case.



15 Comments:

The left cause more bad than good here.

By Blogger ifyouwillit..., at Sun Nov 20, 12:13:00 AM GMT+2  

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

By Blogger Ze'ev, at Sun Nov 20, 12:56:00 AM GMT+2  

brilliant.Too rational for the left even to comprehend it.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Sun Nov 20, 03:27:00 AM GMT+2  

Your suggestion of paying Israeli Arabs to leave Israel is a good one but it should be expanded to include the so-called "Palestinians" who live in East Jerusalem. It might even be a violation of our civil rights to offer one segment of our population the opportunity to sell their homes to the Governemnt and not to offer the same sale possibility to every other group. When the Arabs and "Palestinians" move, they will help Jweish Israelis maintain a Jewish majority in Israel, the Jewish State.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Sun Nov 20, 02:12:00 PM GMT+2  

how democratic. Ze'ev eliminates my post that says that transferring people of another ethnic group is just what the Nazis did. Shame

By Blogger thecutter, at Sun Nov 20, 06:36:00 PM GMT+2  

Cutter, if you check, you will see that I have not deleted your post - you commented on a different post that was linked within the article, to be found at: http://israelperspectives.blogspot.com/2005/09/be-afraid-be-very-very-afraid.html

Where anyone who is interested can read your anti-Jewish diatribe in full...

By Blogger Ze'ev, at Sun Nov 20, 07:43:00 PM GMT+2  

Also, I never claimed to be a very good democrat - but that being said, I did not delete your comment...

By Blogger Ze'ev, at Sun Nov 20, 07:44:00 PM GMT+2  

Sorry I'm late, Ze'ev!

I don't think you can compare the Avital and Vilnai's bill to your proposed compensation plan for Israeli Arabs. This bill seems relatively sensible, even an attempt of the govt to amend for the fact that they were the ones who originally and irresponsibly encouraged their citizens to settle land which was internationally disputed. This, however, is not even comparable to offering financial incentives to an indigenous population of a country to up and leave in order to preserve ethnic character. It is even somewhat amusing, in view of the covert- or not so covert- discrimination that this particular indigenous population deals with in terms of owning/building property. Check out Adalah or Bimkom's websites for more information on that topic if you so desire.

Finally, Peace Now and (most) similar orgs are not against the idea of Israel being a Jewish State. They are just functioning on the -realistic- premise that neither nation is going anywhere, whatever people might secretly desire or tell pollsters.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Mon Nov 21, 03:30:00 PM GMT+2  

Sorry, Vilan. Need glasses.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Mon Nov 21, 03:32:00 PM GMT+2  

PP, you say that the One House bill is commendable b/c: "an attempt of the govt to amend for the fact that they were the ones who originally and irresponsibly encouraged their citizens to settle land which was internationally disputed."

The bill I proposed goes by the same logic. The leftist pioneers of the state believed that Israel could exist as a Jewish and deomocratic state whereby Jews and non-Jews (particularly Arabs) would be 100% equal, with full political rights.

That being the case, we are paying the price for that mistake today, b/c the Jewish majority within the State of Israel is dropping, and if Israel is going to continue to remain a Jewish State, something needs to be done.

Unless you are willing to allow the Israeli Arabs to peacefully and democratically vote the Jewish State of Israel out of existence.

What I am talking about is the future and continued existence of Israel as a jewish State, not as you refer to it, as the desire to: "preserve ethnic character".

If you beleieve, as I do, i nthe right of a Jewish People to a Jewish State, what is your soloution to the problem?

By Blogger Ze'ev, at Wed Nov 23, 01:45:00 PM GMT+2  

My own solution?! Obviously I have ALL the answers ;-)

I don't think that denying Israeli Arabs their civil rights is a solution to our demographic problems. We also have to recognise that WE are largely responsible for these demographic problems- we have created a state where less Jews than is desirable (even those born here) wish to live and that many Jews are not proud of. We need to address this reality from within instead of taking it out on other groups. That might be a start.

Your prevailing misconception here is that there is an "Israeli Left" which is united in stance. That is simply incorrect: I couldn't level a similar critique at the "Israeli Right" and get away with it- so how do you presume to do so with the "Left"?!

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Wed Nov 23, 05:45:00 PM GMT+2  

PP, to address your 2nd point 1st - perhaps you would like to break down the different perspectives from the left o nthis issue - since you are all not a single, united bloc.

As for your 1st point, it is very true that not enough Jews live here, that many who do want ot leave, and there are many who can't leave who aren't proud of their country (and many Jews in Exile who also don't take pride in Israel). All true.


But...

I believe that a lot of these feelings are a direct result of Israel getting further and furtjer away from its Jewish roots. The State of Israel existing as a 2nd rate America doesn't inspire pride and connection amongst anyone...

And, even saying that your point is correct, you still don't adress what to do in the meantime - perhaps we should ask the Arabs to stop having babies while we figure out our problems?

While I may be calling for the removal of their national / political rights, this should only be a problem for an Arab who seeks to democratically eleiminate the Jewish State of Israel. As I see it, these Arabs would still have freedom of speech, press, religion and could have autonomy over their own affairs... which is much better than they would get anywhere else...

By Blogger Ze'ev, at Wed Nov 23, 08:52:00 PM GMT+2  

PP, by the way, are your initials A.B.?

By Blogger Ze'ev, at Wed Nov 23, 08:53:00 PM GMT+2  

No, but she's a good friend of mine- you're getting close! If you read the latest post on my blog it should give you an obvious enough clue.

Re the "Left"- you know perfectly well, that - just like the Right- there are center, moderate, extreme positions on all points. When you Leftist-bash on your blog, I wonder if you are content in just referring to the collective works of Uri Avnery. Its a bit like saying that everyone- from Center to Far Right- reads and agrees with Arutz Sheva.

I stand by my contention that our problems will not be solved through any type of sanctions on our Arab citizens. Your commenter Haim said it better than me in your latest post. And yes, I favour territorial concession. So we should probably agree to disagree and move on at this point!

By Anonymous Anonymous, at Thu Nov 24, 03:57:00 PM GMT+2  

PP - how will territorial concessions solve the demogrpahic issue relating to Israeli Arabs, unless of course yo uare in favro f getting rid of the Negev, Galil and eastern Jerusalem!

By Blogger Ze'ev, at Thu Nov 24, 04:52:00 PM GMT+2  

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