by Haggai Lober, founder of Aspaklaria Theater Company and father of St.-Sgt. Yehonatan who fell in Gaza in Dec. '23, translated by Hillel Fendel.
Let's not lose the momentum! The three reasons not to take the ethical road and expel the Arabs of Gaza are no longer relevant.
The issue of expelling a war-hungry Arab populace from our country
– which Ben-Gurion and his generals did as a matter of course during the War of
Independence – has become in recent decades a dirty word. It has become forbidden
and immoral to even think about, let alone say out loud.
But in light of the horrors seen and still being seen by our own
eyes, we have no choice but to reexamine this and other old positions.
There were three principal reasons that stood as an iron wall
against any thought of resolving some of our problems by expelling murderous
and hostile Arabs. These hold in many circles even now, when it is clear to all
that had Gaza not been full of Arabs 16 months ago, Israel would have enjoyed security
and growth, and would certainly not have had to undergo the horrors of Oct. 7th.
The three are: alleged rights, morality, and the U.S. position.
Rights: It is claimed around the world, with very little to back it up,
that "the Arabs in Israel have the right to unite as a Palestinian
nation," that "they were here before us and they therefore have
national rights to the land," and that "there is a national Palestinian
history and legacy." For years the world has been discussing the question
of which of the two "peoples" – Jews and Palestinians – have more
substantial rights to this land. [This of course ignores the Balfour
Declaration, which specifically mentioned only the "civil and religious
rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine;" no national or
political rights were accorded them. -HF]
By the time of the Oslo Accords, in the early 1990's, the world
had already made up its mind: There is a Palestinian entity and it has the
right to be sovereign over a large part of the "contested" territory,
if not the entire State of Israel (as in the widespread "Free Palestine"
chants). Israel stands in the face of a "conventional wisdom" that determines
that it must cede large pieces of its territory, despite the great dangers, in
favor of a recently-invented Palestinian people.
However: Even assuming that this people has certain rights (which the pro-Israel side has still not quite signed on to), the murderous path by which this collective has chosen to actualize them over the years must establish clearly for all that the Palestinians have lost any claim to rights in this land.
After all, rights are acquired and can be lost. A murderer and
other criminals lose their natural rights to freedom; they are placed in prison
until they die, even if they maintain that their victims did them wrong.
Yes, a collective can become a nation on its own recognizance.
However, the enlightened world can also, and is even obligated to, dismantle
this entity - if it turns out that murder and evil are the basis of its
nationhood. As the Mishna teaches: "Gathering wicked people together is
bad for them and bad for the world; dispersing them is good for them and good
for the world" (Sanhedrin 8,5).
The second element that negates a political Palestinian presence
in the land is morality, or the lack thereof. Do Arabs who commit crimes
of terrorism deserve to remain here? It is precisely those who insisted on
seeing the Arabs of the Land of Israel as a national collective who relate to
its terrorist organizations as individual and isolated instances. They refuse
to attribute any nationalistic motives to these terrorist groups. Have they
forgotten that these acts are not just neighborhood crimes or gang fights, but
rather full-fledged acts of war that must be responded to as such?
The widespread lie that "aside from some bad terrorists, the
Arab populace in general wants only peace and a comfortable life" – was
totally shattered on Oct. 7th. "Regular" citizens joined
gleefully in the atrocities, and our soldiers later found guns and other
weapons in cribs throughout Gaza (and in Judea and Samaria). They also found
that the walls in every children's room feature the pictures of child-killers
and other terrorists, as a basic part of the educational curriculum over there.
Nationalistic terrorism is war. And because of the important role
played by the local Gaza population in encouraging and enabling the terrorists
to kill Jews, this supportive populace may not be considered
"uninvolved," but must rather be dealt with forcefully and severely.
In fact, the "ethical" argument must actually be
reversed, as follows: "It is not ethical towards us, nor towards the
world, not to deal with this murderous and ideological hornets' nest, and to
let this abominable collective continue to exist while we deal only with the
murderers themselves. This is simply not moral!"
In the case of Gaza, there is no doubt: A mass evacuation of the
population to Arab countries will dismantle the collective murderous demon that
the Palestinian people, and its supporters around the world, have become.
And finally, the third reason for not deporting or
expelling the Arabs of Gaza: "We can't buck the United States, which wants
a two-state solution and nothing else. We can't afford to disagree."
Even if this argument is worthy of consideration, and even if one
might want to check from a historical standpoint whether it was the U.S. that led
us into surrender, or perhaps it was we who got the Americans to force us to
supply the terrorists with "humanitarian aid" – either way, it
appears that the point is now moot. It's President Trump himself who is leading
the charge to empty Gaza of Arabs!
In the light of the collapse of the third argument against
transfer, we would be wise to "collapse" the other two as well, and
go full-steam ahead towards the only solution that will enable our children to
grow up in peace and security in their land: the dissolution of the Hamas-Gaza
populace. This plan has the best chances for success – and could even win President
Trump a Nobel Peace Prize.
One thing is certain: The Nation of Israel, including
international Jewry, will receive the great prize of all: the prize of life.
This means the ability of Jewish parents like me to see their children grow up
alongside them without fear of death by war, or murder, rape and kidnappings by
our bloodthirsty enemies.
It has to be done now – right now. We can't lose the momentum.