September 23, 2003 -- Arno Weinstein: Arafat’s Expulsion and Transfer

Aside from discounting the practical absurdity of removing Arafat from Israeli territory, is the more important fact that it is immoral. As to the political expediency of the move, let the world not forget how effective the terror master was for the many decades he spread his poison outside the Land of Israel. Certainly, welcoming Arafat into Israel as part of the Oslo Peace Accords was one of the greatest political blunders of the 20th century. However, removing him, as if to erase the Oslo debacle, is as fanciful as the original idea that Arafat and his terrorist thugs would somehow transform themselves into statesmen. The Olso Peace Accords have brought the Oslo War. And just as any nation fights a war, it is the obligation of Israel and the United States, as her greatest ally, to do all that is necessary to win the war and keep her citizenry out of harm’s way.

The release of an enemy leader may be theoretically possible after a complete victory is achieved -- a victory that ensures the opposition’s sound defeat -- and only then if it serves the goals of the victor. However, the notion that the leader of an enemy force be set free while the conflict rages, is ludicrous. Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, without a moment of hesitation, should be put under arrest. As the war continues, each and every enemy leader in that fight should be either arrested or killed. As for Arafat, he must be tried as a war criminal, the charges: attempted genocide and crimes against humanity. The trial could take place either before or after the war has been won, depending on the necessities of the Israeli government and her allies. Any government of Israel that permits Arafat to go free and consort with his European Union “brothers in arms” is shirking its responsibilities, to say the least. In fact, it might be argued that such a government has lost its right to rule.

An Israeli security cabinet whose first and foremost concern is for the well being of its own people would reexamine its purpose and come to an understanding of the historic decisions it could now make. A Jewish government, instead of debating what to do with Arafat, would be discussing what to do with the legions of his supporters in Israel. This Jewish government would understand the problem an authentic fifth column represents. They would stop pretending that if only Arafat were gone, all would be well. Finally, it would know that such nonsense is for children, not the leaders of the Jewish State.

That being said, what the current Israeli security cabinet must do is state unequivocally that “in principle” it endorses the transfer of the Arab population out of the State of Israel. That is, it supports the completion of the exchange of populations that began at the founding of Israel. During those nascent years the Jewish People experienced an upheaval of mammoth proportions. Not only had the Holocaust devastated her population, but with the declaration of a Jewish State, hundreds of thousands of Jews were forcibly removed from the Arab countries they had lived in for hundreds of years. In total, some 800,000 to 900,000 Jews were either forcibly or voluntarily displaced without their material possessions from Arab countries. With nothing more than the shirts on their backs these refugees were welcomed into the newly created Israel. Through rationing and shortages the Jewish People cared for their own. And in time, Israel absorbed the helpless throngs of humanity with no other home.

And what of the Arabs who were displaced either voluntarily (at the behest of their Arab brothers) or forcibly from Israeli land? They were left to rot in refugee camps after the defeat of the Arab armies against Israel. They were kept like rats, seething and festering with the help of an alphabet of United Nation affiliated organizations and to the relief of the 21 Arab states in the region. Not a hand came from their Islamic brothers other than the subsidizing of squalid camps. A population primed for the indoctrination from the likes of Arafat and his associates. Generations of hate were raised in those camps and it spread like a disease to all Arabs as they saw their brethren humiliated and besieged. This crime lies at the feet of the Arab leaders who chose to keep their own people in the cold and rain. It is a crime for which they will have to answer as they try to integrate a lawless and hate ridden people into their own. After all, this is what must happen. If Israel is to survive, to win this war, the exchange of populations is inevitable. The Arabs on Israeli land must be sent back to their own people and it will be this generation of hate that the Arabs themselves must manage.

Any other answer to this fifty some odd year problem is, to put mildly, without understanding, immature and dare it be said, unjust. Completing the exchange of populations will solve, not only the conflict at hand, that is to say, the ongoing Oslo War, but will once and for all put an end to claims of Israeli territory by Arab countries. Israel will have declared and fortified borders for the first time in her existence. Unbelievably, to this day, Israel is without recognized borders. The Jewish State refuses to delineate a line from which both her supporters and detractors may understand where she stops and where she begins.

The job of the Israeli security cabinet is not an easy one, but neither is fighting the war on terror. Neither is picking up the body parts of a child from the streets of Jerusalem, neither is the life of a parent whose son or daughter will never return home from school. Neither is the refusal to do what logic dictates, what tradition demands, what the generations cry out for, nor finally what best ensures the safety and well-being of your own people.

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Arno Weinstein is the Director of Policy Research of the American Zionist Leadership Policy Institute.
Weinstein@zionistleadership.com