Opinion
What about the Arabs?
Pinchas Wallerstein
Published: 07.12.07, 01:21
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52 Talkbacks for this article
1. Plain and simple
Salameh ,   Gaza, Palestine   (12.07.07)
You are settlers, i.e. forigners who settled illegally on stolen lands, while the Arabs are on their own land that you have been and are still stealing.
2. Now we are talking!!!
dovid ,   Modiin   (12.07.07)
3. Transfer, Racism and Humanitarianism
Joe ,   Israel   (12.07.07)
Those who advocate transfer even if voluntary, of non-Jewsare accused of racism. Since the idea is politically incorrect, it becomes immoral and repugnant. Those who advocate the evacuation-compensation of Jews, or else we will physically evict you are termed humanitarian see themselves as moral. Clearly, their motive is nothing less than political correctness
4. to the author-there exists such a plan
Brooke   (12.07.07)
80% of "palis" polled said they would take the money and run. Please support www.jerusalemsummit.org Israel wake up. Get rid of your traitorous gov't and courts!!
5. #1 there is one 1 line for you to read
jack bauer   (12.07.07)
“We have neither taken foreign land nor seized foreign property, but only the inheritance of our forefathers, which at one time had been unjustly taken by our enemies. Now that we have the opportunity, we are firmly holding the inheritance of our forefathers.” that is the land that squatting thieving arabs lay claim to.....something that was never theirs, and never will be
6. #1; Arabs are settlers from Arabia! Israel is Jewish land!
Palestiniansareamyth ,   USA   (12.07.07)
Israel was created thousands of years ago for the Jewish people. Arabs came and stole the land and are illegally occupying the Jewish homeland. Go back to Arabia where you came from!
7. Benny Elon's initiative suggests this ..
redmiike ,   tel aviv   (12.07.07)
http://initiative.notlong.com and it just got the backing of a US Senator. http://sambrownback.notlong.com Mike
8. Partition Plan that may work for a change:
Uzh ,   Haifa   (12.07.07)
Israel should let Hamas to depose Abbas and smash Fatah, also in Judea and Samaria, on their way to abolish the PA and wipe it off the world map and consciousness. Then Israel should get rid of Hamas. This will open the way for the Kingdom of Jordan to take charge as the only viable nation state of all the Arabs of Greater Palestine. Having got rid of the PA and Hamas, Israel and Jordan should agree on the border between them in Judea and Samaria and maybe cede Gaza to Egypt that would sort it out quite smartly. Everybody, Jews and Arabs, should continue to live in peace where they are and nobody should move from their homes or land. Israelis who would thus become residents of the Kingdom of Jordan should be given rights and conditions like the Arabs in Israel.
9. There can never be separate Arab polity west of the Jordan!
Uzi ,   Haifa   (12.07.07)
The Arabs of Western Eretz Yisrael have consistently demonstrated that they are incapable of surviving unaided or ruling themselves, especially at the national polity level. They have never exercised their inherent right of self determination and now they expect others to determine and create for them that Mickey Mouse "state" which will never be. They constantly kill and steal from each other and lie to themselves, each other and the rest of the world. They never miss any opportunity to make atrocious choices and mistakes and they are incapable of sustaining and providing for themselves; they depend on others for everything. How on earth will they ever make it?
10. The Arabs must make very painful concessions for real peace!
Uzi ,   Haifa   (12.07.07)
The Arabs of the Land of Israel consistently demonstrate that they don't want, can't make and won't maintain real peace. They do want, however, to weaken Israel by gaining territory without 'giving' anything tangible. They ignore that "possession is nine tenths of the law" and that it's rather the Arabs who should come forward and spell out what they offer Israel in return for what they want. They also pretend not to get it that in this case "land for peace" is both immoral and unworkable. The Arabs had used the 'territories' to threaten, pester and attack Israel before we took these territories in self defence. They continue to plan, prepare and perpetrate genocide against Israel and pretend not to see that it would be suicide for Israel to concede anything in response to their threats and aggressive action. The Arabs must realize that the only way toward peace is that rather they themselves should offer, accept and be convincingly satisfied with 'painful' compromises.
11. #1 - Salame, it's called READING
Joe ,   Los Angeles, CA   (12.07.07)
In case you didn't read it the first time, let me reiterate what you appear to have missed the first time around: “We have neither taken foreign land nor seized foreign property, but only the inheritance of our forefathers, which at one time had been unjustly taken by our enemies. Now that we have the opportunity, we are firmly holding the inheritance of our forefathers.” YOU are the settlers, Salameh, YOU are the foreigners who settled illegally on stolen lands. YOU are the strangers in a land that you turned into malaria-infested swamps. YOU are the ones who make up erroneous claims about how you descend from the Canaanites. YOU are the ones who try every trick in the book to grant yourselves an inheritance that was never yours in the first place. Have you ever given thought to why al-Naqba happened in the first place? Have you ever given thought to why every time you try to kill us, we only end up getting more land? Maybe it's because Allah never forsook us after all and Allah wants us to own this land because Allah granted it as a heritage to OUR forefathers. Does the word Filasteen exist in the Qur'an? Does it exist in the Bible? Where does it say Allah ever gave a country called Filisteen to anybody? Even in your Qur'an it says that Allah gave this land to the Bani Isra'il. If this utterance from the mouth of your so-called "prophet" is fiction, what else from his mouth is fiction? Answer me this, O wise one!
12. Plain And Simple
Yishai Kohen ,   YeShA, Israel   (12.07.07)
This is OUR land and we will not leave. If the Arabs can't live here in OUR land in peace, then THEY will leave.
13. Because...
Secular Eagle   (12.07.07)
...they and their families were born and bred where they live for centuries. Every single settler came where they are now in the past 30 or so years. Paying Israelis of a particular ethnicity to leave Israel is racism and ethnic cleansing. Paying Israelis of all ethnicities to leave occupied areas outside Israel is common sense (though it is wasteful). Plus, the latter's no different from giving "goody-baskets" to newly-arrived 3olim. Now do you get it, Wallerstein, or do I need to draw this for you?
14. The diffrence is
(12.07.07)
It is not the same when you pay people to leave a place doesn't belong to them and the government put them illigal in this place and another people belong to this place and lived in it from before .
15. Good rebuke to an agenda of hatred
Ilan ,   Ariel   (12.07.07)
To force people from their homes can not be sugar coated. It is nothing better totalitarianism and xenophobia.
16. re #14
yerushalmi ,   jerusalem   (12.07.07)
"It is not the same when you pay people to leave a place doesn't belong to them" So, you would agree to transfer arabs that do not own any land. That's a good start.
17. What is the difference between Tel Aviv and Gush Etzion?
eliyahu   (12.07.07)
Gush Etzion was established at the same time and the land was legally bought. There was a stronger Jewish presence in Hebron in 1900 than in Tel Aviv. And Yaffo was and is mostly Arab. The real root of the problem is that we are trying to deal with a miracle, something that breaks the laws of nature, something that has never happened before in all of human history. A people that was exiled has returned to their land. The same right of return that grants Tel Aviv to the Jews, also grants Jerusalem, Hebron, Shechem, Judah, Shomron. It doesn't grant Eilat or most of the Negev, which might as well be in Uganda.
18. #13 secular eagle
israel israeli ,   israel   (12.07.07)
Whereabouts do you live in Israel?
19. EVERY TIME SOMEONE TRIED TO EVEN START
HADAR ,   IL   (12.07.07)
MENTIONING THE POSSIBILITY OF ALLOWING THE ARABS WHO WISH TO LEAVE TO DO IT AND GET EVEN FINANCIAL HELP, THE "ENLIGHTENED" MINORITY RULING OUR COUNTRY MADE SURE THAT THEY WERE EITHER OUTLAWED, JAILED OR SILENCED. I REMEMBER CLEARLY THAT RAV KAHANA, ZTUQ'L, HI"D, TEWNTY YEARS AGO - after receiving over 20.000 positive responses from Arab families - WAS EVEN DENIED THE RIGHT TO SEND MAIL THROUGH THE KNESSET POST OFFICE, WHICH WAS NEVER DONE BEFORE OR AFTER, EVEN WHEN ARAB MKS WOULD USE IT TO HELP THEIR IRREDENTIST AIMS AND ENEMIES OF ISRAEL.
20. Pinchas Wallerstein = The Devil's Advocate
Marwan ,   Amman, Jordan   (12.07.07)
so you're comparing a greedy russian new immigrant who might even be a fake jew, and who robbed a piece of palestinian lands to get richer, with native palestinians who have lived continuously in the holy lands for centuries?!
21. Willing to leave for a million dollar
Arab   (12.07.07)
I'm sure others will not hesitate if the sum is offered.
22. # 1 Salameh, Azza, Israel
Josef Matamoros ,   Finland   (12.07.07)
Arabs are usurpers, of whom the first ones came after Muhammad and most during early 1900's due to the Jewish run social and economic development. Arabs try to claim Jewish land, the land of Israel as their own. Arabs are free to move back to Arabia - "plain and simple", as you said. Adios, bon voyage.
23. What Makes Settlers Settlers
Robert Tilden   (12.07.07)
Many of the talkbacks seem to think Settlers that Hebron, Gush Etzion and other places in the West Bank . Hebron's Jewish community was ethnicly cleansed. If Hebron is a purly Arab city, Haifa is a Purely Jewish one. Gush Etzion was a 'settlement' before 1948. The point of the article is less a practical suggestion and more to point out double standards that stink of racism.
24. the arabs are DYING to leave
Elan ,   Netanya   (12.07.07)
25. 1 less arab means 1 more jew
zionist forever   (12.07.07)
While we are so concerened about moving jews from their homes in Judea & Samaria we have ignored the arab problem within. There are to many and they are growing more and more politicly active .. supporting Israels enemies. George Bush said the palestian right of return would be to the palestian state. The arabs inside Israel also describe themselves as palestians and support the palestian cause .. when the rest of the country celebrates Yom Hatzmaut they ( the MKS included ) mourn their Nakba day If you want to be an Israeli citizen isnt it time to put the past and the facts that Israel came into existance behind them Their grandpearents didnt want Israel and they fought against its creation but now its here now these people want to be citizens of Israel get the rights that come with it but they cant their decendents want the rewards that came from citizenship of this state they hate so much so shouldnt we say loyaty to the state or your out of the state. We even allow men to serve in the Knesset who constantly take enemy sides and go on record with their hatred they show towards the country whose parliamemnt they are members of. They say that any arabs who do CIVILIAN service of some kind will be considered traitors and shunned like leppers by the arab communty because it would be a recognition of Israel. Do we want need or want people who dont recognise the country they are citizens of? We dont need this fith colum, lets give the arabs a state of some kind on the condition that every arab with Israeli citizenship who hates the country they are living in moves away to the new arab state then a palestian state can only benefit Israel.
26. 20
zionist forever   (12.07.07)
Jew or non jew the Russian imigrants dont call for Israels destruction, say other Russians must shun them if they do civilian service. The Russians in the Knesset dont refuse to recognise Israel as a jewish state and publicly take the side of Israels enemies. Whatever the real faith of these Russian imigrants they accept the fact Israel is a JEWISH STATE they dont pretend its some kind of Russian colony. We have their loyalty. The arabs if they want to stand up swear loyalty to the jewish state then let them state if they want to continue to publicly hate Israel then lets strip them of that citizenship. They have not because they are loyal to the state that takes care of them but because they are leeches they are not in Israel because they love Israel for what it is and want to make it a better place but because they want to suck its blood for everything they can get out of it for their own prosperity because they know their own people wont give it to them. Many of the arab residents of East Jerusalem are worried about the idea of there ever being any kind of palestian state that has any part of Jerusalelem because they are worried about loosing their Israeli citizenship which is more valuable to them than citizenship of a palestian entitiy. Also while your playing the man of morrals lets not forget that Jordan expelled avery single jew on its side of the border in 1967, you didnt let jews visit their holy places before 1967 you would even desecrate them Israel did non of that. 90% of arabs who left what became Israel did so to avoid a war planning to return when the jews had been driven into the sea but it didnt work and they didnt come back, 90% of the jews were marched out at gunpoint and Israel took them in at the same time other than Jordan all arab state refused to take in arab refugees and the Arab Legue even spesificly prohibits any arab state giving citizenship to palestians. You might have taken in arab refugees but you expelled your jews to do so.
27. what about (paying ) arabs(to leave)?
bear ,   zefat   (12.07.07)
You've got a winner and my backing. Go for it. You just made my Chanuka a lot brighter!.
28. #27 - there are already plans for this - and support !
redmiike ,   tel aviv and london   (12.07.07)
and around 50% of Palestinians want, and are ready to ship out. http://initiative.notlong.com and one US Senator just came out in favor and others are hovering. http://sambrownback.notlong.com No thinking person believes that the regurgitated Annapolis nonsense has any chance at all and new things are now coming to the fore. Happy Hanuka, Michael
29. How hard is this to understand really?
George W ,   Washington DC   (12.07.07)
Let's ignore, just for a second, the reality that Arabs in Israel have been living there for centuries, while Jews in West Bank settlements have been living there for 30 years or so at most. Even if you pretend that Arabs living in Israel and Jewish West Bank settlers are exactly the same, it still makes sense to evacuate Jewish settlements and leave Arab towns alone. The difference is that settlements are not just towns; they are instruments of military domination and control. The Palestinians want the settlements gone not because they hate Jews, but because they hate getting pushed around. It's the difference between someone moving into the house next door, being a friendly neighbor, following the laws, and so forth, vs. the same person moving into your house, throwing you out, demolishing the neighboring houses, putting a military base nearby, putting the entire town under lockdown, shooting anyone who gets too close, and then crying about anti-semitism when everyone in town hates his guts. In fact, I think Israel should draw the border at the green line, and every settler who wants to stay where they are and become a citizen of Palestine should be able to. My guess is that without the IDF always around to wipe their asses, most settlers will run crying back to Israel or Brooklyn.
30. TO #26 zionist forever
Marwan ,   Amman, Jordan   (12.07.07)
"You might have taken in arab refugees but you expelled your jews to do so." why are you twisting god's historical facts about this struggle?! you wanna tell me that you really don't know how The Jewish Agency played every dirty trick in the political book to extract jews from every arab corner?! ask any old mizrahi jew about why they still miss their home countries.
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