In 1967, there was not one Palestinian on this planet. We created the Palestinians by forcing West Bank Jordanians to redefine themselves. Between 1948 and 1967 every single Palestinian was a full-fledged Jordanian citizen.



With our backs to the wall in 1967, we attacked when the surrounding armies mobilized with orders to exterminate every single Jew, women and children included. We just wanted to survive. We did not expect to win and certainly did not expect to regain the rest of Biblical Israel. After winning, we were stuck in a bind. On the one hand, once regained we could not part with the territory that is the heartland of ancient Israel. On the other hand, we could not provide Israeli citizenship to another two million Arabs. If a full half of the Israeli electorate were Israeli Arabs, Israel would no longer be a Jewish state. Even more detrimental, the Arabs? rate of propagation would rupture the Israeli budget. In Israel, each family gets a check each month for having children. Even millionaires get it. So a poor Palestinian with four wives and 20-40 children who becomes an Israeli citizen, becomes instantly rich.



Because of this conflict, we created a vacuum that left open the door for outsiders to impose their self-serving solutions. This year, Bush swaggered in and imposed the Roadmap, a Saudi plan that is blatantly anti-Semitic and racist. He had the audacity to echo the Palestinian lament that some Jews live in the West Bank. Worse, he had the gall to insist that Israel destroy 102 new Jewish farms and communities and forcibly evict the Jews. This is racism, pure and simple. Legally, there is no difference between forcibly evicting all the Jews from the West Bank of the Mississippi River and evicting American Jews from the West Bank of the Jordan River. It is not only illegal, but violates the very fabric of the Constitution. An American citizen, and even an Israeli citizen of the Moslem or Christian faiths, can remain in the West Bank. Only Jews must be removed. What is even more disgusting is that, with all the pomp and circumstance, the media trumpets this as the ?great white hope? and casts Bush as the Savior.



Against all odds, the ashes of a people have resurrected a prosperous country. Rather than claiming our inheritance, we have been acting like thieves caught in the night with stolen goods. The entire Holy Land is ours and we don't have to apologize. It is the end of days. We have come home and it is time for the interlopers to leave.



Now that it is patently obvious that two peoples cannot occupy one country, alternatives should be provided. One option is opening the borders to a peaceful and democratic Iraq. Another option is the hundreds of abandoned ghost towns in Canada and the Northwest United States. Canada is a country that is larger than the United States, but has a population of only 25 million. Rather than giving them a state in the West Bank, the Palestinians should have a province in the West Bank of the Yukon River. The entire Judea and Samaria territory is only 10,000 square miles, which is smaller than a large Texas ranch. If Palestinians were provided the option of moving onto a few ranches in the United States or Canada, no Palestinian would prefer to perpetuate a life of poverty and strife.



Arafat has created a situation for most Palestinians that they are desperate to migrate. So why don't they leave?



We don't let them.



They are unable to get an exit visa, teudat maavar. As unbelievable as it sounds, Israel has become like the viscous cold war communists that keep whole peoples prisoners in their own "occupied" territories. Israel routinely violates Palestinian rights not by our military action, not by routine stop and search, and not by arresting terrorists in Area A, but by our violating the UN Charter in preventing them from exercising their inalienable rights to emigrate. We retain even those Arabs that helped Israel, where Arafat issued a death warrant and where there were repeated attempts on their lives. When Israel entered Shechem, they released two hundred PA prisoners whose only crime was that they helped Israel. While these two hundred Palestinians were brought into Israel and given a permit to remain, they have no passport or identity card.



The Knesset should pass a law that provides for a one-way teudat maavar to anyone who wants to emigrate. This is not transfer, but merely opening the door for malcontents that want to leave. Part of this law should provide a mechanism in which those that relinquish citizenship (including Palestinian and Jordanian) are barred from re-entry. The law should provide financial assistance to the emigration of all security risks. As all Israeli-Arabs do not serve in the army because they are deemed a priori security risks, they would qualify. For example, MK Achmed Tibi proudly proclaims that he is a loyal Palestinian and is the personal political advisor to Arafat. He is therefore a security risk and would be entitled to emigration benefits. This new law would not apply to all Arabs and would apply to some Jews. Bedouins and Druse that serve in the army would not be entitled to government assistance. Conversely, those Jews deemed security risks should qualify for emigration benefits. The benefits should be a modest cash stipend that covers their airfare, employment agent, lawyer, and real estate broker fees.



This program is in everyone's best interests. The Palestinians are granted their basic human right to emigrate without becoming refugees in camps that cynical Arab host nations malevolently utilize. It is in Israel's best interest to permit malcontents an alternative to violence. It is in everyone's interest to eliminate this flash point that could trigger a nuclear holocaust.



For those that remain, instead of Israeli citizenship for Palestinians, permit them to register as permanent residents. Jews in Europe elected to remain in countries for hundreds of years without seeking citizenship status. For example, Jews lived in Slovakia more than 500 years, and in fact predated the Slovaks, but they were never citizens. Similarly, the Jewish community of Poland dates back more than a thousand years and they were never citizens. Even in contemporary times, European Jews elected to forego citizenship in order to avoid being drafted into the army. Similarly, the Arabs on both sides of the Green Line do not want to serve in the Israeli army nor does the Israeli army want them. They can, like the Jews in Europe for centuries, be permanent residents without being citizens. This would permit them unsubsidized access to higher education, medical centers, professional licensing, and the open job market. They would vote in local, but not national elections. They would not get the child allowance, which should be redefined as a veterans benefit (as that was the original legislative intent).



As before 1967, there will be no Palestinians on this planet. All West Bank ex-Jordanians, who redefined themselves as Palestinians, will either emigrate and assimilate, or become Israeli permanent residents.



There can be no negotiated solution. The Palestinians have degenerated into a culture that idolizes and breeds child suicide bombers. They are vicious and making deals with them is playing with fire. As Samson said, ?Can you play with fire and not get burned??



Clinton got burned. Barak got burned. Sharon is getting burned.



And Arafat will particularly enjoy burning Bush.

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Shmuel Neumann, Ph.D., is actively involved in creating communities for English-speaking olim, and in an emigration program for Palestinians. He currently resides in the Shomron.