The plan to expel 9000 Jews from Gush Katif and the Northern Shomron (Samaria) is a precedent for disaster that will endanger the entire state of Israel and the Jewish people. The fight to save Gush Katif is a fight to save the entire state and is a struggle for the very survival of Zionism.



There have been several arguments made by the proponents of this suicidal plan which are amateurish at best and deceitful at worst. The New Left, headed by the Likud turncoats including Ariel Sharon himself, as well as the Old Left, headed by the ancient Peres and united with the Arab MKs, have railroaded this plan through the Knesset without a mandate of the people and hope to soon force this calamity upon the nation. Therefore it is necessary to highlight the gaping holes in their logic and to expose the distortions that they have been spinning with the full complicity of the Leftists that control most of the Israeli media.



The argument that we hear over and over again is that the expulsion is necessary since ?disengagement?, as the plan is euphemistically called, will combat the demographic threat from the hostile Arabs living in the Gaza coastal region of Southern Israel. We are told that it is impossible for 8000 Jews to live amongst 1.5 million Arabs! Firstly, this is a half-truth at best since the Jews of Gush Katif are not living inside Gaza city but outside of it. Any child who looked at a map of the region would know this.



Secondly the number of Arabs in Gaza is far less than that. Indeed a recent comprehensive study presented to the American Enterprise Institute shows that the numbers of Moslems living in Yesha have been exaggerated by the PLO, and in Gaza, for example, their numbers are actually just under 1 million people. Perhaps more importantly, though is the deeper implication of this logic, which ultimately precludes the existence of Israel within any borders.



Israel is a state of less than 6 million Jews surrounded by 250 million Moslem Arabs, so should we dismantle the state? Isn?t the demographic problem impossible to solve? The past century or so of Zionism show that the renewal of the Jewish people within the land of Israel is a glorious feat that will not be defeated by Arab aggressors.



A reasonable position for a true Israeli leadership should be that there can be no peace with the Arabs until they take responsibility for their brothers and resettle them within their huge lands. It is not the Israelis, as refugees from the Arab world (as well as Europe) and after 60 years of Arab-initiated conflicts, who should be the ones to surrender territory. Israel is smaller than New Jersey, whereas the Arab world is 500 times its size.



The Arab states who have fought Israel in the name of their brothers must now accept the burden of their resettlement as small compensation for their aggression against Israel and the destruction of Middle Eastern Jewry within their lands. If it is possible to relocate thousands of Jews then surely it is only just and reasonable to advocate the relocation of the Arabs. This is both the only humane option and the true peaceful solution to the problem of thousands of impoverished, fanatical Moslems living in Gaza. Let the Arabs use a small fraction of their oil wealth to build them new homes in Syria and Jordan. Let the Quartet set up programmes to help them adjust to their relocation.



The other ludicrous argument that is made by the Sharon-Peres regime is that the expulsion plan will allow Israel to separate from Gaza. But this is simply untrue. Israel will still be fully engaged in Gaza, providing the Arabs with electricity, water and of course, employment. Thousands of enemy civilians will be allowed to cross the border daily to work in Israel. So whom are we disengaging from exactly? What benefits do we get from this?



We are also told that this plan will save Israel money, but how exactly? The government?s own conservative estimates suggests that the plan will cost Israel nearly 8 billion Shekels that is equivalent to £1 billion! Is this is the same government that says it does not have enough money to pay for hospital beds for cancer patients? But then again this is the same government that found the money to appoint 6 new deputy ministers! These ministers just coincidentally happened to be the Likud Knesset members who voted against the Referendum law in direct contravention of their party?s decision!



Sharon has claimed that his plan will reap Israel international rewards particularly in the form of American approval for the annexation of major Jewish population centres around Yerushalayim. But America?s ambassador to Israel, Ghetto-Jew, Dan Kurzer, at a recent briefing to foreign ministry juniors, actually stated the obvious, namely that the US has not made any commitments to recognise any Israeli towns in Yesha.



The expulsion plan will embolden the Arabs who will rightly see the withdrawal as a victory and as a prize for their terror. The Oslo war, which they initiated 4 years ago, was ignited by Ehud Barak?s surrender and retreat from Lebanon. The surrender of Gaza will bring the terrorist menace closer to Israel?s larger population centres. The 50 Kassam missiles that were fired on Gush Katif, on the day after Sharon concluded a ?hudna? (cease-fire) with PA chieftain Abu Mazen in Sinai, will be but a drop in the ocean when the Philadelphi route and Gush Katif are in the hands of the PLO and their Hamas allies. The Kassam missiles will then reach Ashkelon and Ashdod. Strella missiles, recently smuggled from Egypt, may threaten Israel civilian aircraft.



The most disturbing aspect of the plan is the precedent it will set. If one town or village can be uprooted in Israel than so can all towns. As Professor and MK Aryeh Eldad rightly pointed out, the struggle for Gush Katif is the struggle for Yerushalayim and ultimately the whole country. The world?s hostility to the settlement enterprise was based on the premise that such towns once established were impossible to remove, but with ?disengagement? completed, the push for the surrender of all of Eretz Yisrael will only grow.



Israel's enemies will rejoice and continue their struggle with renewed vigour. Arik Sharon is indeed disengaged, from his party, from his people, and most worryingly, from of all from reality.