The Israeli Left have found a new cause to champion. All of the sudden, the leftists are concerned for the safety and well-being of their Jewish brothers and sisters living over the Green Line (post-Six-Day-War borders), whom they refer to as "settlers".
A new organization has been established, One House, headed by MKs Avshalom Vilan (Meretz) and Colette Avital (Labor), which seeks to compensate any of the 80,000 Jews who are currently living in areas of Judea and Samaria that will not be included in the route of the "security fence" for the cost of their homes, should they want to leave and move within the Green Line (courtesy of the Jerusalem Post):
The reason that the Left give for their newfound love and concern for their brothers and sisters living in Judea and Samaria can be summed up as such (Ha'aretz):
After all, everyone knows that the Israeli Arabs pose a serious demographic threat to the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish State, an issue that will ultimately need to be dealt with, so why not start dealing with the issue now in a way that lets everyone win? The Jews keep Israel as a Jewish State and the Israeli Arabs are able to rebuild their lives somewhere else, on their own terms, with enough money to do so.
There is much support for this idea, as can be seen from a recent study that found "More Israeli Jews favor transfer of Palestinians, Israeli Arabs" (a must read article).
If the Left would oppose such legislation, then they would appear to be racists (anti-Semites) and enemies of the idea of Israel being a Jewish State, as they would only find it acceptable to ask Jews to leave their homes, but not Arabs. If the Left would support such legislation, then, at the very least, it would be acting in a consistent manner, trying to maintain as large a Jewish majority within Israel as possible.
Time will tell which is the case.
A new organization has been established, One House, headed by MKs Avshalom Vilan (Meretz) and Colette Avital (Labor), which seeks to compensate any of the 80,000 Jews who are currently living in areas of Judea and Samaria that will not be included in the route of the "security fence" for the cost of their homes, should they want to leave and move within the Green Line (courtesy of the Jerusalem Post):
In a gesture designed to heighten public awareness of the plight of the 80,000 Israelis living outside the security fence, MKs Colette Avital (Labor) and Avshalom Vilan (Meretz-Yahad) plan to file a bill on Monday offering money to compensate those who want to move.The One House movement recently released the results of a poll that seem to indicate support within the country for such an initiative, claiming that 74% of the respondents favored such legislation.
Unlike the compensation packages offered to the Gaza settlers, which took into account loss of employment and number of years spent living in the settlement, this bill offers them only replacement value for their house, which she estimates will be between $100,000 and $200,000.
The reason that the Left give for their newfound love and concern for their brothers and sisters living in Judea and Samaria can be summed up as such (Ha'aretz):
Alon Pinkas, one of the movement's leaders, said that "it is clear that their will be a second disengagement in Judea and Samaria, it is clear that it will take place before a permanent agreement, and it is clear that it will include the 80,000 settlers living outside of the fence. Therefore, the government must stop using settlers as bargaining chips and hostages and enable them to voluntary leave right now."If that's the case, then would the Israeli Left be willing to accept a similar type of legislation proposing compensation (within the same range of the figures listed above) that would encourage Israeli Arabs to emigrate from Israel?
After all, everyone knows that the Israeli Arabs pose a serious demographic threat to the continued existence of Israel as a Jewish State, an issue that will ultimately need to be dealt with, so why not start dealing with the issue now in a way that lets everyone win? The Jews keep Israel as a Jewish State and the Israeli Arabs are able to rebuild their lives somewhere else, on their own terms, with enough money to do so.
There is much support for this idea, as can be seen from a recent study that found "More Israeli Jews favor transfer of Palestinians, Israeli Arabs" (a must read article).
If the Left would oppose such legislation, then they would appear to be racists (anti-Semites) and enemies of the idea of Israel being a Jewish State, as they would only find it acceptable to ask Jews to leave their homes, but not Arabs. If the Left would support such legislation, then, at the very least, it would be acting in a consistent manner, trying to maintain as large a Jewish majority within Israel as possible.
Time will tell which is the case.