National Union party volunteers stood at the Allenby Bridge Crossing yesterday, greeting Arabs on their way into Jordan and giving them a flower-adorned letter with best wishes. "We wish you the best of luck in the already-existing Palestinian state," the volunteers told them, "and you should have a better life there, and you are invited back to visit us one day as tourists."
Speaking with Arutz-7 today, former IDF Chief Medical Officer Dr. Aryeh Eldad of Moledet, currently #7 on the National Union party list of Knesset candidates, admitted that this was a "gimmick" promoting the idea of "voluntary transfer." He said, however, that it "reflects a true idea, namely, that there exists a real option to encourage Arab emigration out of Yesha (Judea and Samaria). It also shows that there's an alternative to reaching a diplomatic agreement in which we have to give away Jerusalem or other parts of Israel, and that is an agreement involving the settling of the Arab refugees in Arab nations, preferably Jordan."
Eldad said that it is definitely possible that the world will come to accept this idea, "because after the upcoming war with Iraq, there will be tremendous changes in the Middle East, and certainly in Iraq, and it could be that this will provide a window of opportunities to make international changes in the borders of the Middle East that were determined by colonial decisions following World War One."
(It should be noted that Eldad appears to be alluding to something mentioned by NRP leader Brig.-Gen. (res.) Effie Eitam several weeks ago in an interview with B'Sheva:
"If the Iraqi issue ends, I see a possibility wherein the entire area of Jordan and Iraq become the area of two [different] countries. Today, each of them has a minority that is disrupting the entire region. I am referring to the Kurds [in Iraq] and the Palestinians. I foresee a situation in which the areas of Jordan and Iraq will be re-divided, and in each one a new country will be formed: A Palestinian state in most of Jordan's territory, and a Kurdish state. If a solution for the Kurds is found, tensions will decrease in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. If a solution is found for the Palestinians on the other side of the Jordan River, the tensions here will decrease. [This will form] a ring around Syria, made up of Israel, the new Jordan, the new Iraq, and Lebanon. All of them demand that Syria stop supporting Hizbullah. This will allow us to sign a peace agreement with Lebanon within a short time. [In short,] I see the defeat of the Iraqi regime as changing the entire Middle East.")
When reminded that even within Israel, support for "voluntary transfer" is not widespread, specifically in the Labor party, Dr. Eldad said, "Of course Labor does not like this idea, because Labor has a much better alternative - what's it called again, Oslo or something?" He said that the program does not involve expulsion at all:
"All we want to do is to encourage an existing trend of emigration to Jordan. Some 250,000 Arabs left Yesha for Jordan over the course of two years, because they were unhappy here. It was reported recently that Jordan had closed its gates for that reason; it seems that Jordan has even less use for them than we do. But if the U.S. and the U.N. wish to be concerned with democracies, then let them support the 75% of the Jordanian population that is Palestinian, and let Jordan be recognized as the Palestinian state - and then even those Arabs of Yesha who don't want to leave will be able to take part in running that country."
Speaking with Arutz-7 today, former IDF Chief Medical Officer Dr. Aryeh Eldad of Moledet, currently #7 on the National Union party list of Knesset candidates, admitted that this was a "gimmick" promoting the idea of "voluntary transfer." He said, however, that it "reflects a true idea, namely, that there exists a real option to encourage Arab emigration out of Yesha (Judea and Samaria). It also shows that there's an alternative to reaching a diplomatic agreement in which we have to give away Jerusalem or other parts of Israel, and that is an agreement involving the settling of the Arab refugees in Arab nations, preferably Jordan."
Eldad said that it is definitely possible that the world will come to accept this idea, "because after the upcoming war with Iraq, there will be tremendous changes in the Middle East, and certainly in Iraq, and it could be that this will provide a window of opportunities to make international changes in the borders of the Middle East that were determined by colonial decisions following World War One."
(It should be noted that Eldad appears to be alluding to something mentioned by NRP leader Brig.-Gen. (res.) Effie Eitam several weeks ago in an interview with B'Sheva:
"If the Iraqi issue ends, I see a possibility wherein the entire area of Jordan and Iraq become the area of two [different] countries. Today, each of them has a minority that is disrupting the entire region. I am referring to the Kurds [in Iraq] and the Palestinians. I foresee a situation in which the areas of Jordan and Iraq will be re-divided, and in each one a new country will be formed: A Palestinian state in most of Jordan's territory, and a Kurdish state. If a solution for the Kurds is found, tensions will decrease in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. If a solution is found for the Palestinians on the other side of the Jordan River, the tensions here will decrease. [This will form] a ring around Syria, made up of Israel, the new Jordan, the new Iraq, and Lebanon. All of them demand that Syria stop supporting Hizbullah. This will allow us to sign a peace agreement with Lebanon within a short time. [In short,] I see the defeat of the Iraqi regime as changing the entire Middle East.")
When reminded that even within Israel, support for "voluntary transfer" is not widespread, specifically in the Labor party, Dr. Eldad said, "Of course Labor does not like this idea, because Labor has a much better alternative - what's it called again, Oslo or something?" He said that the program does not involve expulsion at all:
"All we want to do is to encourage an existing trend of emigration to Jordan. Some 250,000 Arabs left Yesha for Jordan over the course of two years, because they were unhappy here. It was reported recently that Jordan had closed its gates for that reason; it seems that Jordan has even less use for them than we do. But if the U.S. and the U.N. wish to be concerned with democracies, then let them support the 75% of the Jordanian population that is Palestinian, and let Jordan be recognized as the Palestinian state - and then even those Arabs of Yesha who don't want to leave will be able to take part in running that country."