Un-Transfer Transfer

Submitted by Yehoshua Mizrachi (United States), Apr 5, 2006 at 15:51

Dr. Pipes Shalom,

Articulate and thoughtful, as always. However, I would quibble on one point you made regarding the impracticality of transfer.

I have long argued for a program of strong incentives to encourage, not coerce, Arabs living in Israel to return to their native lands, (principally Jordan, Syria and Egypt.) I envision a "gradient of opportunity" that encourages emigration from Israel to greener pastures elsewhere. In the absence of PA intimidation, and given the means to do so, many Arabs would simply leave.

This idea is predicated upon the premise that most Arabs still want a decent wage, dignified labor, a modest home, and education for their children. (I concede that after a decade of jihadist indocrination, this premise may no longer be as true as it once was.) We know that over 200,000 wealthy Arabs have permanently left Israel for points abroad since the rise of the PA kleptocracy. We also know that the PA physically bars emigration from the territories it controls.

Imagine a program - quiet, unpoliticized, unheralded - that created massive financial incentives and capital investment in Jordan to provide such jobs, homes, and schools. After all, these were the identical factors that encouraged their grandparents to move to Mandatory Palestine. Many simple people, given the choice of living in continued, abject poverty in a war zone, or moving twenty-five miles west to a new development community east of the Jordan, would jump at the opportunity.

On a strategic level, such a plan makes sense for Jordan, both from the perspective of foreign investment, as well as by neutralizing the Hamas/Fatah/Jihad Islami/PA, which (few people realize) represents an existential threat to the current Jordanian regime.

Over time, I believe such a program is not only feasible, but would lay the groundwork for a permanent peace in the region. Anyone who has genuine compassion for the living conditions of the Arabs in the region must see the merits of such a plan.

Yehoshua Mizrachi

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