ARABS IN HEBRON

The eviction of Hebron settlers from their homes yesterday set a precedent.

In 1929 the local Arabs massacred the Jews of Hebron and took their property. For nearly forty years no Jews were allowed to live in Hebron – per British Mandate order initially, by reason of Jordanian enmity since then.

Until the 1929 pogrom, which the British did nothing to stop, there had always been Jews in Hebron. The property cleared of Jews was seized by Arabs, with no restitution to the heirs of those who were killed.

After Hebron was liberated in 1967, Jews once again lived in Hebron. Jews who were descendants of those who had lived there before. Jews who settled on Jewish-owned land. Jews who rebuilt homes destroyed in 1929.

Yesterday, the Israeli government forcibly expelled Jews and destroyed their homes.



Unlike Gaza, which is a cesspool that arguably might always remain Arab, where debatably the demands of the Arabs could outweigh those of settlers (who, it absolutely must be added, provided employment for the Arabs), Hebron was both historically and in our day a Jewish city. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Hebron was the moral line in the sand. The peaceniks and the Arabs demanded nothing less than force. They got it.

This is the precedent: If Jews can be expelled, so can Arabs. If Jews can be expelled from property to which they hold legal title, so can Arabs.



Certainly there was already such a precedent in the Arab world – Yassir Arafat became rich when Egypt gave him what was stolen from the Alexandrian and Cairene Jewish communities. Many current Arab politicians built their rise to prominence with the assets seized from fleeing Jews. The PLO was funded with moneys expropriated by the Arab regimes from their departing victims. The perfect transfer of land, people, and resources was completed by the rapacious action of Arab regimes.

But I’m not concerned with Arab precedents. I’m talking about a civilized state. A state of laws, principles, ideals. What violent tribes with flags do is immaterial, and by definition either immoral or amoral. Their squabbling, their violence, their highway robbery – lamentable, yes, but of no import. What Israel does is different.


If Jews can be expelled by Israel, so can Arabs.


If, in the interests of peace, Jews can be expelled from the territories, so can Arabs.
If Jews can be expelled so that an all-Arab state can be given to Abu Mazen, then Arabs can be expelled from other areas. If the Arabs do not wish any Jews in their territory, very well then, give them more Arabs. Nothing but Arabs.
Doing so will bring all branches of the alleged Palestinian nation together. It will ingather what had never existed.
And it will remove the demographic time-bomb of Arabs in the state of Israel. A Jew-free state for the Arabs, a terrorist-free state for Israelis.


If Jews can be expelled by Israel, so can Arabs.


If there can be no Jews in Hebron, there should be no Arabs in Jerusalem.
If there can be no Jews in the Northern Shomron, there should be no Arabs in Haifa.
If the residents of Sderot are terrorized by Arab rockets, there should be no Arabs anywhere within rocket distance.


If Jews can be expelled by Israel, so can Arabs.