This
past week’s Torah reading, Vayera, coincided with the 29th
remembrance of the murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane. The former member of
Knesset, leader of the later outlawed Kach party, and founder of the
Jewish Defense League in America (JDL), Rabbi Kahane fought to
protect Jews from anti-Semitism in America, increase Jewish identity
and national pride, and to free Soviet Jewry.
But he was probably best known for advocating the transfer of
Arabs out of Israel, to a new life somewhere else, to put an end to
the Arab-Jewish conflict in Israel.
But was he the first to advocate expelling enemies
attacking Jews?
The Vayera passage identifies Sarah ordering the
first expulsion of an enemy of Hebrews
In fact, in this past Torah reading, Vayera, we find Sarah,
telling Abraham,
Get rid of that slave woman and her son [Ishmael –
father of the Arabs], for that woman’s son will never share in the
inheritance with my son Isaac.
Sarah had seen Ishmael constantly picking on little Isaac,
(Genesis 21:9-10).
The Torah continues,
The matter greatly distressed Abraham regarding his son
[Ishmael]. But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the
boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because
it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. I will make
the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your
offspring.”
But they can not live together in the same land. So Abraham
listened to God and expelled him and his mother, (Genesis 21:11-14).
Arabs and Jews cannot live together. Sarah knows
this
There you go, right from the start of the Jewish people, the
solution to attacks on Jews, is to expel the perpetrators. Mother
Sarah in her woman’s wisdom, sees the future, that the Arabs and
the Jews can’t live together, and God backs up her demand on
Abraham, to expel Ishmael.
Later, God codifies it in the Torah,
You shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before
you…You shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I
have given you the land to possess.
And then warns,
But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land
from before you, then those whom you let remain shall be as barbs in
your eyes and thorns in your sides; they shall trouble you in the
land where you are settling, (Numbers 33:52-53, 55).
Resettlement is a common solution to stop
or prevent war
Even the nations understood this, in the 20th century, several internationally sanctioned population transfers were
implemented, to separate warring
peoples.
Most notably, the Greco-Turkish agreed mutual expulsion in the
1920’s, of about 1.6 million people, and the Pakistani-Indian
exchange, after British decolonization in 1947, where 10-12 million
people were displaced.
Then there was the forced expulsion of about 12-14 million ethnic
Germans (between 1944-50), from central and eastern Europe, to create
more homogeneous states, after the war.
So, as Rabbi Kahane documented in his book, “They Must
Go” (1981), population transfers and forced expulsions had been
being used, long before his proposal to transfer the Arabs out of
Israel. In fact, his plan was quite merciful, by international
standards, since he proposed offering money to the Arabs to leave.
Arab leaders seemed to follow the lead of
Sarah
Even some Arab leaders had previously suggested transfer
as a solution to the conflict.
For example, in 1939, Mojli Amin, a member of the Arab Defense
Committee for Palestine put forward a proposal for the transfer of
Arabs from Palestine. This proposal was published in Damascus and
distributed among Arab leaders. Amin proposed that all of Palestine
be given to the Jews.
Furthermore, I hereby propose that all the Arabs of
Palestine will leave and be divided up among the neighboring Arab
countries. In exchange for this, all the Jews living in Arab
countries will leave and come to Palestine.
Amin proposed that this exchange of populations, should be carried
out in the same way as the Greco-Turkish population exchange, and
that special committees should be established to deal with the
liquidation of Jewish and Arab property. He realized that at first
there would be great difficulties, but he hoped they would be finally
solved. (Joan Peters, From Time Immemorial, (New York, 1984), p.25,
and Proposal, 21 May 1939, [CZA S25/5630]).
The Transjordan partition
Later, in 1946, Britain awarded Transjordan (what had been 75% of
the Palestine Mandate) independence, and Abdullah ibn Hussein became
its King. His Prime Minister was an Arab jurist named Ibrahim Pasha
Hashem.
In July 1946, Alexander Kirkbride, from the British Legation in
Amman, reported on his meeting with King Abdullah and the Prime
Minister. Various ideas for the future of the Palestine were
discussed and Kirkbride wrote that Abdullah was, “for partition and
he feels that the other Arab leaders may acquiesce in that solution
although they may not approve of it openly.”
Emphasis on partition as an alternative to war
In Kirkbride’s meeting with Ibrahim Pasha, Pasha proposed a
population transfer, to avoid future conflict in Palestine. Kirkbride
reported that,
He [Pasha] went on to say that, in his opinion, the only
just and permanent solution lay in absolute partition with an
exchange of populations; to leave Jews in an Arab State or Arabs in a
Jewish State would lead inevitably to further trouble between the two
peoples. Ibrahim Pasha admitted that he would not be able to express
this idea in public for fear of being called a traitor.
Confirming in writing
About a month later, a telegram sent from Amman to the British
Foreign Office stated,
King Abdullah and Prime Minister of Transjordan both
consider that partition followed by an exchange of populations is the
only practical solution to the Palestine problem. They do not feel
able to express this view publicly because having regard to the
possibility of the Arab area of Palestine being joined to Transjordan
they would be regarded as prejudiced.
We can see from this, that King Abdullah had now joined his Prime
Minister in favoring population transfer. (Kirkbride to Wikeley, 29
July 1946, p.1-2,[PRO FO 816/85], and Telegram, Prodrome to Foreign
Office, 23 August 1946, [PRO FO 816/85 C208213]).
For an excellent review of the subject, check out, “A Historical
Survey of Proposals to Transfer Arabs from Palestine 1895 – 1947,”
by Rabbi Dr. Chaim Simons (2004 – it can be found at
chaimsimons.net).
Sarah was right all along
An expression in the midrash and early Torah commentators,
is “Ma’aseh Avot Siman l’Banim,” the deeds of the fathers are
signs/guides to their children. Mother Sarah was teaching her
children, us, the Jewish people, an important lesson.
When will we learn it?
Biography
Ariel Natan Pasko, an independent analyst and consultant, has a
Master’s Degree specializing in International Relations, Political
Economy & Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous
news/views and think-tank websites and in newspapers. His latest
articles can also be read on his archive: The
Think Tank by Ariel Natan Pasko.
© 2019/5780 Pasko
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