Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini with an SS officer

-- Stephen M. Asbel

The obvious answer to why the Jews are to be removed is that the presence of Jews, especially Jews who will not submit to the humiliation of dhimmi laws (the Islamic laws applicable to certain non-Muslims), is utterly offensive to the Arab Muslims in the region. Thus, any Jews left to live under an Arab regime will face persecution, violence and death. Long-standing Arab racist intolerance, demonstrated by the historical record of how Jews in Arab lands have been treated (especially in the last sixty years), compels such a conclusion. One infamous example is the 1941 farhoud (pogrom) in Iraq, when on Shavuot, there was a pro-Nazi riot of murder, rape, and looting inspired by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini. This pogrom left 200 Jews dead, 2000 injured and 900 Jewish homes destroyed. 

During the 1948-49 War of Israel's Independence, Arab forces overran long-established Jewish communities in Hebron, Kfar Etzion, Kfar Darom and half of Jerusalem, including the ancient Jewish Quarter of the Old City. In every one of those locations, every Jew there either fled or was killed. Not a single Jew remained alive in the Judea, Samaria and Gaza regions which were occupied by Jordan and Egypt. Yes, Arabs fled Israeli-held areas, but largely at the urging of their own people; and while there were violent incidents against Arab civilians, those were the exception, not the rule. So, as the record shows, when the world seeks Israel's withdrawal to the 1949 lines and the expulsion of every Jew beyond them, the world is seeking to ratify the result of the Arab genocidal war launched in earnest in 1948.

That raises the next question: If the general hostility of Arabs toward Jews is so intense that not one Jew can be tolerated to live in a proposed Arab Palestinian state, then how can Israel possibly expect to live in peace with such a state, especially when there is no indication that any strong political faction among the Arab Palestinians is willing or able to accept Israel and to live in peace? I would suggest that before Israel rushes to expel Jews from the heart of the Jewish homeland in some vain hope for peace in the current political climate, there must first be a massive cultural and educational transition among the Arabs. The Arabs must overcome their long-standing, pervasive hatred of Israel and the Jews before Israel can hope to have a lasting peace with Arab neighbors. For Israel to unilaterally put its major cities in range of hostile missiles and mortars in the absence of such fundamental change is a dangerous folly.

Stephen M. Asbel is an attorney in Media, Pennsylvania. He is the author of the Saba Yeshayah Israel News and Views weblog which received four nominations in the 2005 Jerusalem Post Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards, and has had articles published by Arutz Sheva Israel National News.