The Arab refugee camps must be razed and UNRWA kicked out, removing these obstacles to peace. In their place will be upgraded housing, schools and administrative bodies for the local Arabs. Terrorists and their families will be systematically deported. Those Arabs who have Israeli citizenship will be warned that any terrorism or sedition against the state will be met with deportation and/or some heavy duty jail time. That should keep Allegra Pacheco busy.

Israel's Jews will drop their claims to return to those cozy corners of the Diaspora in Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon and all Arabs will drop their claim to return to Jewish Palestine.

Finally, the question of transfer must be on the table for discussion. Just as Czechoslovakia transferred millions of ethnic Germans from the Sudetenland after World War II, Israel must consider the expulsion of those Arabs who cannot live in peace with their Jewish neighbors. Just as India and Pakistan agreed to a peaceful exchange of populations, so Israel must have the right to consider such an alternative in respect to Arab countries which expelled over 800,000 Jews in the aftermath of 1948.

If Israel is unable to insist on its own terms for negotiations, it will, however reluctantly, fulfill the Arab dream, namely, the forced and violent transfer of all Jews from the Middle East.  

Ruth King is a member of the Executive Committee of Americans For a Safe Israel.

From the Editor

Perhaps Israeli novelist Naomi Ragen has provided the best epitaph for Corrie: "As an Israeli, how exactly am I supposed to feel about an American who comes to my country to defend those trying to kill my children? How am I supposed to feel about a girl who throws herself in front of my sons, my soldiers, who are risking their lives to uproot terrorism, forcing them to deal with naive foreigners who make their lives even more difficult and dangerous?...What a wasted life. What a foolish death. But all those who fight on the side of evil take a chance that they will have to pay the price in the end. I would rather mourn for the wasted life of this misguided girl than for the lives of those her foolish actions surely endangered. I suggest her friends pack up their sandals and backpacks and find someplace else to play before they share her fate."

To which we add that it is time the Israeli government packed up the members of the International Solidarity Movement and shipped them out of the country.  

Arabs Use Civilian Shields

The U.S. administration is now waking up to an old Arab trick which it refused to condemn or even recognize when Israel was the victim. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has complained that the Iraqi government is putting its forces in what he calls "dual use facilities" -- places filled with civilians in which the military hide their forces and weapons. Rumsfeld has a stern warning for the civilians so used: do not permit it.

The U.S. has come up against an Arab pattern of behavior which in the past has worked brillliantly. When Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 to rid the country of PLO terrorists, the U.S.media virtually to a man portrayed Israel's war effort in Beirut (to use terms employed by NBC's John Chancellor) as "savage" (Aug. 2), "horrifying" and "brutal" (Aug. 5) and "inhuman" (Aug. 6). In fact, as Edward Alexander has pointed out, there is abundant evidence Israel made greater, not lesser, efforts than most attacking armies to avoid injuring civilians and increased its own casualties by doing so. But what they were up against, to quote Alexander, was "what every disinterested observer of the PLO 'defense' strategy had known for years: namely, that the PLO always places its troops and its weapons in and around schools, hospitals, and apartment houses, deliberately seeking to maximize civilian casualities in the event of an Israeli attack. In many cases, PLO fighters hid behind rows of women and children when firing on Israeli forces."

The PLO, now reborn as the PA, has been using the same tricks in Jenin and Ramallah, achieving the same propaganda bonanza, thanks to the media and the European governments who conspire in the charade.

In the past, the U.S. administration has joined in the chorus of condemnation of Israel. Now it experiences Saddam's use of the same old methods and can do no better than vent its frustration. "Do not permit it" says Secretary Rumsfeld. How are civilians supposed to prevent it? Does Mr. Rumsfeld really believe Iraqi's Gestapo, now desperate as well as vicious, will listen to the appeals of fearful women and children?  

Mr. President, Don't Blix Israel

That's the message to George W. Bush from Aaron Lerner of Israel's Independent Media Review and Analysis (IMRA). Lerner notes that despite every indication that Abu Mazen, the PA's new Prime Minister, has limited authority (Arafat retains control of security and foreign affairs -- i.e. the terror apparatus and relations with Israel), President Bush is treating the appointment as if it meets the requirement for displacing Arafat. He wel-

April 2003               - 11 -               Outpost