The people of Israel are the people of relocation, a little over 2,600 years ago the Babylonian exile, the first forced relocation of our people, began. This was followed by the destruction of the Second Temple, the Bar Kokhba revolt, the expulsion of the Jews of England and France, the expulsion from Spain, the pogroms and the Holocaust. After every tragedy, the nation of Israel succeeded in rebuilding itself in a different place.
Wherever Jews went in thousands of years of wandering, we were able to build a new life, a family life and a cultural life. The first to leave and survive also cast foundations of prosperity.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Jews who fled to the United States and Palestine following the pogroms in Russia created thriving communities. Those who fled Russia and Eastern Europe for the United States not only became the richest Jewish community in human history, but helped build the United States as a superpower, whether in culture or finance or trade. Those who fled to the Land of Israel established a prosperous national home here.
In 1923, Jabotinsky began warning European Jewry of the impending Holocaust. Those who listened to him were saved, and not only saved, but got to build a much better life. I myself am a relocator, my parents and I are refugees from Soviet rule in the USSR. Throughout the Diaspora, Jews understood that in order to save their lives, they had to start a new life elsewhere.
Relocation is not a dirty word. If a person decides that he and his family have a better chance elsewhere, they should seize the opportunity.
Most of Gaza's population is under the age of 18. Most Gazans have never seen a "settler"; Hamas terrorists who are now aged 30-20 witnessed the destruction of Gush Katif communities, the destruction of synagogues and the burning of greenhouses.
They had 18 years to build the Singapore of the Middle East: hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign aid, unprecedented international diplomatic support, hundreds of schools the world built in Gaza – and what did they do with all the wealth that went there?
They dismantled the water pipes and made missiles out of them, they turned the concrete into bunkers and tunnels, the greenhouses and hospitals into launching bases, but worst of all, their children who were educated in UNRWA schools became murderers.
This has no future, nothing will ever grow there. The harvest season will never reach Gaza. Nothing will be built there, no factories will be built there, and no produce will be produced there. Gaza will contribute nothing to its residents or to the world.
Gaza doesn't know how to give, it only knows how to take. And it takes the lives of its neighbors, the lives of its residents, our blood, their blood, their future.
This is the fate of Gaza – but it does not have to be the fate of its residents. The innocent people of Gaza can build a better future for themselves, elsewhere. They don't have to choose between becoming terrorists and becoming their human shields. The people of Gaza must flee from Hamas just as we Jews fled from our oppressors.
They had 18 years to build the Singapore of the Middle East: hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign aid, unprecedented international diplomatic support, hundreds of schools the world built in Gaza – and what did they do with all the wealth that went there?
Relocation is not a dirty word, and there are many countries that could easily give new life to Gazans. Israel more than doubled its population between 1948 and 1958, and it did so when it was very poor. Egypt is home to 110 million people today. Absorbing 2 million Gazans would increase their population by less than two percent; this would be a much easier Egyptian national task than the economic difficulty Israel had in absorbing ten waves of immigration.
The cost of aid required to absorb Gazans into Egypt is very small, on the order of several tens of billions of dollars. It is certainly small relative to the cost of wars, it will be a small comma in Western budgets, and most importantly, it will save the lives of countless Hamas victims.
Gazans can have a better life if they are not in Gaza. Western countries, Arab countries, and Israel must help them absorb into Egypt. We can build a new future here.
Wrong? We'll fix it! If you find a mistake in the article, please share with us