By Arieh Eldad

When a crime family decides to take over some stores, the head of the family usually sends a junior member to first offer the owners a paltry sum. Whoever doesn’t get the hint will soon find himself facing thugs who break his windows or his bones. Whoever still doesn’t get the hint will find his property going up in flames. And if none of this helps, the head of the crime family will order the murder of one stubborn storekeeper in order to make clear to the rest that this will be their fate if they do not sell soon.

When several members of Knesset of the extreme Left submitted a “voluntary evacuation and compensation” bill for residents of Judea and Samaria who live east of the security fence, they draped their offer in the garb of “humanitarian aid” for those settlers who seek “quality of life” and who are fed up with the shaky security situation, and who are now ready to sell their property and move back within the Green Line but cannot find buyers for their homes and are now hostages of a sort. When Ehud Barak threw his support behind the plan, all pretenses of humanitarian gestures were dropped. This is a political plan for voluntary evacuation. When this plan originates with those who are implementing a policy of choking the settlements and preventing any construction, including that made necessary by the natural increase in population and including even the construction of nurseries or kindergartens, this is just plain extortion. When Olmert announced that “at this stage” the plan the would not be discussed in order to preserve his coalition, and the same week he released hundreds of terrorists into those territories and gave permission for the posting of Palestinian police in Shechem (three of whom murdered Ido Zoldan, may God avenge his blood), arming them with guns, ammunition, and armored vehicles, this is extortion by means of threats, terror, and murder, so that those who do not want to sell will be forced to sell.

In case a reader finds the above analogy offensive, I should like to offer a mirror image. Imagine that as part of Israel’s demand to maintain the “Jewish character” of the State of Israel, a bill were to be submitted to the Knesset offering “evacuation and compensation” to the Arabs of Israel, with emphasis on the Arabs of Jaffa, Acco, Lod, and Jerusalem. The bill would offer a generous sum (at state expense, of course) to any Arab forgoing Israeli citizenship and leaving the country for good. Two weeks later the minister of interior would announce a policy of aggressive enforcement of construction laws and announce that within a year the 60,000 illegal homes built in the Arab sector would be destroyed. A week later the prime minister would announce that in order to deal with rising violent crime in the Arab sector, armed units of the Civil Guard would be established comprised of ex-cons, who would be stationed in cities with mixed populations.

The evacuation-compensation bill for residents of Judea and Samaria is part of the policy of choking the settlements and encouraging the murder of the settlers, by freeing, arming, and posting hundreds of terrorists in the area. The bill is supposed to be humanitarian, stemming from “true concern” for those poor people stuck in a tough security situation who cannot sell their homes and flee. But this is the exact situation facing thousands of residents of Sderot today; and, soon enough, with an increase in the range of the Kassam rockets and the arming of Hamas with Katyushas, tens of thousands residents of the western Negev and the southern coast. The State of Israel has abandoned these people to their fate amidst the falling shells. Their lives are hell. Yet no one who considers himself a Zionist would think of offering to buy their homes so they could flee. Violent crime, drugs, and hate crimes perpetrated by Arabs have made the lives of Jews living in various neighborhoods of Lod unbearable. Would Israel’s crazy Left offer them evacuation and compensation? Would the minister of interior forbid Jews living in those neighborhoods from erecting fences, sealing their porches, or building a synagogue? Would the minister of internal security announce his support for such an anti-Zionist plan?

The government of Israel has not held a single discussion concerning the future of Judea and Samaria. There has been no government decision, and obviously no plan to expel the Jews of Judea and Samaria has been approved by the Knesset, yet Israel’s leftist extremists are implementing an ethnic cleansing of the Jews of these areas with the support of the minister of defense and the apparent approval of the prime minister, who is supporting the policy with “gestures” designed to “strengthen Abu Mazen” and which of themselves cause the murder of Jews. All the parties that are today members of Olmert’s coalition are full accomplices to these crimes and bear responsibility even if they vote against the “Annapolis declaration” and feign innocence. There is blood on their hands, too.