Does Mike Huckabee buy into “transfer”?-UPDATE
Spencer Ackerman at the Washington Independent wonders if by this...
The question is should the Palestinians have a place to call their own? Yes, I have no problem with that. Should it be in the middle of the Jewish homeland? That's what I think has to be honestly assessed as virtually unrealistic.
...former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and likely 2012 presidential candidate is advocating transfer:
If Huckabee has any idea what he’s talking about — which at this point is an open question and the only exculpatory option for him — then he’s advocating the transfer of millions of Palestinians from the West Bank (and, who knows, maybe Gaza) to a different Arab state. That’s commonly known as “ethnic cleansing.” Israel and the world, rightly, consider transfer to be monstrous. Or, I suppose, he could mean tiny Palestinian Bantustans, swallowed up by ever expanding Israeli settlements, which could “govern” themselves under endless Israeli occupation. If we take Huckabee at his word, those are the only two choices. And this is the guy who’s based his entire political profile on good Christian values.
There is a third option -- and, I'll say it upfront, should it become U.S. policy the consequences would be, shall we say, "open ended" and not in a quiet sense: Huckabee might be buying into the old "Jordan is Palestine" plan.
The plan dusted off its ashes last year when it was dubbed "The Israeli Plan" by Benny Elon, a figure who is close to Huckabee's settler hosts while he tours Israel and the West Bank.
The plan (which no serious actor, least of all the Jordanians, takes seriously) does not necessarily involve transfer, although it does not appear to count it out. Palestinians "who continue to reside" in the West Bank would have "political rights" in Amman. (This has always baffled me -- who picks up the garbage? who delivers the mail? But like I said, it's kind of like having "Earth Two" arguments with DC Comics afficionados -- not a discussion anchored in reality.).
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) flirted with the plan during his own presidential campaign last year, so Huckabee's endorsement wouldn't even be unprecedented.
UPDATE: Ami points out to me that perhaps Huckabee is, indeed, referring to transfer. From our own profile of Huckabee during last year's primaries:
“This is a guy who is very positive, very uplifting, “ said [N.H. State Rep. Jason] Bedrick, the gabbai at the Chabad synagogue in Wellesley Hills, Mass., where he often spends the Sabbath. “This is a country that needs some healing in addition to leadership. And of all the candidates in all the parties, he is the only top-tier candidate that can provide that.”
To boot, the New Hampshire lawmaker added, Huckabee is pro-Israel: He has visited the Jewish state nine times, and told the crowd at the Bedrick house party that he favored the establishment of a Palestinian state – in Egypt or Saudi Arabia.
At the Huffington Post, Amjad Atallah, tongue firmly in cheek (he's worried Huckabee has offended The Onion by coming up with the idea first), says the Palestinians might just settle for California:
Many Palestinians immigrated to the US to live in industrial cities where jobs were plentiful. My grandfather's brother worked for Ford for most of his life in Detroit and I grew up in Gary, Indiana. Nothing against Detroit and Gary, but Palestinians have an agrarian history (it wasn't called the Fertile Crescent because you couldn't grow anything) and would prefer California.
Many Palestinians, especially those in the Diaspora, are Christian and they could try their hand at taking over the California wine industry.
And think of all the jobs in Hollywood playing Arab stereotypes that could now go to actual Arabs.
Hmmm, but that raises the issue of what to do with all the Californians that already live there.
Perhaps Huckabee has a solution for them too. There is a lot of empty land in Nevada and Arizona. We'll just have to wait for his next presidential run.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
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“Unfortunately Jewish people are sick, they suffer from identification with the oppressors and oppose the only solution that can work for them.”
I am not sure what Ray Bright is talking about but Israel is the oppressor in Palestine, of course they learned from the best. Lessons they should have eschewed. “Cleansing” is illegal and immoral. The only workable solution is back to the ‘67 borders and two states.
Both of you write absurdities. First of all, Huckabee is a schmuck Fundamentalist Christian who has no business interfering in the dispute over Jerusalem. That is something Israelis and Palestinians must negotiate. Secondly, Frank’s comments about Israel being the oppressor in Palestine is equally hogwash. There is no Palestine. That ended in 1948 with the establishment of the State of Israel. Today’s Palestinians only became identified as “Palestinians” when Arafat coined the term to gain world recognition for a homeland to those who ended up in refugee camps, since their Arab brothers in surrounding Nations refused to accept them. Arab States are as much to blame for the mess Palestinians are in as the Palestinians themselves (and their incompetence at working towards statehood) and the Israelis who have pursued a policy of paranoid security without due regard to the territorial integrity of a future Palestinian State. The blame goes all away around.
Frank,
You keep forgetting how small Israel is and how HUGE is the Arab occupied M.E.
Israel is only 0.3% of the Arab occupied area. There is PLENTY of space for Arabs to move out of Israel.
Arabs have already ethnically cleansed their countries of Jews who have lived there much longer than Arabs. Not a Single Jew left in Libya, only a handful in Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Yemen. A million has been expelled.
“Cleansing”, has been implemented various countries:
Czechs have expelled 3 million Germans, Turks kicked out 1.5 million Greeks, Poles kicked out some 10 million Germans, India and Pakistan each about 15 million Muslims and Hindus, respectively, the list is much longer.
Ethnic cleansing is NORMAL way of handling a situation when populations are at conflict. It is also necessary for establishing the national homes for various national groups: For example without ethnically cleansing Czech from Germans, there would have been no Czech republic today.
Arabs have brutally conquered and occupied M.E. They have killed and in every way oppressed the native populations. Raped their women, and made them their sex-slaves. The children then became “Arab”.
This is the history of Every Arab country outside Arabian Peninsula.
Jews are only oppressors of Arabs in the same sense as if someone squats on your home, and you are trying to evict them.
Of course Huckabee is an Idiot Christian Fundamentalist, but still I say “Bravo Huckabee”! Some times Idiots can do a great good deed as the case was with Regan!
If Huckabee allows Israelis to move Pals out to other Arab countries, there will finally be solution to the M.E. problem.
Ray
There can be no justification for etnic cleansing in the 20th or the 21st century. Are you a Jew, because I can’t believe a Jew would say such a thing except for an extreme Zionist? The people you are talking about were born there and are citizens by birthright aren’t they? They are not “squaters” are they now.
I don’t like what the Arabs did a thousand and hundreds of years ago but it is very old history and now part of the real politik. That argument has no more validity than using the Bible or Torah to support a current geopolitical claim so give me a break. I would call anyone born in Israel an Israeli and if there is a law that is contrary to that or if there is a voters test it is oppressive. The IDF defininely oppresses the people who live in Gaza and the West bank with all the searches, check points, roads the Pales can’t use etc.
They have created a machinery that creates more hate evry damned day. Are the residents of Gaza squating on Israeli land? How about their last operation in Gaza, what did they call it “Give them lead” or something like that? How many women and children did they kill? It was a retaliation for how many deaths? How many of the people they killed had anything to do with firing rockets. Jesus Christ the Nazis didn’t kill that many village folk after a partisan attack and they usually killed the men.
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Ray Bright
08/19/09 01:10 AM
Bravo Huckabee!
One man who dares to speak the truth!
There Arabs got 99.7% of the joined Arab/Jewish land in M.E.
Transfer Arabs out of Land of Israel.
Call it “Ethnic cleansing” or “Population Exchange” who cares. It is the only workable solution. There is nothing wrong in asking Arabs to move 20 miles East. May be inconvenient, but all other options are worse.
Unfortunately Jewish people are sick, they suffer from identification with the oppressors and oppose the only solution that can work for them.
Arabs on the other hand are normal people, if they win, they will kill all the Jews who don’t manage to escape. And Jews are fooling themselves with idiotic ideas that “if we are ‘nice” they will be nice back”!