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Last update - 14:11 04/10/2006
The new torah of Transfer
By Bradley Burston

Note: This article will be followed by an experiment. In an effort to foster rational dialogue, Talkback responses to this piece will be subject to stringent new guidelines, as specified below.

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We all of us have our individual torah, the personal belief system that keeps us feeling at once grounded and in touch with the Infinite.

This personal torah, as opposed to the collective and traditional Torah, is the internal, often unstated, oral law which is meant to grant meaning to traumatic events and difficult lives.

Over the past six years, the personal torah of the left, with its books of Land For Peace, Tranquility through Economic Cooperation, We Are All Brothers and Sisters Under the Skin, has been passed, page by page, through the shredder of the Palestinian armed struggle.

But as the left has seen its belief systems hammered and buried, the hard right has kept alight the pilot flame of the Torah of Transfer, its solution to all West Bank and Gaza dilemmas demographic and geographic.

In the latest incarnation of what National Union party founder Rehavam Ze'evi called "voluntary transfer," party veteran Rabbi Benyamin Elon told a national radio news show Wednesday that Israel should make do without U.S. foreign aid, and that the funds should be given to Palestinians who agree to leave the territories.

"If we really want to be creative and courageous, the only solution is this: If, for 20 years, Israel itself went without U.S. foreign aid, it could be given to every family of the million refugees of the Gaza Strip. We must finally solve the problem of the refugees, which is the heart of the conflict," Elon said.

"This money would be given to every family of the million refugees of the Gaza Strip region, and each family would emigrate with $100,000 dollars." The money would be given them as they emigrate, Elon said.

"Many countries would absorb them if they came not as refugees, but with $100,000 dollars.

The somewhat incredulous interviewer asked Elon if the plan were at all practicable. "The state of Israel has never seriously considered this," he replied.

"This would be far more inexpensive than all the ammunition, and this is the only humanitarian solution.

We are often accused here at Haaretz of advocating unrealistic policies which only act to harm the Jewish state.

Many of those who argue this - most of them from the comfortable distance of thousands of kilometers - are ardent believers in Transfer.

The remarkable thing about Transfer is that, while nearly all Israelis are dead set against the idea and would never participate in it, the idea itself manages to continue to do incalculable harm to Israel, its image and its efforts at solving the conflict with its neighbors.

Some versions of a personal torah would be best left personal. Beginning with this one.


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Talkback Guidelines

The guiding principles of the talkback forum for this article will be mutual respect and an openness to dialogue. Participants, even if they rule out, dismiss or oppose coexistence, must, within the confines of this forum, practice it.

Censorship will be unapologetic.

Political orientation will have absolutely no bearing on whether a comment is posted or rejected.

The following will be grounds for deletion:

1. Racist remarks, as well as slurs on the basis of religion, ethnicity and gender.
2. Use of the terms Nazi, Hitler, ethnic cleansing, to describe the actions and policies of Israelis, Palestinians or other parties to the Israel-Arab conflict.
3. Disparaging remarks, personal attacks, vulgarities and profanities directed at other participants in the forum.
4. Advocacy of violence against individuals or religious, ethnic or racial groups, including statements which may be construed as urging attacks on leaders, officials, security forces or civilians.
5.Use of the phrase: "There are no Palestinians" or derivatives thereof.

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Previous blogs:

For the journalist, on Yom Kippur
The genocide myth - ours and theirs
The 10 most useful lies about terrorism
What's right about Islam?

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  1.   The Uncontournable Right of Return 12:27  |  Karim 04/10/06
  2.   ARE they all "dead set" against it? 12:30  |  Maral 04/10/06
  3.   the torah of the politically correct 12:35  |  joe 04/10/06
  4.   Transfer? Who`s for it? 12:38  |  JW 04/10/06
  5.   Torah of transfer vs. Fatwa of bloodshed 12:38  |  Akiva Patysh 04/10/06
  6.   Joe, what about the other way around? 12:47  |  Maral 04/10/06
  7.   Mendel has a question 13:21  |  Mendel the Mean 04/10/06
  8.   #5 13:26  |  bill morgan 04/10/06
  9.   Jews should be compensated fairly. 13:32  |  Adel 04/10/06
  10.   The fastidiously pedantic, Maral. 13:46  |  Akiva Patysh 04/10/06
  11.   Money to move is a good idea 13:59  |  Stephen Murray 04/10/06
  12.   Benny Eilon 14:02  |  sh 04/10/06
  13.   They transfered Jews already, and it brought more bloodshed 14:15  |  Dani 04/10/06
  14.   elon offers credible solution 14:26  |  tim 04/10/06
  15.   The racist Akiva 14:30  |  Maral 04/10/06
  16.   Why not just abide by the law? 14:31  |  John 04/10/06
  17.   Karim 14:58  |  Jeremy Woolf 04/10/06
  18.   Burston propaganda lies 15:02  |  B 04/10/06
  19.   The Big Brush 15:17  |  Tony Anthony 04/10/06
  20.   message to Adel 15:27  |  Esther 04/10/06
  21.   Transfer is a wide spread concept 15:31  |  reader 04/10/06
  22.   to # 1 15:48  |  Watcher 04/10/06
  23.   The more realistic option is 15:52  |  bruce 04/10/06
  24.   to # 6 15:58  |  Watcher 04/10/06
  25.   Response to Khaled 16:01  |  Yaron 04/10/06
  26.   Thank you Bradley 16:08  |  Piranha 04/10/06
  27.   On Transfer 16:18  |  Anubhav 04/10/06
  28.   Indignation 16:20  |  Walid 04/10/06
  29.   Buying consciences?? 16:22  |  Gloria 04/10/06
  30.   Karim, it is not going to happen, accept it 16:33  |  Tulip 04/10/06
  31.   Dear Bradley 16:34  |  Hope Springs eternal 04/10/06
  32.   Elon is close; given a little more thought might hit the bullseye 16:38  |  Virginia 04/10/06
  33.   who is rat n pig 16:40  |  AngryMan 04/10/06
  34.   as expected the morally elevated and liberated r up with their 16:44  |  ConscienceBuyer 04/10/06
  35.   Transfer 16:54  |  Abbushuki 04/10/06
  36.   Transfer - Perish the thought 16:55  |  Cynic #2 04/10/06
  37.   C`mon US, give every Gazan a green card and a $1,000,000 16:58  |  Le Maudit Anglais 04/10/06
  38.   Adel`s response is titled reasonably but contradicts its content 17:05  |  Reality Check 04/10/06
  39.   Jews will take what they can get, any way they can get it. 17:26  |  Le Maudit Anglais 04/10/06
  40.   le maudit 18:13  |  bev 04/10/06
  41.   how many Jews would leave 18:54  |  Itamar 04/10/06
  42.   transfer 19:13  |  Abby 04/10/06
  43.   Voluntary Paid Emigration 19:32  |  Eric 04/10/06
  44.   To Itamar, who thinks Jews have too much land 19:36  |  Reality Check 04/10/06
  45.   # 39 is fake Le Maudit Anglais. Haaretz we need registration. 19:41  |  Le Maudit Anglais 04/10/06
  46.   # 40 Bev. I did not write # 39 19:47  |  Le Maudit Anglais 04/10/06
  47.   Transfer sounds great, to me! 20:06  |  Lev 04/10/06
  48.   There is ony ONE Torah Mr Burston. 21:03  |  Akram Zekaria 04/10/06
  49.   Shhhh! 21:07  |  Hank N Tennessee 04/10/06
  50.   Where has the absorbtion been all these years? 21:21  |  melinda Lehan 04/10/06
  51.   Since everything else tried has failed to entice the Arabs... 21:22  |  bat yam 04/10/06
  52.   John jews lived in Gush Etzion before 1948 21:24  |  Jabadini 04/10/06
  53.   47. Lev. maybe your grandparents not so keen 21:24  |  Mendel the Mean 04/10/06
  54.   Israelis were not given an option in Gaza 21:29  |  Jabadini 04/10/06
  55.   It`s better than what happened to the Jews in Arab countri 21:40  |  DavidAK 04/10/06
  56.   Maudit Anglais 21:40  |  Walid 04/10/06
  57.   Bradley Burston 21:44  |  Maureen S 04/10/06
  58.   Money 21:45  |  joe 04/10/06
  59.   can`t throw US money at every problem 21:51  |  Child of Asher 04/10/06
  60.   To Lev 21:52  |  Jeroen 04/10/06
  61.   to karim,#1 21:54  |  citizen zero 04/10/06
  62.   maral 22:10  |  bev 04/10/06
  63.   # 56 Walid. Thanks 22:32  |  Le Maudit Anglais 04/10/06
  64.   The New Torah 22:34  |  Joe 04/10/06
  65.   Who was robbed and thrown out of their country first? 22:37  |  Mike 04/10/06
  66.   Some are prohibited from leaving 22:38  |  Bruriah Sarah 04/10/06
  67.   Mendel has a question? 23:00  |  peter 04/10/06
  68.   #9 To Adel in Bahrain 23:11  |  Hastaroth 04/10/06
  69.   #64 Joe 23:36  |  Boycott 04/10/06
  70.   Response to #1 23:43  |  Dave 04/10/06
  71.   who was robbed of land first 23:46  |  joe 04/10/06
  72.   Agree with Walid - Indignation. 00:09  |  Deena 05/10/06
  73.   BB 00:14  |  Gabe1 05/10/06
  74.   Voluntary Emigration for Arabs is it practical? 00:20  |  Rafi 05/10/06
  75.   Voluntary transfer 00:26  |  Manny 05/10/06
  76.   Another disappointment from Burston, part 1 00:26  |  sk 05/10/06
  77.   Palestinians will never accept it. 00:32  |  will 05/10/06
  78.   Another disappointment from Burston, part 2 00:37  |  sk 05/10/06
  79.   #53 Mendel the mean, Zionism 00:43  |  reuben 05/10/06
  80.   Burston: What are your data sources? 00:46  |  Bennie 05/10/06
  81.   Another disappointment from Burston, part 3 00:54  |  sk 05/10/06
  82.   Problem with the math. 01:19  |  justiceseeker 05/10/06
  83.   Pay for departure 01:29  |  Michael H. 05/10/06
  84.   Spending US tax dollars 01:31  |  Nathaniel 05/10/06
  85.   a better life 01:43  |  izaak 05/10/06
  86.   #69-reuben and arabist apologists 02:04  |  peter 05/10/06