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Yehezkel Bin Nun, 21 March 2002
Should we fight Arab terrorism? Of course. No doubt about it. Offense is the best defense and Israel's current defensive policy of building fences, posting guards in front of every building and at best bombing empty buildings has proven worthless. Yet before Israel starts fighting Arab terrorism shouldn't it first stop supporting it?
Israel supporting Arab terror? Against itself? That's a joke, right?
If only it were. Unfortunately there are only too many examples of just such support. The most famous example is, of course, the 20,000 machine guns we gave the Palestinian Authority. The architects of Oslo promised that these guns would be used to protect us. It didn't take long for the Arabs to figure out that they could use these very same guns to kill us. This, unfortunately, is only the tip of the iceberg.
In 1996, then Communications Minister Shulamit Aloni (Meretz) donated the equipment for the PA Radio station. The assumption, supposedly, was that they would use the equipment to broadcast the weather and cultural shows. Instead, they used it to broadcast non-stop incitement against Israel, deny the Holocaust and urge on suicide bombers. Even now, in spite of numerous announcements of Israeli guns silencing it, the Voice of Palestine continues to broadcast its incitement daily.
Israel also supplies the PA with electricity. Providing energy to a supposedly “independent people” is weird enough, but providing it for free is beyond all understanding. Half a year ago the PA stopped paying their electricity bill. It currently owes 85 million shekels to the Israeli Electric Company. Yet still Israel keeps supplying them! Every month the bill increases an additional 15 million shekels.
All of the above are grave examples of serious misconduct, but they all pale in comparison with the employment issue. Because the PA is incapable of building any serious industry, Israeli companies have become the primary employer of Arabs from Judea, Samaria and Gaza (Yesha). Thanks to the efforts of Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, 40,000 Yesha Arabs are still allowed into pre-1967 ‘Green Line' Israel every day to work. On top of that, the Arab-run Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem estimates that another 70,000 Yesha Arabs enter and work here illegally. If that were not enough, tens of thousands more find employment working for Israelis inside Yesha. In all, it is estimated that Israelis employ 150,000 Yesha Arabs every day.
Terje Larsen, the former UN coordinator for the Palestinian Authority, says that each Arab worker supports approximately 10 Arabs. That means that in all, Israeli companies support 1.5 million Yesha Arabs or half the total amount. Similarly, Deputy Minister of Defense Ephraim Sneh (Labor) estimates that 40 percent of the PA GNP is derived from Israelis working in ‘Green Line' Israel. Add the Arabs who work for Israelis inside Yesha and you also get 50% of the GNP. That is without even beginning to factor in how many Arabs are supported through Israelis buying from Yesha Arab companies.
Now you can understand why every time I hear the transfer idea being mentioned, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Encourage Yesha Arabs to leave Israel? All we have to do is stop paying them to stay. The Arabs have no foothold on this land except for that which we have given them. How do we know for sure? Prior to the current Arab terror wave Israel permitted 80,000 Arabs to work inside Israel. Due to the Oslo war Israel barred those under 35 and reduced the number of work permits to 40,000. As a result, it is estimated that some 100,000 Arabs left the PA-controlled areas in the past year and emigrated to foreign countries.
If all this support were not enough there is also the almost endless list of direct payments Israel makes to the PA. Israeli Justice Minister Meir Shetreet estimates that Israel has paid 260 million shekels as compensation to Yesha Arabs injured during clashes between Arab terrorists and IDF forces. Should Israel really be paying money for injuries caused as a result of Arab violence? In addition, Israel pays the PA 100s of millions of shekels annually in National Insurance payments for those Yesha Arabs working in Israel. Yet the craziest of all must be the payments we make to families of suicide terrorists. Labor and Welfare Minister Shlomo Benizri has confirmed that national insurance payments given to the dependents of deceased persons also applies to the relatives of suicide terrorists and Israel has already paid out hundreds of thousands of shekels in such payments. Attempts to stop these payments have been blocked by the Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein.
Even if all these payments were justified it is estimated (conservatively) that Arab terror has caused 40 billion shekels in damage to the Israeli economy. After subtracting the above listed payments it should really be the PA which pays Israel over 35 billion shekels in damages.
Of course, there is also the support given to the Arab occupation by the Israeli press. This is bad enough, but when it is done by government-owned media it is truly intolerable. Last week, for example, radio talk show host Razi Barkay interviewed a Hamas terrorist on army radio, Galey Tsahal. Should army radio really be giving a platform for terrorists to justify their actions?
So should we fight terror? Sure. Hit them with everything we've got. But until Israel looks itself in the mirror and realizes it is its own worst enemy, no real progress towards peace will ever be made.
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Yehezkel Bin-Nun, a marketing writer and editorialist, lives in Jerusalem.
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