Profile / Ze'evi: IDF general, proponent of 'transfer' By Ha'aretz Daily

The below article was copied from Ha'aretz Daily, click here to view the full article.

By Nadav Shragai, Ha'aretz Correspondent

Father of the 'transfer' idea

In 1987, one year before he established the far-right Moledet party, he proposed the idea of the "transfer" of the Palestinians ؟ a view he held until his final days. The real solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, in his mind, was to transfer the Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to other Arab countries in the Middle East. Ze'evi argued that population transfer had served as an acceptable political solution in the cases of India and Pakistan, Turkey and Greece, and in many parts of Europe and Asia. According to his politics population transfer by mutual agreement is the only viable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Gandhi once explained that, "Zionism is in essence the Zionism of transfer. The transfer of the Jewish nation from the diaspora to Zion and the transfer of the Arabs from lands neighboring Palestine, who came here to enjoy the fruits of the prosperity that the Jews brought to this land. And now the time has come for the third transfer, the separation of peoples, so that they will stop murdering each other."

If transfer is "immoral," Ze'evi used to argue, then Zionism itself is immoral, because all 80 kibbutzim of the left-wing Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz movement are situated on the land of Arab villages, which was either purchased, or from which the Arabs were either removed, from which they fled or were transferred.

Ze'evi argued that the leaders of the Labor movement were the real fathers of the transfer idea. To back this up, he quoted many of them, and once wrote cynically that the "racist line-up" could include the likes of Herzl, Ben-Gurion, Jabotinsky, Weizman, Berl Katzenelson, Yitzhak Ben-Tzvi, Moshe Sharett, Yitzhak Rabin, Natan Alterman and many others.

Ze'evi: I am not pleased we live like a 'modern-day Sparta'

Ze'evi's ministerial positions, both in the Shamir and Sharon governments, have been characterized by ambivalence. He reached the decision to leave the current government a few months ago, and tried to convince other members of the National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu alliance. Only after the IDF withdrew Monday from two hilltops in Hebron from where Palestinians had been firing on the divided city's Jewish enclave, did he manage to convince Infrastructure Minister Avigdor Lieberman, to join him. On Monday, the two submitted their resignations. The resignations were to take effect Wednesday at 1.30 A.M.

Ze'evi was considered by many prime ministers to be an expert on security matters, and they tended to confer with him, off the record, even if they did not agree with his political views. Ze'evi, for instance, believed the death penalty should be imposed on terrorists, and supported the view that leading Palestinian militants and those involved in incitement should be deported from Israel.

Regarding the current conflict with the Palestinians, Ze'evi believed that the Palestinian Authority should be dismantled, and that its leader, Yasser Arafat, should be assassinated or deported. His stance was not accepted by the government.

"As a former military man, I am not pleased with the fact that we live by the sword, like a modern-day Sparta," he said, espousing his personal philosophy. "A real soldier does not want war, but I am not ashamed to tell my nation the truth, that this situation could continue for decades - until the Arabs understand that peace is good for both sides. It is an Arab necessity, no less than an Israeli one."