I had a room in my house painted recently by a very nice guy from Ohr Yehuda, a town located close to Bar Ilan University. During his lunch break, the 60 year old painter named Uri, sat down to eat a sandwich and we started schmoozing. In Israel, it takes about 4.2 seconds for the conversation to turn political and Uri quickly realized – and commented – that he and I were clearly on opposite sides of the fence. Here is the conversation from that point on:
Shmuel: “Are you willing to listen to my side of the debate for 2 minutes with an open mind?”
Uri: “Yes, I am. Go ahead.”
Shmuel: “I am going to ask you 2 questions and I need you to answer them honestly. Here’s the first one: Do you REALLY want to solve the Arab-Israeli problem or do you just SAY you do?”
Uri: “I REALLY want to solve the problem.”
Shmuel: “Good, so do I, so here is question #2: If I genuinely help a person achieve his dream in life, and that dream is a positive and productive one – am I a good guy or a bad guy? For example; If a person’s dream in life is to buy a car but, as hard as he works, he simply does not have the money to buy it – and I decide to buy him that car… the exact one he wanted – am I a good guy or a bad guy?”
Uri: “You are an AMAZING guy!”
Shmuel: “I agree. Now let’s use that same logic in this conflict. According to Ber Zit University (in Bethlehem) and also Anajach University (in Shechem) – both are Arab universities – 52% of Arabs living in Yehuda and Shomron plus 58% of Arabs living in Gaza want to move OUT of Israel. Their dream, according to THEIR OWN SURVEYS, are to permanently leave Israel and begin a life for themselves and their families in Europe, North/South America or Australia. Simply put, they do NOT want to live in Ramallah, Jenin, Kalkilya or Gaza and their dream – yes, their DREAM – is to resettle elsewhere. Is this clear, so far?”
Uri: “So what are you going to do, throw them out???”
Shmuel: “Absolutely not! I am prepared to buy their homes in Ramallah, Jenin, Gaza etc.., pay their one-way transportation to Canada, for example, and send each family out of Israel with $50,000 in cash. Furthermore, I will coordinate their entire absorption process into the country of their choice, will attempt to find them work in that new country and will even start teaching them the local language while they are still in Israel. In short, I will help them – like nobody has ever helped them before – achieve and fulfill their life-long dream. Finally, I will not force anyone to leave and will never do to THEM what you and your friends did to 8,000 fellow Jews in Gush Katif. I will only help the 52% in Yehuda and Shomron and the 58% in Gaza who simply dream of living elsewhere. So, am I the crazy, right-wing extremist you thought I was?
Uri: “Are you sure these numbers are correct? I have never seen them before.”
Shmuel: “You have never seen them before because the leftist media in Israel purposely hides these things… but that’s a discussion for another day. Let me ask you this instead: If these numbers ARE correct; that 52% want to leave Yehuda and Shomron and 58% want to leave Gaza, and I help them EXACTLY as I said – do we finally solve a big part of the problem and by the most humane way imaginable? Also, do you realize, that as soon as this plan starts and more than 50% start leaving with real money in their pockets from the sale of their homes plus an extra $50,000 to begin over, the chance of that 50% rising to 70 and even 80% is very real?”
Uri: “Yes, I agree, but what is the source of this report?”
I told him that for many years, the poll was located online at www.pcpo.org – the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion. Unfortunately, due to intense internal pressure, the poll has been deleted from their site (although you should visit there anyway and click on “Recent Polls” – the data there is incredible). What I did give Uri the Painter was an incredible 32 page booklet which describes in detail exactly how much money this failed peace process has cost the State of Israel so far – close to ONE TRILLION SHEKEL!!! The reason I gave him that second report called “The Oslo Process – How Much Does It Cost Us?” is because until we had this booklet, every answer to this above discussion was the same:
“Ok, ok… very nice. We’ll buy their homes, give them $50,000 to leave and set them up for life. Sounds wonderful, but where is Israel going to get the money for that? You’re talking about billions of dollars! Where is that money going to come from?”
This is why I gave him what I call “The Cost of Oslo” booklet. This failure called the Oslo Peace Process – which produced over 2,000 dead Jews and over 100,000 wounded Jews – cost Israel, SO FAR, about $250 BILLION (and growing…) while the plan of paid emigration (or as I call it “Dream Fulfillment”) will cost Israel around $70 BILLION. Therefore, we obviously have the money…
Later that night he called and said that he read what I gave him and after 62 years, he is switching political sides. I simply said, “Uri, welcome home!”
PS: We have this entire booklet in PDF format as well. If you want to receive a link to the PDF please email me and I will gladly send it to you: Shmuel@manhigut.org