Mike Whitney on how Zionists view the Arab population

As an American, diversity might not seem like such a big deal.  But to many Israelis, it’s pure strychnine.  Zionists, in particular, see growth in the Arab population as a “demographic time-bomb” that threatens the future of the Jewish state.  And that’s what the Gaza fracas is really all about; getting rid of the people but keeping the land.  In fact, the last 75 years of conflict can be reduced to just 8 words, “They want the land, but not the people.”

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Demographics are considered a national security issue, an existential issue, and an issue that will decide the future of the Jewish State.  Is it any wonder why the reaction has been so extreme?  Is it any wonder why people refer to the fact that there is a large population of Palestinians in Palestine as the “Arab problem”?  And, of course, once the indigenous population is regarded as a “problem”, then it is incumbent on the political leaders to conjure-up a solution.

So, what exactly is the solution to the Arab problem?

Why fewer Arabs, of course.  Which is why the idea of expelling the Palestinians has a long pedigree in Zionist thinking dating back a full five decades before the establishment of the Jewish state.  As it happens, the Arabs were always a problem even when the Jews represented less than 10 percent of the population.  Go figure?  Check out this comment by the ideological father of political Zionism himself, Theodor Herzl, who wrote the following: 

We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country… expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly. 

Shockingly, Herzl wrote those words in 1895, 50 years before Israel declared its statehood.  And many of the Zionist leaders who followed him shared that same world view, like Israel’s first prime minister David Ben-Gurion who said: 

You are no doubt aware of the [Jewish National Fund’s] activity in this respect.  Now a transfer of a completely different scope will have to be carried out.  In many parts of the country new settlement will not be possible without transferring the Arab fellahin.  Jewish power [in Palestine], which grows steadily, will also increase our possibilities to carry out this transfer on a large scale. (1948) 

And here’s Ben-Gurion again in 1938:

I support compulsory transfer.  I don’t see anything immoral in it.

See how far back this line of reasoning goes?  The Zionists were tweaking their ethnic cleansing plans long before Israel had even become a state.  And for good reason.  They knew that the numbers did not support the prospects for an enduring Jewish State.  The only way to square the circle was through compulsory resettlement, otherwise known as “transfer.”  And while that policy might have been repugnant to a great many Jews, a far larger number undoubtedly believed it was a cruel necessity.

~ Mike Whitney, "The War in Gaza: It's Not About Hamas. It's About Demographics," The Unz Review, December 16, 2023