By Yehuda Poch
December 13, 2005
Prof. Arik Carmon had an editorial in the Ha'aretz newspaper on December 12, entitled "A Blot On Israeli Democracy". In the editorial, Carmon blasts Dr. Uzi Arad for a position he holds in the November 28 issue of the New Republic, supporting the voluntary transfer of Arabs from Israel to Arab countries.
Dr. Arad is a former Director of Intelligence at the Mossad, and Advisor to prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on national security affairs. He is currently the head of the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Institute in Herzliya, one of the most august academic centers in the social sciences in Israel.
According to Carmon's article, Arad came out in favor of redrawing Israel's boundaries such that Israeli Arab communities near the pre-1967 boundary, such as Umm al-Fahm, Kafr Kassem, Tira, Taibeh and others would fall outside Israeli territory after a final settlement is reached.
Carmon's first misrepresentation is that Arad supports population transfer. I know not what Arad's real position on this issue is, but nowhere in Carmon's article does he quote Arad as supporting this notion. Yet Carmon uses this misrepresentation to support his underlying theme -- that Arad is "perverse", "racist in nature", and "damaging to human rights -- and of course the foundations of democracy". Carmon quotes Arad's supporting argument that such moves will "increase ethnic homogeneity". Carmon then makes quite a stretch to assume that such a move will eventually lead to "closed ethnic communities" of Jews, each of a different origin, within Israel.
It has long been plain to me that Arik Carmon's understanding of democracy is one that serves only the extreme left of Israeli politics. During the debate over Ariel Sharon's expulsion plan this past summer, Carmon supported the forced relocation of 8500 Jews from their homes in Gush Katif and northern Samaria, and the complete destruction of 25 Jewish communities in Israel. Carmon held that Sharon's moves were completely democratic -- despite Sharon's election campaign that was diametrically opposed to such moves, and despite every Likud institution voting against it. Carmon held that Sharon's opponents -- chiefly those within the Likud party -- were behaving in anti-democratic ways when they were only supporting the platform upon which they were elected and upholding the decisions of their own party.
Most importantly, though, Carmon supported the forced relocation of 8500 people, ostensibly to different communities, although the continued lack of any accommodations for a large number of them shows that even that was too good for the people of Gush Katif in the eyes of Sharon's government.
Now Dr. Uzi Arad has written a paper in support of a redrawing of Israel's boundaries such that more Arabs would be left out of Israel in a final settlement. Arad did not argue for the forced -- or even voluntary -- transfer of anyone from their homes. He advocated the redrawing of some lines so that those homes would be left outside our boundaries. No active inconvenience or other trauma would befall the residents of these communities as has happened to the former residents of Gush Katif.
But even this was too much for Arik Carmon. Carmon believes that Arad's words are "racist" and "perverse". He goes so far as to brand Arad a right-wing extremist.
To the best of my knowledge, Uzi Arad's ideas as voiced in his article are not supported by the right-wing in Israel. I am not going to argue in support or opposition to Arad's positions, since I did not read his article. But Arik Carmon has unmitigated gall to support the forced transfer of Jews from their homes and the destruction of their communities, and then to turn around and lambast a noted and highly accomplished academic for suggesting something that doesn't even compare to the horrors still being experienced by those who pioneered Gush Katif.
Uzi Arad's opinions as described by Arik Carmon are far less racist than this summer's expulsion of Gush Katif and Northern Samaria residents. They are far less perverse than the idea that any Jewish government could expel Jews from their homes and then expect to be re-elected. In fact, in light of the Gush Katif expulsion, Arad's ideas are quite mainstream these days.
It is high time for Arik Carmon and the Israel Democracy Institute to make plain what is already obvious to everyone else -- that they are an instrument of the left attempting to further entrench left-wing ideology in Israel under the guise of democratic traditions. What is truly perverse is that these people masquerade as the guardians and torch-bearers of democracy in Israel, while their true understanding of the term is limited at best.
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