Thursday, August 18, 2005

Gaza Pullout

My mother's parents grew up in a small town in Czechoslovakia. She had been in the town under three or four governments. It was Czech, Hungarian, Romainan, now Ukranian, or whatever. It was like that for political reasons that my grandparents did not understand. Prior to World War II, they just lived under whichever government happened to control the region. It was fine with them.

Clearly that sort of thing would not work in Gaza. Why you ask? That is a good question.

The answer is obvious. Actually, it is obvious to me. I'll bet it is obvious to most people. It is just a matter of political correctness not to give the answer in public. So I won't. I'll let you figure it out.

But I want to know, amid all the punditry on TV, why have I not heard that question. Now when talking to Israelis, Palestinians, or Americans. No one wants to publically say the answer.

Just like no one wants to utter the words "ethnic cleansing" with reference to Gaza. That is what is going on, but no one wants to say it. Mind you, I have nothing against most cases of non-violent ethnic cleansing, and neither does most of the world, but it seems so impolitic to say it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

uhm....I don't know the answer.
*sigh*

Anonymous said...

oh, you've confused me further. Is it ethnic cleansing or population transfer? Because the wrong population is being transferred out of Gaza. Did I type that out loud?

Anonymous said...

it is now illegal to be jewish and live in gaza.

the fact that the world (as well as a majority of jews) do not blink twice at this tremendous statement, is frightening.

illegal to be jewish

illegal to be jewish

illegal to be jewish

karl said...

As I understand it, population transfers are usually exchanges. This has happened a number of times in history and with fairly good results. I seem to recall one having to do with Turkey and Greece that worked well. (Though I could be wrong about this.) They are not pleasant for the people being transfered, but it does tend to lead to more stability. When they are just one-way, it is ethnic cleansing. When you remove, by whatever means, some distinct ethnicity from an area it is ethnic cleansing. Of course when it is doen by one's own ethnic group, it does not really seem as bad.