What does everyone think about this man's ideas?

[StephenNichols]

http://www.antiwar.com/hacohen/h-col.html

It's an article about how Jews worldwide should financially support Jewish settlers that wish to leave their homes in violent areas of the occupied territories. It seems that there are many settlers that want to leave their contested property, but cannot because there are very few buyers for their homes. An interesting idea... What does everyone think about it?

steve

[cerulean]

I don't support settlers having to leave their homes. If at some point for some reason, the settlers' homes are negotiated away to some vaporous idea of a Palestinian state, it should be Arab money that should pay for the homes.

[StephenNichols]

Cerulean:

But what about those settlers that want to leave their home, but cannot because nobody will buy their home? It seems to me that such people should be supported to live out the choice that they want to make. It's not their fault that they're stuck in a war zone of sorts.

steve

[cerulean]

I wouldn't blame anyone who wants to leave. Living with the continual threat of Arab-perpetuated massacres like the settlers are doing would take more courage than I have. Since it's Arab violence that is causing them to want to leave, I would still say Arab money should be used to buy their homes.

[Vic]

Resettling and integrating the Palestinian "refugees" and disbanding the UNRWA for good is much the better idea. Maybe this is the way the money should be put to use.

[Mediocrates]

Since the Middle Eastern Petrocracies will never do it, perhaps the UN and EU could subsidize the effort? Call it an aid package with a beginning, middle and end and anyone who wants to take advantage of it can as long as its a real offer and not some eminent domain taking like US$10,000 for a house. Consider that more than a few of these people were already rooted out of their homes which were destroyed as part of the Sinai give back I think that it's only reasonable.

Now if the EU simply wants to punish them as one would expect then the offer will be meaningless. But, if they want to put their money where there mouths are and take some actual steps toward something then they should be able to fork over funds to relocate settlers just as they have subsidized 'refugee camps' all these miserable years. But of course they won't because they'll link it to other unacceptable terms like give back all of Jerusalem or let 3 million Palistanians into Israel. And we can't even imagine in our deepest crack fueled fantasies that the UN would do anything.

So here's the deal. Pull together an aid package from both the US and the Israeli government. Add in as much private funding as can be guaranteed and take it from there. Certainly no kind of dollar by dollar campaign can do this job so it's silly to try to fund it that way. At US$100k/family it's got to cost something over US$5 billion dollars. The ?Israeli government can't shoulder that alone which is I suppose the EU's real goal anyway, to bankrupt the Jews.

Anyone who wants to wave some resolutions in my face needs to get past that one basic economic fact, that relocation costs money. So unless you're willing to sneer at me and say something stupid like "you made your bed now lie in it", EUistan has to come up with something real and concrete and meaningful. If not, then please go back to your regularly scheduled diatribe.

Thank you.

[NewsGuy]

The article is full of factual errors and false assumptions. Ran Hacohen represents a tiny and thankfully insignificant radical Leftist minority.

Instead of paying off the Jewish settlers, the money would be better spent if it originated from Saudi petrodollars and went to cover the expenses of relocating Arab settlers from Israel back to their national homeland in the Jordanian and Arabian deserts.

If the Arab settlers were paid to leave the Jewish homeland and take their Jihad with them, they could prosper and live in peace, thus avoiding the violence and warfare they have brought on the entire Middle East.

[Mediocrates]

Oh and case anyone was wondering - yeah, foreign policy in the absence of military force is more than demagoguery and paper waving. If the EU really wants, as it demands we take them seriously saying, to be a world force then they have to spend money and do all those things that world powers do. Otherwise they're just some Gilbert & Sullivan cardboard operetta pretending to be something they're not.

[victot]

But what about those settlers that want to leave their home, but cannot because nobody will buy their home? It seems to me that such people should be supported to live out the choice that they want to make. It's not their fault that they're stuck in a war zone of sorts.

i think this idea sorta shows a non-understanding of the story of modern israel...
israel was built from absolutely nothing to become a thriving country in almost no time at all... Israel accpets and encourages jews from ALL over the world to come live in their ancient homeland. From whatever country, whatever language spoken, no matter how poor or uneducated... they are encouraged to come, and they are provided for enough so that at least initially, they have enough food clothing and shelter to get on their feet.
As if all the jewish people was a family.
(it should makes leftists proud. :) )

The settlers would very easily be integrated into pre-1967 borders if and when it ever comes to that. Israel needs money nowadays, but i think the money would be better spent on something else.

for the record, i think they should leave if it would bring peace, and doesnt endanger israel as it is today.

[Gatorade]

I don’t quite understand this. What is does this mean: some settlements are half-empty; but the great majority of settlers, who own their house, cannot sell it for a reasonable price – no buyers – and are thus prisoners in their own homes.

Why should North American Jews or anyone else bail someone out of this type of personal investment? Who determines what a reasonable price is better than the market?

If the person who owns the house cannot sell it at his desired price, he will have to lower the price to include the risk involved in owning a house in that neighborhood.

Most people dream about owning a house. I don’t like buy the idea that someone is a prisnor in ther own homes because the resell value isn’t what they want it to be.

I think money could be collected for better causes. It sounds as if money is being collected to buy settler's land for Palestinians and cleanse the area of Jews in the process.