Israel Matzav

What's more expensive: Oslo or paying 'Palestinians' to leave

A week ago, I reported that Moshe Feiglin had proposed paying each 'Palestinian' family that is willing to leave Judea and Samaria and move abroad $500,000.

I was slightly inaccurate. What Moshe said is that if we paid each 'Palestinian' family $500,000 to leave, it would cost less than the Oslo accords have cost us. Moshe has now set out to objectively prove that proposition.

Being that I made the first calculations a number of years ago, and in addition, I am a concerned party, I asked my friend, Uri Noi – a meticulous, high-tech professional whose expertise is exact calculation, to examine this subject in depth. Uri enthusiastically researched this proposal and as he said, "At no stage of the preparation of this document did I peek at the results as they were forming. In other words, this document was written and examined thoroughly and impartially.

A week later, Uri presented the results of his research in a 12 page document. You can read the Hebrew version here. The following is a quote from his conclusion:

Cost to Israel of the Oslo Accords:

1. Money transfers to the Palestinian Authority: 86 billion NIS (since Oslo- M.F.) and an additional 4.53 billion NIS annually.

2. General Security Service: 2.85 NIS and an additional 1.5 billion NIS annually.

3. Border Police in Judea and Samaria: 13 billion NIS and an additional 0.7 billion NIS annually.

4. IDF in Judea and Samaria: 57 billion NIS and an additional 3 billion annually.

5. Security guards everywhere: 68 billion NIS and an additional 3.57 billion annually.

6. Bypass roads: 20 billion NIS and an additional 1 billion annually.

7. Separation Wall: 4.7 billion NIS, one time expense.

8. Murder victims: 3.5 billion NIS in loss of productivity.

9: Defensive Shield Operation: 14 billion NIS, one time expense.

10. Loss of revenue from tourism: 129 billion NIS and an additional 1 billion annually.

11. Decrease in price of land for housing. Zero in the meantime.

In all, the Oslo Accords cost the Israeli public 423 billion NIS for Judea and Samaria alone. In addition, they continue to cost the tax payers 15.3 billion NIS annually, with no end in sight.

The 423 billion that we have already paid is one and one half times more then the 284 billion NIS that Feiglin proposes.

Simply put, when people ask when Feiglin will be right, the answer is that the scenario that he outlined is already here.

Since the Oslo Accords were signed, instead of spending $500,000 on every Arab family that could be convinced to emigrate, we have spent $750,000. This sum is constantly increasing. It is a shame that we didn't listen to Feiglin earlier. He made this proposal years ago, and this week he simply repeated it."

If so, we remain with a question: Why is forced Evacuation/Compensation for Jews considered reasonable, while voluntary Evacuation/Compensation for Arabs is considered unrealistic?

This is where we touch upon the real price that we have paid for the Oslo Accords: An entire generation has come of age after Oslo and the recognition of the Arab claim to the Land of Israel – young people approximately 35 and under. These Israelis have grown up believing that the "salt of the earth" is the Arab, while the Jew is living here on borrowed time. An entire generation has grown up thinking it is a guest in its own land and that it has to pay and constantly bribe the "true sons" in order to justify its continued presence here.

Read the whole thing.

Shabbat Shalom everyone. 

Labels: Moshe Feiglin, Palestinian emigration, transfer

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:20 PM