Two weeks ago, the idea of “transfer” was as close to politically incorrect as possible in the context of Israeli politics.
“Transfer” is an umbrella term in Hebrew, referring to a family of policies, varying in their breadth and implementation, but unified in one characteristic: the movement of Arab populations out of contested areas as a method of resolving the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Left-wing politicians have dismissed the policies as “messianic” or a form of ethnic cleansing. Right-wing politicians have dismissed the idea as impractical or have refused to advance it through sheer political inertia.
However, after almost a year and a half of attack and retreat in Gaza, of thousands of rockets, terror attacks, ballistic missiles, exploding pagers, assassinations, hostage deals and terrorist releases, we found ourselves at the history-shifting moment when a United States president, of all people, put the “transfer” policy back on the political map.
In a joint press conference on Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump announced his administration’s intention to “take over the Gaza Strip.”
Trump unfolded his vision to remove the entire population of Gaza “to several other countries,” after which Gaza would be leveled, cleared of rubble, and turned into an international economic development.
“This proposal has tremendously shifted the Overton window. People who were recently afraid to even broach the possibility of ‘transfer’ are now talking about it absolutely openly,” Martin Sherman, a senior researcher at the Israeli Defense and Security Forum, told JNS.
(The Overton window is the range of subjects and arguments politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time.)
Certain corners of Israel’s news punditry responded with shock at Trump’s proposal, apparently confused as to why he did not receive the memo that you are not allowed to discuss the idea of ‘transfer’ in polite society. However, according to recent polling, Trump is more in line with the Israeli street than many of the talking heads who have been bashing the new proposal.
‘A practical plan’
A Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) poll published on Feb. 3, before the White House press conference, showed that a majority of Israeli Jews thought that the proposition “Arabs from Gaza should relocate to another country” was a “practical plan that should be pursued.”
According to the study, 52% of Israeli Jews thought the plan was both realistic and positive, while 30% of Israeli Jews thought the plan was “not practical, but desirable.” Meanwhile, 13% of Israeli Jews said the plan was “a distraction,” and only 3% of Israeli Jews thought that the plan was “immoral.”
When broken down by political affiliation, there is a clear growth in support the further right down the spectrum you travel. JPPI found that 81% of right-wing Israelis, and 57% of center-right respondents, thought that transfer was an actionable solution to the Gaza crisis. Meanwhile, even among left-wing respondents, only 27% said the idea was immoral.