"Transferring" the Arabs of "Judea and Samaria"

By Ronny Hadar

"There are no easy solutions, but the best solution for the Arabs of the territories and for the Jewish nation is the solution of the 'transfer'. We have enough of the discussion among us. WE cannot escape any more the reality which is formed before our eyes. Every realistic person who reads the map correctly will understand this. There is, therefore, a need to transfer all the Arabs of Judea and Samaria across the Jordan river, by a common agreement, by a joint recognition of the two nations that by this the future will be good for both of them."

This was said by General (reserves) Rehavam Ze'evi in the Moshe Dayan Forum for Political Discussions convened to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Six Day War.

Reacting to the speech given by the writer A.B. Yehoshua in the forum, Gen. Ze'evi discovered for the first time the existence of a plan by the Israeli army decided upon in 1955 and called the "Ishmael Plan," to conquer the whole Kingdom of Jordan.

In 1955, Pinhas Lavon, then the minister of defense, a following him the next minister of defense, David Ben-Gurion, signed a contingency plan for the Israeli army which included the smallest details. According to this plan, the Israeli army was to conquer—and hold—the areas of Judea and Samaria, and to set up a permanent position on the Jordan River, according to General Ze'evi. MK Yuval Ne'eman, who also spoke in the Forum, said to Ma'ariv. "It was I who thought up the plan and put it together in the (army) planning file, since I had been the head of the planning department of the Israeli General Staff since 1953." According to Ne'eman, the plan was approved and signed by the then Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan, and received the approval of the Minister of Defense David Ben-Gurion. Year by year it was brought up to date in the Israeli General Staff and was then reconfirmed by each (Israeli) minister of defense, up to the Six Day War. Prof. Ne'eman said that the plan also included occupation of wide areas of the Golan Heights, and in Sinai the occupation would stop a few kilometers short of the Suez Canal...

(This article originally appeared in Ma'ariv on July 5, 1987 and was translated by Dr. Israel Shahak, an Israeli survivor of Nazi concentration camps.)