A childish argument

The prime minister’s advisors flew to Europe in order to convince the Americans of something that one cannot accept: The notion that construction in the settlements should continue in order to accommodate natural growth. The advisors will implore the Americans and show them that the settlers, who tend to strictly adhere to the mitzvah of “be fruitful and multiply,” are filing their communities with children, and the many children, who are a blessing to the people and nation, make the small caravans and apartments unbearably crowded.

The chances of this argument being accepted by the Americans are slim, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made clear in an unequivocal manner. This is not only because the Americans realize that this is not about comfort, but rather, about policy, and that the settlers are not scared of living in crowded conditions as much as they are scared of the prospect of partitioning the cland. The settlers want to ward off the Palestinian state that Obama wishes to establish, and they think that more cement would help them do so.

However, in terms of logic, this argument is among the most unfounded ever uttered around here. Where did they find the right to expand their housing because of natural growth? I, for example, live in a small apartment at the heart of Tel Aviv. Let’s assume that I suddenly get married and procreate. And let’s assume that I come to my landlord and show him that the apartment, which I inhabited in relative comfort with my cat, is in fact too small for another woman and child in it. Despite this, I find it difficult to believe that based on this argument the landlord will allow me to build another room on what is now the patio behind my apartment.

And he’ll be right. He’s not responsible for my natural growth, and my civil rights do not include the right to live here of all places and not there.

What about Palestinian natural growth?

What applies to my landlord also applies to city hall and to the government. I enjoy living in the Shenkin area, but I have no right to live there of all places. If I had no money to pay the high rent, this would not become city hall’s problem. And if suddenly I exhibit natural growth, and my landlord does not allow me to build another room, I have no right to turn to the housing minister and demand that he find me a plot of land or a spacious apartment in precisely this area.

Hence, if any settlers find conditions to be too crowded in Ofra or in Beit-El, they should go ahead and find a more spacious apartment in Beersheba, Holon, Ramat Gan, or any other place within the sovereign State of Israel. They and the prime minister they elected (who they will soon seek to topple) would do well to not talk their head off about rights that nobody else in the world has.

Because if, heaven forbid, this demagogic and childish argument will work, it will not only jeopardize us the way the settlers have been jeopardizing us for four decades now; that is, by advancing the vision of the Greater Palestine with an Arab majority. It will endanger us in a whole new way, as the Palestinians also tend to exhibit natural growth, and they are facing crowded conditions as well. So those who do not wish to see Gaza expanding in Sderot’s direction, please be kind enough not to rob Palestinian land in the name of natural growth.