Would the mass expulsion of an entire population be the most reprehensible single act in American history? Time for some Q and A
Worse than the "Trail of Tears?" Worse than WW2 detention? It would also rank very high in Jewish history if Israel assisted. Right up there with John Hyrcanus. And who was he? Read on!
While we wait for some establishment Jewish organizations to jump off the fence and just come out and say that ethnic cleansing is bad1 methinks it best to simplify things. So let’s have a little basic Q and A:
DIDN’T TRUMP WALK IT BACK ALREADY? Of course he walked it back. We learned long ago that Trump loves to throw spaghetti, or whatever he happens to be having for lunch, against the wall. So yes, he did back off, like he walked back the tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Today he threw new spaghetti on Trump Social, claiming that Gaza “will be turned over to the U.S. by Israel at the conclusion of the fighting.” So no need to endanger American troops. And when exactly will the “conclusion of the fighting” be? We’ve been waiting a hundred years. But aside from the certainty that American troops would still die following “the conclusion of the fighting,” these equivocations still do not make his proposal any less dangerous, for two reasons:
a) It’s all a distraction from the actual dismantling of our democracy that is taking place away from the headlines. And
b) Once something this outlandish is thrown out there, it becomes normalized, and the next time it comes up, it will be more palatable. Even if it becomes a meme, like eating dogs and cats, the insidious message seeps through. Kick a million people out? Sure. He’s said it before. No big deal.
CAN THIS BE JUSTIFIABLE, EVEN JUST AS AN OPENING GAMBIT? Even if we assume that Trump is playing chess, or knows how to play chess, putting an entire population through this kind of threat is mass psychological warfare, not a board game. But an Israel Policy Forum column by Michael Koplow makes some intriguing points. He states that Trump wants to make sure that Israel stays in the hostage and ceasefire deal that he is now tied to, and the only way of doing that is engineering the continued viability of Netanyahu’s coalition2, which this plan-reveal accomplishes.
IS THE FORCED RELOCATION OF AN ENTIRE POPULATION WRONG?
The answer is yes. Not “Yes, but…”. Not “Yes, but October 7!” Not “Yes, but they had rockets in their basements!” And not “Yes, but Hillary’s emails!” (the all-time “Yes, but.”) The answer is, “Yes, ALWAYS.” Until and unless there is radioactive fallout from a nuclear attack or a comet lands in the Atlantic (so that’s why there is such interest in Greenland - I recently saw the movie), forced relocations are always wrong, but we won’t be around to get all judgy about that nuclear one.
SO, HOW WRONG IS IT? I love America, but the list of reprehensible acts involving the forced movement of large populations is not a short one. If we are talking only about short-duration events (as opposed to say, 400 years of slavery), and the large-scale ethnic cleansing of entire populations (as opposed to, say, redlining a city) the top nominees for populations forced to move by political or economic necessity might include The Great Migration and Dust Bowl; but my top three would be The Trail of Tears, the forced relocation of thousands of Native Americans from the southeastern United States to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) between 1830 and 1850 and WW2 Detention Camps for Americans with ties to Japan. c) the dividing of families and eviction of political and economic refugees from American soil right now.
IS ISRAEL TO BLAME FOR THIS? Let’s make it clear that this mass deportation idea was Trump’s and therefore America’s brainchild - our good ol’ America - even if Netanyahu knew about it in advance and shamelessly cheered it on. Bibi called the “voluntary migration of Palestinians ‘a remarkable idea,’” as if somehow adding the word ‘voluntary’ makes it better. When a million people up and move, it’s never voluntary. Bibi, didn’t you ever see the last scene of Fiddler on the Roof? They might have been headed for condos in Miami Beach, but they weren’t happy about it! “Sadly, the fiddler on the roof is no longer with us,” Netanyahu said in 2023 when hearing of the death of Chaim Topol, the Israeli actor who played Tevye in the film. “The strings of the fiddle have fallen silent.” Tevye just heard you on his way out of Anatevka, calling “voluntary migration a great idea” and threw up in his mouth.
And that irresponsible response, while clearly pandering to his Boss in the moment, makes Israel dangerously close to being complicit. The Gaza plan is a horrible idea for America3, right up there with the all time list of bad American ideas, like Vietnam, Iraq and the Edsel. And Vietnam and Iraq, exercises in nation building, should have taught us a lesson about what not to do in Gaza. Except that in Iraq and ‘Nam there were no mass deportations. This one is actually - or at least potentially - worse! And we haven’t yet gotten to the IED portion of our program.
Notice that there is no talk about state-building in Gaza, or exporting democracy. Nope. It’s just a real estate deal, to enrich some already-rich people and evict the current tenants. How could Trump claim to be saving democracy in Gaza when he’s systematically destroying it at home?
BUT ISRAEL? To cast blame on Israel for this would be to buy into one of the most virulent antisemitic conspiracy theory genres, of a Rasputin-like influencer co-opting the mind of a witless leader. We already have one Rasputin4 in Elon Musk. There’s no room for Bibi in Trump’s brain. Israel has done plenty of questionable things in its short history, many of them quite defensible given the existential threats it has always faced. This proposal however, is neither defensible nor Israeli. Can’t blame the Jews for this fit of moral bankruptcy.
BUT IF ISRAEL BECOMES COMPLICIT AND A DEPORTATION IS CARRIED OUT, WHERE WOULD THIS INFAMY RANK IN JEWISH HISTORY? You’ve got more “ifs” and “buts” there than a rabbinical school Talmud class, but I’ll indulge you, just to demonstrate the scale we are talking about. Of course, expulsion of entire populations is something that almost always has been done to Jews, rather than by Jews. I lost count as to how many, but click here for a timeline. Below is a map covering just a few hundred years.
Wikipedia It is beyond debate that Jews understand the seriousness of enforced refugee status. I won’t get into the questions about Palestinians in 1948 right now (but if you are interested, click on this footnote5 ). Incidentally, White Supremacists use the number of Jewish expulsions (which they place at 109-110) as proof that Jews are not trustworthy or loyal citizens of any country. 109” is their shorthand for this canard. One of their many dog whistles.6
YOU’RE STALLING. WHERE WOULD IT RANK AMONG JEWISH NO-NOs? Maybe right at the top. Seriously. And that’s partly because we haven’t been so bad when we’ve been in power, (save for the carnage in the book of Joshua), despite the antisemitic excesses of the UN and ICC and partly because we’ve almost never experienced sovereignty over any territory. But I would put the proposed Gaza expulsion right up there with John Hyrcanus (135–105 BCE), a descendant of the Maccabee brothers, part of the Hasmonean dynasty, who forcibly converted the Idumean people. It is the only such recorded case of forced conversions to Judaism in Jewish history. Here’s what happened:
After finally ridding Judea of Greco-Syrian influence, Hyrcanus expanded the borders of the Jewish kingdom through a series of wars, but not without causing controversy. While the Hasmoneans at first expelled pagans from territories that the Jews had conquered, their policy soon changed to one of forced conversion to Judaism. John Hyrcanus forced both the Idumeans in the South and the Galileans in the North to convert to the Jewish faith. These converts became among the most loyal sector of the Jewish people and the Hasmonean policy assured a Jewish demographic majority in the kingdom. But the forced conversion to Judaism of the Idumeans would later spawn King Herod, the hated tyrant who ruled over Judea with an iron fist.
Britannica So Hyrcanus conquered parts of Samaria and Edom (and notice that little Connecticut-like tail on the map called Gaza) and wanted to unify the country. But rather than eviction, which was too unwieldy, he gave them the choice of eviction or conversion. Like the Spanish Inquisition, but in reverse. BTW, which punishment is more cruel and inhuman? Exile or mass circumcision? Or living in a Trump hotel along the beach? I’ll let you decide. Click on the footnote 7 if you want to see the accounting of the ancient historian (and Hyrcanus apologist) Josephus. To my knowledge, by the way, Trump has not hired a mohel - yet.
Either way, what’s most noteworthy here is that within a few decades of John Hyrcanus, the Jews lost their independence, to Pompey and the Romans in 63 B.C.E., never to regain it until… 1948. Forced conversion and forced exile are never smart moves. And it must be emphasized that the Talmud makes it clear that conversion to Judaism should be voluntary and motivated by sincere conviction (Yevamot 24b) - even questioning the Jewishness of those who convert out of fear (Kiddushin 75b). What happened with Hyrcanus, forced conversion of non-Jews by a Jewish leader, had not happened before and has not happened since. But the displacement part has eerie parallels and it led to twin disasters: Loss of national independence, and the reign of an emotionally wounded outsider and psychotic tyrant (Herod). We would not want history to rhyme yet again, this time in Gaza.
IS THERE ANYTHING GOOD ABOUT TRUMP’S PROPOSAL? In fact, yes.
a) It was shot down by Republicans, demonstrating that when idea is crazy enough, there are still some Trumpists who know how to say “no.” That’s a muscle that needs to be exercised as often as possible.
b) Maybe that pushback will make Trump more circumspect before revealing what he has up his sleeve for the West Bank (or Judea and Samaria, as every official map in America is about to rename it).
c) Israelis showed that they still have a sense of humor after all they’ve been through. And
d) Yair Rosenberg of the Atlantic made this valid point:
Rosenberg did not sufficiently emphasize the role of Netanyahu in boosting Hamas after each mini-war. But clearly the pattern has become intolerable to all sides it is finally time to end that cycle.
If nothing else, Trump’s crazy proposal signals that prior solutions will not do this time. Having America participate in an international effort to rebuild and secure the territory would be optimal, but only as long as the Egyptians, Jordanians, Saudis, Qataris and non-Hamas Palestinians are also involved. Yes, American boots may need to be on the ground, but security should be established with multinational cooperation so that the Americans don’t become sitting ducks, as they did in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and just about everywhere else we’ve tried to butt in. It’s quite possible that this crazy idea could jar the equally crazy extremists in the Arab world and Israeli far right into the realization that two truths have become cornerstones of American policy regarding Gaza:
Hamas should entertain no hopes of having a role in Gaza moving forward.
Israel’s far right will not succeed in resettling there. (Unless they are willing to pay the steep common charges for Trump Tower Rafah.)
One more thing, and I close by reiterating my first point. Notice that there is no talk about state-building in Gaza, or exporting democracy. Nope. It’s just a real estate deal, to enrich some already-rich people and evict the current tenants. How could Trump claim to be saving democracy in Gaza when he’s systematically destroying it at home? That’s what we have to keep our eyes on. He’s counting on these wacko proposals, executive orders that won’t stand up in court, and threats to friendly countries, to take up all the oxygen in an already depleted and exhausted free media environment. He’s counting on Jews getting mad at each other, Arabs getting mad at Jews, Democrats getting mad at one another and students getting mad enough at everyone else so he can call out the military and ultimately declare “marshall” law.
Remember, it’s all a distraction. Except when it’s not.
I think this time it is.
The American Jewish Committee, while not demonstrating a necessity incredulity, did at least express “concern.” The ADL’s statement skirted the mass deportation proposal altogether, taking into account in vague terms the “well-being of the Palestinians.” Trump too claimed to be looking out for their well-being, in offering permanent exile.
Here is the ADL statement: New York, NY, February 5, 2025 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) issued a statement following yesterday's meeting at the White House between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump:
It was significant that in the White House yesterday, Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump discussed critical priorities including the release of all hostages, Israel's security needs and steps for regional engagement.
U.S. involvement -- in coordination with Israel and regional partners -- will be essential for long term rebuilding and governance of Gaza. However, any plan must take into account Israel’s security needs and the well-being of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
We continue to hope for a day when Israelis and Palestinians can live side-by-side with security, dignity and peace.
Even Israeli opposition leaders were disappointingly slow to oppose this move. See below:
Here’s how you do it: Statement by the National Council of Jewish Women
WASHINGTON — National Council of Jewish Women CEO Sheila Katz shared the following statement:
“As Jews, we know all too well the pain of persecution, displacement, and exile, and our history obligates us to speak out against this kind of injustice wherever it occurs. We denounce President Trump’s call for the forced removal of Palestinians from Gaza and condemn Prime Minister Netanyahu’s reaction, which signals support for such actions.
“Palestinian and Israeli civilians yearn for a future beyond war. For over a year, Palestinian and Israeli families — especially women and children — have endured unimaginable suffering, loss, and uncertainty. And now, Palestinians face the threat of forced removal from Gaza as outlined by President Trump. The decision to rebuild or leave is a deeply personal one. Just as families in Los Angeles may choose to rebuild after devastating fires and many Israeli families plan to return to the kibbutzim destroyed on October 7, Palestinians must have that same right. It is not for the President of the United States or anyone to decide the fate of an entire people. Palestinians deserve more than displacement; they deserve the dignity of choice — the right to heal, rebuild, and remain in Gaza if they so wish.
We must all reject language that incites violence. Just as we reject rhetoric that dehumanizes Palestinians and justifies their displacement, we also call out — and will continue to call out — demonstrators who chant ‘from the river to the sea,’ a phrase rooted in Hamas’ charter, which calls for the removal of Jews from Israel. Regardless of intent, this language perpetuates a similarly violent message against the Jewish people, and we urge those who use it to stop immediately. If we are to build a future of peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians, we must reject all calls for erasure and displacement, no matter who makes them or whom they target.
“The only lasting future for Israelis and Palestinians is one of peace, where no child fears the sky, no mother buries her dreams beneath rubble, no family lives in constant terror of kidnappings or hostage-taking, and where teenagers can safely dance at music festivals. We must redouble our efforts to forge a future where both peoples can live in security, dignity, and peace. National Council of Jewish Women will always work toward that future.”
Koplow writes (thank you to Daniel Gordis for alerting me to this):
If we take Trump seriously, he does not want to take on the immense and expensive burden of—in his words—owning Gaza, but the threat of doing so is a serious one in service of getting a different result.
In this version, he wants to make sure that Israel stays in the hostage and ceasefire deal that he is now tied to, even if it was a deal that he inherited from President Joe Biden, and the only way of doing that is engineering the continued viability of Netanyahu’s coalition. The first stage of the deal led to Itamar Ben Gvir’s exit, and Smotrich has doubled down on his threat to leave and bring the government down if the deal continues to the next stage, stating in no uncertain terms that he will force elections unless Israel resumes fighting in Gaza.
Trump’s plan for Gaza ties Smotrich’s hands, since transferring all of the Palestinians out of Gaza—and in doing so, putting the next step of transferring Palestinians out of the West Bank squarely on the table—is something that Smotrich could have only dreamed about even a few weeks ago and it has now been endorsed by Trump himself.
But the only way this plan can be contemplated is if the ceasefire in Gaza holds. If Smotrich demands that the war be restarted, he will be responsible for ruining the dream of destroying Palestinian refugee-hood and undoing the 2005 Gaza disengagement. Trump tells Netanyahu that the deal must hold, gives Netanyahu this enormous gift—and potentially an even more enticing gift of West Bank annexation—in order to keep Smotrich in line, and Trump knows that the Gaza relocation plan will never actually come to fruition but he will be the one who gets all of Israel’s hostages released and is then free to concentrate on other, non-Middle East issues.
…which Trump must have realized when even Lindsay Graham and other GOP lawmakers failed to praise it.
It should be know that Rasputin, although not Jewish, supported Jews’ efforts at obtaining equal rights. He’s a very complex figure who might have gotten a bad rap.
Despite noted “me too” allegations, for which he has done penance, I find journalist Ari Shavit’s writing about the history of that period to best express my own conflicted views - see his New Yorker piece on Lydda (Lod, which has become a great source of historical interest and contention regarding the exodus of Palestinians from the city), quoted here:
Do I wash my hands of Zionism? Do I turn my back on the Jewish national movement that carried out the destruction of Lydda? No. Like the brigade commander, I am faced with something too immense to deal with. Like the military governor, I see a reality I cannot contain. When one opens the black box, one understands that, whereas the massacre at the mosque could have been triggered by a misunderstanding brought about by a tragic chain of accidental events, the conquest of Lydda and the expulsion of Lydda’s population were no accident. Those events were a crucial phase of the Zionist revolution, and they laid the foundation for the Jewish state. Lydda is an integral and essential part of the story. And, when I try to be honest about it, I see that the choice is stark: either reject Zionism because of Lydda or accept Zionism along with Lydda…
I will not damn the brigade commander and the military governor and the 3rd Battalion soldiers. On the contrary. If need be, I’ll stand by the damned, because I know that if not for them the State of Israel would not have been born. If not for them, I would not have been born. They did the filthy work that enables my people, my nation, my daughter, my sons, and me to live…
But, looking straight ahead at Lydda, I wonder if peace is possible. Our side is clear: we had to come into the Lydda Valley and we had to take the Lydda Valley. There is no other home for us, and there was no other way. But the Arabs’ side, the Palestinian side, is equally clear: they cannot forget Lydda and they cannot forgive us for Lydda. You can argue that it is not the occupation of 1967 that is at the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but the tragedy of 1948. It’s not only the settlements that are an obstacle to peace but the Palestinians’ yearning to return, one way or another, to Lydda and to dozens of other towns and villages that vanished during one cataclysmic year. But the Jewish State cannot let them return. Israel has a right to live, and if Israel is to live it cannot resolve the Lydda issue. What is needed to make peace now between the two peoples of this land may prove more than humans can summon. Contrary to every belief that Siegfried Lehmann held, Ben Shemen and Lydda cannot really see each other and recognize each other and make peace. This is why the Israeli-Palestinian tragedy lingers—generation after generation, war after war. While Syria is awash in blood and Egypt is in the grip of military autocrats, with so much uncertainty in the region, the chances to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the foreseeable future are hard to envision. It may be that the most one can hope for is an interim agreement or a unilateral initiative that will end the occupation and divide the land even if it does not bring about a grand historical reconciliation.
See also this Jewish Virtual Library article on Lod, this ancient and medieval historical overview of the place, this biblical perspective too, and a Palestinian-slanted overview of Lydda’s exodus in 1948. Lod is and was literally at the crossroads on the Middle East and the modern world too (Israel’s main airport is there and was originally called “Lod Airport”). The airport was attacked by terrorists in 1972, and Lod was a target of numerous rocket strikes from Gaza and civil unrest between Jews and Arabs in 2021. In ancient times, the town stood on the great caravan road between Babylon and Egypt, near its intersection with that from Joppa to Jerusalem and the East. Its position on these great arteries of commerce meant trade for the inhabitants. There are few more fascinating and contentious places on this planet. But Jews and Arabs do coexist there.
See this chart of the most popular white supremacist dog whistles, many of which have been seen at Trump events and used by Trump supporters. Musk’s sieg heil salute was not the only dogwhistle witnessed at the inauguration.
From Josephus’ magnum opus, Antiquities of the Jews:
BUT when Hyrcanus heard of the death of Antiochus, he presently made an expedition against the cities of Syria, hoping to find them destitute of fighting men, and of such as were able to defend them. However, it was not till the sixth month that he took Medaba, and that not without the greatest distress of his army. After this he took Samega, and the neighboring places; and besides these, Shechem and Gerizzim, and the nation of the Cutheans, who dwelt at the temple which resembled that temple which was at Jerusalem, and which Alexander permitted Sanballat, the general of his army, to build for the sake of Manasseh, who was son-in-law to Jaddua the high priest, as we have formerly related; which temple was now deserted two hundred years after it was built. Hyrcanus took also Dora and Marissa, cities of Idumea, and subdued all the Idumeans; and permitted them to stay in that country, if they would circumcise their genitals, and make use of the laws of the Jews; and they were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers, that they submitted to the use of circumcision, 2 and of the rest of the Jewish ways of living; at which time therefore this befell them, that they were hereafter no other than Jews.
I would like to expand on one of your points. The reconstruction of Gaza has been estimated at about US$50 billion. Assuming Saudi Arabia and the Emirates pick up $30 billion, that leaves about $20 billion for Congress to approve. Marco Rubio would have rejected this proposal, but he can’t now. Other Republicans in Congress would characterize it as foreign aid and decline to support the measure.
Since security in Gaza would have to be maintained during this process, some off-budget money going to the militaries of the US or Israel would be a “hidden” cost of reconstruction.
Still worse, the US personnel may suffer an incident like the Marines in Beirut under President Reagan in the early 1980s. And finally, President Trump will probably end up blaming Israel for what goes wrong.
If the Middle East conflict were about real estate, land-for-peace would have worked long ago.
Thanks, Rabbi, I pray for that every day.