Confrontation in the Mideast

So, Israel has deported four Palestinians. Tsk, tsk (Part I, Jan. 14).

Of course, there should be proper retribution. I have a suggestion: Let one of the countries now friendly to the Arabs expel its Jews as a way to punish Israel.

For example, have Ethiopia expel the 7,000 Jews it has left, or have the Soviet Union deport the 400,000 who have applied for deportation. Never mind that this is a dramatic ratio--4 for 7,000, or even 4 for 400,000--the nasty Israelis deserve it!

I admit, it would be more fitting if the Arab countries would expel their Jews directly, but alas, they can’t. The Arab Jews were expelled 40 years ago with no trials, no courts, no public outcry, no world outrage, and usually, only with what they could carry on their backs. There were quite a few: 47,000 from Yemen, 3,000 from Aden, 121,000 from Iraq, 30,000 from Libya, 40,000 from Syria and Lebanon. Egypt did it in stages--20,000 in 1949, and the remaining 50,000 in 1956 after Egypt lost that particular war. In 1956 Morocco and Tunisia also got rid of about 70,000 of their Jews.

So now the Arab countries are practically Judenrein , except for the few that are left--old, feeble, persecuted--who wish in vain that they too could be allowed to be expelled.

What we forget is that, unlike the Palestinian Arabs whose Arab brothers could not find room for them on the boundless and underpopulated Arab lands, the Jews dispossessed by the Arabs were welcomed by a tiny, poor, beleaguered country--Israel!

We Americans should be the last ones to condemn deportations. We deport Mexicans even though they do not bomb police cars, build barricades on freeways, etc.

SI FRUMKIN

Studio City