The Jews of this country are much more ready to give up territory to the Palestinians than ever before, but they also seem to have become more intolerant of Arabs – all Arabs – than ever before, too. Purely racist, mob-mentality ideas that used to be limited to the likes of Kach now have tremendous appeal at the ballot box. Worst of all, they’ve just been legitimized at the highest level of all – by the prime minister.

Ehud Olmert wants Avigdor Lieberman and Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home) in his government. Lieberman has been a cabinet minister before, but he never spelled out his plans for Israel’s Arab minority as emphatically as he did in this last election. What he wants to do is kick out a few hundred thousand Arab citizens from this country by giving the Wadi Ara region to the Palestinians in the adjacent West Bank. His aim is not to deport terrorists or traitors. No, his goal is to deport Arab citizens, no matter whether they’re law-abiders or criminals, whether they’re construction workers or doctors or housewives or newborn babies, for no other reason than that they are Arabs.

There’s not a lot to discuss here. Either you understand that that this is beyond the pale, or you don’t. The fact that Israel’s prime minister doesn’t understand it just shows, like I said, that the most piggish anti-Arab sentiments have become acceptable in this country, no matter how “moderate” and “pragmatic” we’ve supposedly become. Lieberman also wants to require the 1.3 million Arabs to take a loyalty oath to Israel as a Jewish state in order to hold onto their citizenship. Just imagine if a major American political leader insisted that American Jews take a loyalty oath to the United States as a Christian country, on pain of losing their citizenship.

It’s no more despicable an idea than Lieberman’s.