Separation—Only Separation

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bresulted not merely from chance encounters but from systematic bbutchery and hunting down of victims.”

bPeople fled in every possible way: trucks, trains that were bjammed beyond belief. Thousands died along the way. Nothing bcould stop the flight. Hindus and Muslims knew that only bamong their own people would they find safety. The largest sin- bgle refugee column in history began arriving in October from bPakistan, more than 800,000 Hindus and Sikhs on foot, forming ba forty-five-mile-long procession. A month later a column of b600,000 Muslims marched in the opposite direction.

bOfficial figures list 6 million Muslims as having fled India bfor West Pakistan and 4.5 million Hindu refugees from the lat- bter. In addition, a total of some 8 million Hindus and Muslims bmoved between India and East Pakistan, a staggering exchange bof population of 18 million people! Their flight saved them from bthe horrors of communal savage strife. The existence in one land bof people with deep hatred for one another, a history of mutual bwars and killing, different in every way, could have led only to bnever-ending strife. Had the instinct of the people not driven bthem to flee, eventually they would have been expelled on an bagreement reached between the two governments for com- bpulsory exchange of populations.

bBut the Jews did not do what common sense and Jew- bishness cried out for. Given the opportunity to complete that bwhich the Almighty had begun for them, the Jews of Israel failed bto realize the vision and, in their failure of nerve and understand- bing, planted the seeds for the tragedy of today—and tomorrow.

bThe pity is that there was beginning to be an understanding bof the opportunity and need. During the second half of the War bof Independence, after May 1948, the magnificent “luck” of the bflight of Arabs from Haifa, Jaffa, and West Jerusalem was cor- brectly translated by Israelis into the difference between a “Jew- bish” state with 40 percent of its population composed of rapidly bbreeding Arabs versus a state with few or no hostile Arabs. And bso, there were instances when that understanding gave birth to bthe good sense of self-preservation. The Arabs of Ramle and bLydda, two large and hostile towns, were expelled after their bbrief resistance had caused heavy Jewish casualties. Had they bremained as an Arab concentration between Tel Aviv and Jeru- bsalem, Israel’s demographic and strategic situation would have bbeen infinitely worse.