Chief Rabbi's Gaza Solution: Throw Them Into the Desert

I was going to comment but I am afraid I would have lost my cool in the process. At any rate, the article speaks for itself.

Chief Rabbi says move Gazans to a Palestine in Sinai
By Saul Sadka, Haaretz, 1/28/2008

London - Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger has been quoted as
calling for Gazans to be transferred to the Sinai Peninsula, to a
Palestinian state which he said could be constructed for them in the
desert.

In an interview in English with the British weekly The Jewish
News, the chief rabbi also said that while peaceable Muslims should be
allowed to pray in Jerusalem mosques, they should recognize that
Jerusalem belongs to the Jews. Muslims have Mecca and Medina, he was
quoted as saying, adding that "you don't need a third place."

Metzger called for Britain, the European Union and the United
States to assist in the construction of a Palestinian state in Egypt's
Sinai Desert.

According to Metzger, the plan would be to "take all the poor
people from Gaza to move them to a wonderful new modern country with
trains buses cars, like in Arizona - we are now in a generation where
you can take a desert and build a city. This will be a solution for the
poor people - they will have a nice county, and we shall have our
country and we shall live in peace."

Metzger was quoted as telling the paper that the plan was new and
he had not presented it to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

"I have thought about it with some wise people only in the last
two weeks, and I think it is a great idea - nobody spoke about it
before." He expressed his intent to discuss the matter with Olmert and
anticipated that the idea would find popularity among Israelis. He
prefaced his comments by pointing out that he could not advise on
political matters as he is a religious leader in Israel, noting that
according to the law he "cannot be involved in political situations."

Muslims 'don't need a third place
Metzger also called for Muslims to have the freedom to return to
pray in mosques on condition that they do so peaceably: "We will welcome
every Palestinian man who wants to pray in his mosque. Every Friday they
can come, but with one condition, without violence. We have the same
feeling about prayers, we want to give you respect but let us live and
believe our land is the Holy Land and Jerusalem belongs to us. You have
another place, Mecca and Medina, you don't need a third place."

In the interview Metzger also described Jerusalem as "the capital
city forever to the Jewish nation." He argued that Muslims have no
connection to Jerusalem commenting that "behind the Kotel we have a
mosque. But when they pray even though they are in our holiest place,
they face Mecca. Their back is to Jerusalem. So you can see from only
one sign that it does not belong to them. They have nothing - no
connection."

The tenure of Metzger, 54, appointed as chief rabbi in 2003 for a
ten-year term, has been marked by controversy. In 2006 Attorney General
Menachem Mazuz called on him to resign his post in a report which
alleged that he had accepted discounted hospitality at a number of
Israeli hotels - a call that Metzger rejected.

Metzger has also proposed the establishment of a "religious United
Nations" comprised of religious leaders from around the world, and was
named one of the 12 most influential international religious figures in
a recent CBS documentary entitled In God's Name.