Most dictionaries would agree basically with the definition of the verb transport that I find in the Americal Heritage Dictionary, namely ...
1. To carry from one place to another; convey. 2. To move to strong emotion; carry away; enrapture. 3. To send abroad to a penal colony; deport.
In Jewish history, however, the word has a whole different connotation, because it was a term used by the Germans in the context of their carefully planned and executed program to kill all the Jews within their reach. Jews were "transported" to the death camps. Those who were condemned to the living hell of the forced-labour camps lived in mortal fear of a "transportation", which they knew meant something even worse than the torment they were already suffering.
A Jew should therefore use the word trasport very carefully. I was shocked to hear it used in the same sense as the Germans had, in a discussion of the "proper solution" to the Israel/Palestinian problem. The Palestinians should be "transported" out of greater Israel, thereby eliminating the problem. I was sitting at the Shabbat table and literally had to bite my tongue, out of respect for my hosts, to stop myself from speaking. Worse still, there was no disagreement from the 7 others around the table.
What are we coming to? I have been barely able to think about anything else since that meal. Nothing is the world should be leading us to think like the Germans. There is no excuse for them, and there would be no excuse for us. Make no mistake, I am a Zionist; I completely believe that we have a right to the Land, and a duty to do everything we can honourably do to maintain our Homeland. But "transportation" is not a solution, it is a poison. Germany will never erase the stain of its past, and we have the duty to future generations of Jews, our children and grandchildren, not to burden them with the guilt that their forefathers had been guilty of such a sin against humanity.
