We chose to trust the government – both because we wanted to believe it and because we didn't have any other choice – which assured us that any solution proposed by the opposition and various aid organizations would necessitate giving residency status to tens of thousands of illegal migrants. Indeed, they turned our home into theirs and made it very clear to us, repeatedly, that we would be the ones to go and they would stay, because for all intents and purposes this was their country and we were just racist specks of dust to be swept away.

Today is a somber day for all of us. On the national level, it's sad to see the elected right-wing government fold in the face of external and internal pressure. On the local level, it's depressing to see the glimmer of hope in the people's eyes extinguished. It is also dispiriting to see the leftist and the New Israel Fund activists rejoice at temporarily defeating those whose decade-long struggle has left them broken down and depleted. What a "proud" moment of triumph over the beleaguered, impoverished, elderly residents of Neve Shaanan and Hatikvah neighborhoods.

The deal presented to us at the Prime Minister's Office consists of two parts: The United Nations, within a five-year period, will transfer 16,250 illegal migrants to Western countries, and in exchange Israel will absorb an identical number of illegal migrants and give them temporary residency status. Because in Israel nothing is temporary, this status will become permanent over time. Some 6,000 people still remain outside the deal's parameters and decisions on them still need to be made. All the children, at least 10,000, aren't even being counted. In the second part of the deal, the state will establish an administration to rehabilitate south Tel Aviv and the money saved from canceling the deportation will be reinvested in the neighborhoods.

We did not get answers to a bevy of questions: What about the children? Where will those designated for deportation live over the next five years? Where will those staying here be relocated to exactly? How will they be prevented from crowding together in development towns? How will they be kept from returning to south Tel Aviv? Where will they find work in the periphery? What will happen when the aid organizations begin appealing for family unification? What will happen when they begin appealing against freedom of movement and employment restrictions? What will happen when the rumor reaches Africa that Israel offers a revolving door to Canada?

Most importantly, we didn't get an answer to the question: Why should we believe you again?

Having said all that, we must keep in mind that without the threat of deportation, the U.N. would not have agreed to take those 16,000 people. Without the threat of deportation, none of the bleeding hearts would have stood up and shouted their "support for south Tel Aviv."

Now the burden of proof is on them. You wanted dispersal over deportation? By all means. Don't wait for the government you detest so much. Get started tomorrow morning.

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The New Israel Fund has announced it will award prize money to any organization that helps prevent their deportation.

In a post on January 11, the American CEO of the New Israel Fund, Daniel Sokatch, wrote, "There are Israelis who are mobilizing to prevent this [government] policy [of deportation] from being implemented. You better believe that they are being supported – financially and with expert advice – by the New Israel Fund."

Immediately following the publication of this post, dozens of new organizations emerged and began to set up emergency conferences, and petition people and urge them to go out and protest in the name of what they call "Jewish values."

But truly moral people would not have sit idly by for a decade as the situation in south Tel Aviv deteriorated. Truly moral people would have cried out in the name of those residents whose lives were destroyed, whose dignity had been stolen and whose places of residence had been turned into disaster areas. Truly moral people would have signed the petitions demanding a solution to the infiltrator and migrant worker problem be found outside these neighborhoods. They would have organized a campaign to instead bring the refugees to them. They would have done everything they are doing now, but they would have done it before the threat of expulsion became a reality and before it became the fashionable thing to do.

Truly moral people would not have lied so brazenly. They would not have talked of people being "deported to their deaths," when they know that the High Court of Justice, which they hold so dear, has deliberated the issue for two years, during which they received all the necessary assurances that the countries taking in the infiltrators were safe. They speak of women and children in chains on the way to the airport when they know that women, children, those earning a living and the sick are excluded from the deportation. They note that these migrants constitute less than half a percent of the state's population, but omit the fact that this entire half a percent is concentrated within a few slums, where they constitute some 50 to 70% of the population. They speak of torture and death when they know full well that the torture camps are located in Libya, thousands of miles from Rwanda, and that none of the deportees would have any reason to even head in that direction unless  they have decided Africa is no longer to their liking and they prefer to live in Europe.

So let's talk about humanity, compassion and morality, shall we? It doesn't cost a thing, and it is so easy to grow a conscience at the expense of people they do not and do not want to see – the residents of these neighborhoods and the infiltrators alike.

So here is what I have to say to the pilots and the academics, the filmmakers, the doctors, the authors, the managers, the lawyers, and so on and so forth: We are keeping your letters with the lists of your names. And we will soon demand you put your money where your mouth is. Because all those exempt from the deportations – the women, children, earners and the sick -- will not remain in our neighborhoods. You will be taking them home instead.

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