Articles by David Wilder

The Hanukkah Chronicles - The Wilder Way - Blogs - Israel National News

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:44:00 +0000

The Hanukkah Chronicles - The Wilder Way - Blogs - Israel National News

‘(After the war) …the Jewish leaders strengthened Jerusalem and refused to allow the enemy to raise his head. When the enemy leader saw that the Jews were strong, he feared them and began moving his large army. The Jewish leaders suspected the enemy and also began moving his army too. When the enemy saw the huge Jewish army he decided to act utilizing deception. He sent representatives with kind words, promised not to harm them, and invited them to a meal with him. The Jewish leader believed the deceptive promises, sent his soldiers home, and arrived with little protection. The enemy leader entrapped him, captured him, and after a few days, murdered him and his sons.

This was the tragic end of the Jewish hero who was victorious in war but was slain when he believe the deceptive words of his enemy’.

Who is this tragic Jewish leader, felled by words and promises of peace? Sounds very familiar, no? We’ve been hearing these deceptions for how many years now? This could be written and titled the ‘annals of Oslo.’ But no, this story is slightly older than Oslo, Rabin, Peres, Sharon, Olmert, Livni and the others. The above paragraph is an approximate translation from Dr. Haggi Ben-Artzi’s publication called the Scroll of Hanukkah, based upon the “Books of the Maccabees” The leader, murdered by the Greek Tarifon, was none other than Yonatan, one of the five sons of Mattetayhu, who liberated Beit HaMikdash and Eretz Yisrael from the Greeks. This truly heroic warrior feel for the trick. He believed the call for peace. But after it happened then, well over 2,000 years ago, why do we, Am Yisrael, continue to fall prey to the same exact scenario? The only factors that have changed are the names and the nationality of the enemy. Otherwise, the situation is virtually identical. Yet we continue to send home the soldiers, only to be stabbed in the back.

Yesterday we all read Ehud Olmert’s ‘peace plan, offered to today’s Tarifon, called Abu Mazen or Mahmud Abbas, so-called president of the Palestinian terrorist organization. Thank G-d, just as in Egypt, God hardened Pharoh’s heart, so too, with Abu Mazen, who rejected Olmert’s offer, which included expulsion of tens and tens and more tens of thousands of Jews, and destruction of places such as Hebron, Kiryat Arba and many more communities in Judea and Samaria. There are no words. It is totally unbelievable, incomprehensible.

This week, the week of Hanukkah, the holiday of revealed miracle, we witnessed other such disasters, such as Barak’s frontal attack on religious Judaism (shades of Hellenized Jews). Another example of anti-Jewish, selective law enforcement happened here in Hebron, only two days ago. Kiryat Arba resident Ofer Ochana was detained by police and interrogated because he dared to play Jewish music from loudspeakers atop the Gutnick Center, outside Ma’arat HaMachpela. Following the interrogation he was warned that should he again sound music from the loudspeakers, he would be immediately arrested.

The organization for Human Rights in Yesha, led by Hebron’s Orit Struck, wrote a letter to police officials and others, questioning this action, accusing them of ‘selective law enforcement: “For years Jewish worshipers at the Cave of the Patriarchs have complained about the unreasonable and illegal noise of loudspeakers sounding the Muslim calls to prayer into the area assigned exclusively for Jewish worship, and in the Machpela courtyard. There is no need for this because these areas are not used for Muslim prayer (excepting 10 days a year). Two years ago a professional examination was carried out in order to measure the noise level compared to conventional criteria. The results, delivered to the Hevron DCO reported that ‘if the regulations to prevent hazards (unreasonable noise) from 1990 were applied in this case, the noise levels recorded very highly exceed permissible levels….Your action yesterday can only be defined as selective law enforcement, represents serious denial of freedom of expression and freedom of worship, and only encourages violent reactions. I ask you to explain why this extreme step was taken and, why you do not enforce the law equally, allowing freedom of expression and worship equally to the two religions.” (See full text http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135075 )

Let’s keep in mind that the building atop the caves of Machpela was built by Herod some 600 years before Muhammad was born, but that makes no difference to a confused Hellenized Israel leadership, who prefer to not to follow in the footsteps of the Maccabees. Such a decree is preposterous.

Then again, there are miracles today, as there were then. Today, the eve of the last night of Hanukkah, 20 year old Tzviya Sariel was released from jail, after being held for over 45 days because she refused to identify herself and cooperate with the ‘authorities’ following expulsion from an ‘illegal settlement’ outside Migron in the Binyamin region. When the judge ordered her release the state appealed to a Municipal court – releasing this little terrorist is unheard of! – but the judge overruled the appeal and tonight, finally, she’ll be able to participate in candle-lighting with her family. A true Hanukkah miracle.

This week in Hebron we witnesses another kind of Jewish hero. Visiting with us was Dmitiry Salita, a 27 year old Russian born Jew, presently living in Brooklyn with his new wife Alona. Last week Salita competed for the World Boxing Association’s welterweight championship. (It was the first match he ever lost.) A Ba’al Tshuva (a Jew returning to observant, orthodox Judaism) at the age of 14, Dmitiry began boxing a year earlier and is today, one of the best in the world. True, it is unusual to find Jewish boxers, especially orthodox ones, but when I asked him about this he said, ‘G-d gives people different talents. This is mine and through boxing I can, in my way, further Israel and Judaism.’ Salita’s boxing trunks are adorned with a Magen David, a star of David. (The interview with Dmitiry Salita can be seen at: http://www.hebron.com/english/article.php?id=605 together with a sparring match here in Hebron.

I’m not sure I’d ever want to be a boxer, or get into the ring with Dmitiry Salita, but seeing a Jew with no fear, willing to get into that ring, leaves me with a feeling of pride and honor.

Hanukkah is a holiday of light and faith. A little light pushes away a lot of darkness. A little faith displaces much doubt. One last miracle. Lately the ‘human rights’ organization, B’tzelem, has requested that a representative from Hebron speak with groups they bring into the city. (That, in and of itself is a miracle!) I spoke with one of those groups not too long ago, for about 25 minutes, answering their questions. One of the women on the group was kind enough to record the conversation and transcribe it. The transcription isn’t 100% accurate, but, relatively speaking, it’s not bad. The last question I was asked dealt with whether or not we, in Hebron, had failed in achieving our goals. My answer, as she transcribed it:

Look, success and failure are very relative. If you’re asking me, do I think we’ve failed? No, I don’t think we’ve failed. The fact that I live here today, as far as I’m concerned is a success. The fact that there are things we haven’t succeeded to do, there are ups and there are downs, we’ve been exiled from Israel for the last 2000 years, Hebron for the last 700 years. It’s very difficult to get everything. There are problems and there are issues we have to deal with, sometimes you’re able to achieve what you want, sometimes it takes long to achieve what you want. I think that most of the goals you’re trying to achieve, you eventually will achieve. I don’t believe that God brought us back after 2000 years to throw us out again.

I know it sounds weird but I think our presence today in Israel everywhere – in Hebron, in Tel Aviv, in Haifa or Be’er Sheba is a miracle, it’s also a miracle, because if anybody here had been behind the fences in Auschwitz in 1944 and someone came and poked you on the shoulder and on one side there’s chimneys and smoke and the other side of that there’s fences, and somebody says ‘you know something, don’t worry about it, everything’s going to be ok, in another 40 years we’re going to have a Jewish state and there are going to be people that come and invade us, and we’re going to win’, then the guy would look at you and say ‘you’re nuts, you’re out of your mind, you need to wake up! This is the fence and we can’t get out and there’s the smoke and that’s it’. And we’re here today. And if that’s not a miracle, nothing is. 1967 was a miracle, 1973 was a larger miracle and – I don’t have time now – but I can give you miracles that happen here in Hebron one after the other after the other. You know, it’s tangible, you can touch it.

Do I think that we have problems? Of course we have problems. There are things we haven’t succeeded, we haven’t succeeded perhaps in explaining ourselves well enough. But in order to be able to express yourself you have to have a form in which to express yourself. We know where the media is, the Israeli media and the world media and that’s one of the ways I ask you also... And I do thank you very much for this opportunity because in most cases groups like this that come in aren’t interested in even hearing what the other side have to say and I think it’s very praiseworthy that despite differences of opinion that are huge there’s a willingness at least to allow people to hear a little bit of another side and I think that’s important and significant and so I thank you for that. But do I think I’ve failed. It’s difficult but whether I call that failure, no. [http://shwaiarabe.blogspot.com/]

Wishing all of you continued light, enabling you to see the miracles that occur all the time, even after Hanukkah is over.

With blessings from Hebron.

The Eleventh Spy

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:04:00 +0000

Listening to Netanyahu's speech, I almost got carried away. Almost. For a fleeting few moments I thought that we might just get through the event without any damage. It almost seemed that Netanyahu had read my âdream speechâ and was actually influenced by it.

Even when he mentioned the unmentionable two words (hyphenated with the add-on âdemilitarized) I wasnât overly surprised. My immediate reaction was, âwell, he had no choice, and heâs laid down conditions that are far beyond the capabilities of our next-door neighbors to even attempt to agree to. After all, we know that theyâll never agree to Israel as a âJewish stateâ because that undermines their basic premise that Israel equals Palestine. The Arab's âright of returnâ demand guarantees that this will not only remain a statement, but rather a not too distant reality.

Clearly, they will also reject a âdemilitarized stateâ because these two terms are seemingly contradictory. A âstateâ which is sovereign must have the right to a military force, otherwise it really isnât sovereign. So, one way or the other â is it a state, or not?

Of course, the password, a âunited Jerusalemâ was almost the icing on the cake. (Except that Netanyahu forgot to add on the final clause, âunder Israeli sovereignty.â)

Much of the speech was positive, speaking of our rights to our land, speaking complementarily of the âsettlersâ in Judea and Samaria, and perhaps most importantly, declaring that the major obstacle to peace is Arab rejection of the legitimacy of the existence of the State of Israel.

All well and good.

Then, with a little thought, reality caught up with me.

Clearly Netanyahu believes, and perhaps very rightly so, that Israelâs Arab neighbors will never accept the conditions he has required in order for Israel to agree to creation of a palestinian state. But Bibi has made now the same mistake he made 10 years ago, a mistake first made by one of his predecessors, some 30 years ago.

At the end of last week my wife and I (celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary) spent a couple of days wandering around Jerusalem. One of our stops was the Davidson Center, adjacent to the Western Wall, which presents a fascinating computer reproduction of the vicinity of Temple Mount 2,000 years ago. Still having a couple of hours free Friday afternoon, we decided to visit the Begin Center, not far from the Old City. We had heard that the exhibit there was interesting and decided to check it out.

The Center itself, I found to be enchanting. Tremendous thought and work were invested in telling the story of the life of Menachem Begin, a most significant character in pre-State, and later, post-State Israel. The exhibit was broken up in various periods in Begin's life. I can honestly say that I enjoyed the content, up to a point.

When the program was over I told my wife that twice during the presentation I almost cried: when Begin was elected Prime Minister in 1977, and later, seeing a destroyed home in Yamit, with Begin quoted as having said that the pain of the destruction would remain with him till his dying day. She dittoed my thoughts.

Begin surely opposed a Palestinian state. He suggested only 'palestinian autonomy.' The magnetic magnitude of peace surely took precedence over a few thousand people in Yamit and the other Sinai communities. So Begin thought. But he never took into account the historic significance of the precedents he established with those fateful decisions in the early 1980s. Autonomy has translated into sovereign statehood and Yamit into the legitimacy to obliterate Gush Katif and north Samaria communities four years ago.

One of the most serious repercussions was not only the actual decisions, but the person who made and implemented them. Menachem Begin was the leader of the Israeli right, with a capital T. He set a precedent, not only for Rabin-Peres, but also for Binyamin Netanyahu in 1997 in Hebron, and for Ariel Sharon in 2005. Netanyahu and Sharon were also undisputed leaders of the right. If the right can do it, than what can they possibly say when the left takes power and follows in their footsteps?

This was the trap set for Binyamin Netanyahu again, now, in 2009, and he fell for it, hook, line and sinker.

When Bibi opened his mouth and spilled out the mantra - palestinian state, despite the fact that he hyphenated that phrase with the word 'demilitarized,' he too acknowledged and sanctioned this vile concept as legitimate, even in the eyes of the Israeli right. This is an historic error of which the ramifications are beyond measure.

In 1997, prior to finalizing the Hebron Accords, Bibi met with Hebron leaders. He promised them explicitly that should the community come under attack from the hills or neighborhoods abandoned to Arafat, he would 'send in the tanks.' Bibi made many mistakes, but one of the most serious was his illusion that he'd be Prime Minister forever. When the shooting did start, he was far, far from the Prime Minister's office.

As is was then, so too it is today. It might be assumed that Netanyahu really doesn't want a Palestinian state and that the conditions he set down will prevent creation of such a terrorist entity for the time being. At least during Netanyahu's reign. But what about after Netanyahu? He will not be Prime Minister for eternity. Just as Begin's autonomy has filtered into 'a sovereign state,' so too, Netanyahu's demilitarized Palestinian state will transform into a 'palestinian state' with the 'demilitarized' lost in the paperwork. So too, his demand that Israel be recognized as a "Jewish state' will fade into 'acceptance of Israel, leaving the door open for tens, if not hundreds of thousands of so-called 'palestinian refugees' to 'come home.' Where will we be then? After all, THE LEADER - a RIGHT-WING LEADER, gave his stamp of approval!

I have no doubt that the 10 spies, some 3,500 years ago, had no idea of the damage they would cause when they rejected Eretz Yisrael, as we read in last week's Torah portion. Had they an inkling of the historic backlash of their words, I'm sure they would have acted differently. But that cannot be an accepted excuse. We are held accountable for our actions, and serious errors can have even more serious aftereffects. Utterances are not just words. They are predecessors of actions.

So too with Binyamin Netanyahu's decision to acquiesce to King Hussein in the White House. He has placed the gods of the 'international situation' above the G-d of Israel. He spoke of the intrinsic value of Eretz Yisrael, while in his next breath admitting that part of our beloved homeland would be sacrificed to the idols of 'peace.' He praised residents of Judea and Samaria, butâ¦ what about Hebron and Kiryat Arba, what about Shilo and Beit El, what about Eli and Tapuach, what about Beit Hagai and Maon? What will be the fate of Ma'arat HaMachpela, or more importantly, Temple Mount?

Netanyahu's acceptance of a palestinian state in the heart of Eretz Yisrael is the ultimate betrayal of our land, our people, our Torah, our G-d. He has placed himself on a very short list of ignominious people.

Binyamin Netanyahu â the latest eleventh spy.

Let the truth hang out

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:41:00 +0000

After Avigdor Lieberman’s introductory statement yesterday as Israel’s new foreign minister I started thinking about writing this article. This morning, seeing one of the headlines in the Jerusalem Post, that thought was reinforced. However, after the brutal murder of a 16 year old at Bat Ayin, the thought transformed into words on paper.

You may not have picked up Lieberman’s remarks yesterday, being that most of the major internet news networks didn’t mention the fact that Bibi Netanyahu was sworn in as Israel’s new Prime Minister. I watched CNN, MSNBC and Foxnews all day. The event was totally ignored. What did Lieberman say? That Israel is not obligated by any agreements enumerated in the Annapolis Accords, because they had never been voted on in the Israeli cabinet. He did say that Israel was obligated by Bush’s ‘roadmap,’ but one would imagine that he also believes that the Arabs must also keep their part of the agreement before Israel makes any further concessions. That doesn’t look too promising.

What about the headline in the Jpost: PA: Death to those who sell land to Jews. Khaled Abu Toameh writes, “The Palestinian Authority has issued yet another warning to Palestinians against selling their homes or properties to Jews, saying those who violate the order would be accused of "high treason" - a charge thatcarries the death penalty. The latest warning was issued on Wednesday by the Chief [Islamic] Judge of the Palestinian Authority, Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, who reminded the Palestinians of an existing fatwa [religious decree] than bans them from selling property to Jews.” [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238562884554&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull]

This is nothing new. I’ve been repeating this to tourists and journalists for years. (The latter very rarely believe me.) This became an issue following Hebron’s purchase of Beit HaShalom, when the Arab owner screamed that he’d never really sold the property. He had no choice but to make this claim; anything less would have led to his immediate torture and death. His initial statements denying the sale came when he was sitting in an Arab jail in Jericho. However, now we have it again, officially, from the mouth of the “Chief Rabbi – Chief Justice” of the Arab terrorist authority, aka, the PA. Can you imagine what would happen if the Israeli chief justice, Dorit Beinish, or one of the Chief Rabbis of Israel would make a similar statement, saying that any Jew selling property to an Arab was to be summarily executed?!

The previous government, with Olmert at the reins and Barak in Defense, tried very hard to convince the Israeli public that ‘times had changed.’ The atmosphere seemed to be more relaxed. Abu Mazen was behaving himself, and Israel needed to do everything to strengthen him against continued attempts by Hamas to take over all of Arab-occupied Judea and Samaria. Unfortunately, these attempts to continue to deceive the Israeli public started to explode in their collective faces. Two police were killed in the Jordan Valley. A terror-tractorist tried to kill cops in Jerusalem. A car-bomber terrorist almost brought down a mall on hundreds of people in Haifa.

Here in Hebron we are told that everything is wonderful. Life with the Arabs has become tranquil Real lovey-dovey. So the IDF has notified us that soon the only road leading to Hebron, passing by the western entrance to Kiryat Arba will soon be open to Arab traffic. The last time this happened two Jews were killed on the same day: David Cohen and Hezzy Mualem. Other roadblocks are being opened, ‘gestures’ to the ‘moderate’ PA leadership. Gestures that inevitably lead to bloodshed and loss of Jewish life.

That brings us to today – a few hours ago. An Arab terrorist (‘militant’ in the language of all journalistic channels) with an axe broke into the municipality building in the Bat Ayin community and starting swinging. Two people were struck: Sixteen year old Shlomo Nativ was killed and a seven year old injured. I don’t know the family of the murdered youth, but his sister studied in high school with one of my daughters and his brother is a student in a Yeshiva where one of my son’s-in-law is his Rabbi. It hits close to home.

Bay Ayin really is a picture of tranquility. We have friends that lived there for a while and we spent a couple of Shabbats there. Surrounded by the Judean Hills, it’s quiet and picturesque and a lovely place to live. Maybe fifteen minutes south of Gilo, Jerusalem, the population is a mixture of religious Jews who practice their religion with their way of life.

So, what do you say to people whose teenage son goes out for a little while and comes back home, dead, a week before Passover? The Jerusalem Post quotes Hamas sources, “

For its part, Hamas called the attack a natural response to the "occupation." "This attack was committed in the framework of the resistance," Ayman Taha, a spokesperson for the group said. "This is a reaction to the continuing occupation and the continued building of settlements. This is a natural reaction," he said, "especially against the backdrop of Israel attacks. We are a people occupied, and it is our right to defend ourselves and to act in every way and with every means at our disposal in order to defend ourselves."

So let’s go out and kill some kids.

So, as we approach the Passover holiday, with the advent of a ‘new government’, let’s start anew. Israel has no obligations to the Americans, the Arabs, the Europeans, or anyone else. Some 3,500 years ago G-d gave birth the Jewish people by taking us out of Egypt and leading us to the Promised Land, to Eretz Yisrael. He created us, He made the rules, and He commanded us to follow those rules. First and foremost, to live in our land. Our first responsibility is to those rules, to freely in our land as a free people. Our government’s first commitment is to its people, to ensure their safety, to ensure their lives in their land.

Israeli governments have always been very good at shirking this responsibility. Hebron’s Jewish residents were abandoned to their fate when then Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu gave our Arab neighbors the hills surrounding the Jewish neighborhoods, leading to Arab shooting at Hebron for over two years. A few days ago Hebron marked the eighth anniversary of the murder of 10 month old Shalhevet Pass, shot and killed by a sniper from those very hills.

Gush Katif came under Arab mortar fire for years on end, with virtually no attempt to end the attacks by the Israeli government. So, too Sderot, hit by rockets for years and years; despite the Olmert-Livni-Barak supposed attempt to put an end to these attacks, they continue. Need more be said?

The question is what will Bibi do now – ten years later? Bibi has always said the ‘right’ thing, but done the wrong thing. Will he change his ways and start acting as a proud Jewish leader should? Prior to the elections he espoused the ‘right’ thing – opposition to a ‘two-state solution.’ Any normal human being with eyes in his head and a semi-working brain understands that a ‘palestinian state’ can only be catastrophic. Lieberman’s comments yesterday were greeted with consternation by staff of the Israeli foreign ministry. Lieberman’s first job should be to find those who expressed dismay at his statements and fire them. It’s time that Israeli policy changed, and there is no need to hide the truth behind locked doors. The Israeli government must encourage land purchases such as Beit HaShalom in Hebron, working to further such deals rather than trying to squelch them.

And last, but certainly not least, this administration must act quickly and decisively following today’s brutal murder of a sixteen year old at Bat Ayin. The response to such attacks must be immediate and equally brutal. The first reaction to the Hamas statement must be an unequivocal decision refusing to release Hamas murderers from prison in exchange for Gilad Shalt, killers who will surely return to their old ways once released from Israeli custody. Other measure, which need not be enumerated here, must be implemented, letting all know, Israeli lives cannot be, and will not be, trampled on. Our children, our women, our families, our citizens, are not cattle fodder, and any and all attempts to harm us will be answered appropriately.

Let the truth hang out!

Forty years in the desert

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:46:00 +0000

In a few nights we will participate in one of Judaism’s most ancient ceremonies, and certainly one of the year’s most treasured events. We sit around a table and conduct a Seder – the annual recitation of the story of Israel’s redemption from Egypt.

Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook, Israel’s first Chief Rabbi, writes that that exodus had a two-fold purpose. On the one hand, it was a goal in and of itself, that being liberation from Egyptian bondage. However, he teaches that the exodus was also a means to an end, that end being the reception of the Torah at Mount Sinai, and eventually, observance of that Torah in Eretz Yisrael. The exodus as a stand-alone event was momentous, but its real significance came to pass only years and decades later.

We are currently marking the sixtieth anniversary of Israeli independence. The Jewish people have made tremendous leaps and bounds over the past six decades. Who could have expected, in May of 1948, the power and prestige a Jewish state would command at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This is especially notable considering the fact that the Jewish people, coming out of a 2,000 year old exile, had to virtually recreate its national being from scratch, having been totally removed from exercises in sovereignty for two millennium. On top of this we can never forget that Israel was reborn from within the ashes of Auschwitz. Jews have prayed, day in and day out for thousands of years for not only a return to Zion, but also for Techiat HaMetim, the revival of the dead. Israeli independence is no less than revival of the dead. For this, we rejoice and give thanks to the L-rd for have granted us this most magnanimous gift of national life.

That’s the up side. The down side is all too well known. From the very beginning there was a concerted effort made to oppress the foundations of Jewish being. The founding fathers, or most of them, were not great fans of observant Judaism. The kidnapping and forced resettling of over 1,000 Yemenite children is perhaps the quintessential example of attempts to eradicate Judaism from the Jews. Yet Ben Gurion was known to have answered, in reply to a question about Jewish legitimacy to settle in Eretz Yisrael, that the source of Jewish rights to the Land is the Bible.

The relationship between Israel’s leadership and our Land has been overtly problematic. Eretz Yisrael was almost viewed as a ‘card’ to be dealt at the proper time. This was explicitly felt both prior to and following the 1967 Six Day war, when Israeli leaders attempted to refrain from liberating Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, and following their liberation, expressed a desire to abandon them at the first possible opportunity. So it was that Israeli paratroopers, having captured the Old City of Jerusalem and Judaism’s most sacred site, Temple Mount and the Kotel (The Western Wall) were told to prepare to leave only a short time after the victory.

Yamit, Oslo, Hebron, Gush Katif and the northern Shomron all speak for themselves. Other words are superfluous.

Where does this leave us, after sixty years?

In my humble opinion, the state of Israel isn’t really sixty years old. Yes, if we count from 1948, to 2008, the result is sixty. But in reality, we couldn’t really call ourselves a full-fledged sovereign entity while our heart was still in captivity. That heart being Jerusalem and Hebron. They go hand-in-hand, together. David began in Hebron for seven and a half years before moving up to Jerusalem. Hebron was lost in 1929; Jerusalem in 1948. Jerusalem was liberated on the 28th of Iyar and Hebron the following day. Hebron was chopped into two parts in January, 1997. Ehud Barak offered Arafat 90% of Jerusalem only a few years ago. The fates of these two eternal, holy cities are inextricably combined and cannot be separated.

Following the Six Day war former Jerusalem residents, expelled during the 1948 War of Independence were repatriated. Moshe Dayan, then Minister of Defense, refused to speak to former Hebron Jewish homeowners who had lost their property to Arab marauders following the 1929 riots and massacre, and subsequent final expulsion in the spring of 1936. Only in 1968, exactly forty years ago this Friday, did Jews return to the first Jewish city in Israel.

As with many such stories, from close-up they seem almost ordinary. In reality, not only a physical reality, but also a metaphysical truth, such events are earthshaking, or perhaps better put, ‘heaven-shaking. ‘ The return of a small group of Jews, that 1968 Passover in Hebron, with the guidance of Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook, with the participation of Rabbis Waldman, Druckman and Levinger, was the forerunner of a massive awakening, a returning to the heart of our land throughout Judea and Samaria. But this awakening too was not only a corporeal return to the land; rather, it was, primarily, a spiritual arousing, the voice of the Jewish people bursting through the ages, an almost primal expression of the faith buried so deep inside the souls of the Jewish people, who for centuries had cried out ‘next year in Jerusalem,’ whereby ‘Jerusalem’ was the keyword representing all our land, Eretz Yisrael. Without Jerusalem, without Shechem, without Hebron, we were as a body without a soul, a golem, whose bodily movements were predefined, perhaps classified as ‘natural.’ But the spirit, the inner essence, the heart, the soul, was missing. Only with the liberation of Jerusalem and Hebron and with them the rest of Judea and Samaria could we really and truly say, ‘we are back home – we have returned.’

That Passover, forty years ago, was the breaking of the ice – the trailblazer, the results of which are the authentic rebirth, physically and spiritually, of the Jewish people. As Jews began returning to their physical roots, so too did they commence the return to their spiritual roots; the numbers of Jews who have ‘returned,’ who have come back to observant Judaism in the past 40 years is beyond numbers. And that homecoming, as such, began with, and was initiated by our return to our land, our return to our heart – to Jerusalem and Hebron. The group of Jews who initiated and participated in that ‘Seder’ in Hebron in 1968 might not have known it then, and maybe some of them are still unaware of it today, but they were the sparks that set the fire of the return of the Jewish people to themselves after two thousand years.

Just as the exodus from Egypt had a double goal; one immediate and the other long-term, so too did our statehood in 1948 have a double agenda; one immediate – announcing before all the world, we, the Jewish people have not died out, we have escaped the bondage of galut, of exile, you have not been able to extinguish us; and also long-term – to bring the people back to all their land, to all their land and to all their heart and soul, physically and spiritually.

So as we celebrate sixty years and forty years, we can conclude that really, only now, are we beginning. The Jewish people spent forty years in the desert before entering the Land, forty years fraught with problem and crises. Now, we too have finished forty years, also filled with unimaginable predicaments. And just as then, when we came into the land the problems didn’t come to a swift end, we too, today, may still face unbearable situations. But those aren’t the key. The key is, we are home, we are in Israel, we have returned to Hebron and to Jerusalem, we have rediscovered ourselves, we have been granted the Divine gift of life, we are here to stay.

Happy Passover, Happy 60, Happy 40!

Why Can't Jews buy homes in Hebron?

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:46:00 +0000

Printed in the Jerusalem Post

Many events, despite their joy and festivity, may also have bittersweet shadows lurking behind them.

It is customary at every Jewish wedding, that under the huppa, or wedding canopy, the groom recites the words from Psalms 137:5-6: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not; if I set not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy." In some traditions the groom also places ashes on his forehead, recalling the destruction of the second Temple, and breaks a glass as an expression of loss. Even on the happiest of occasions, we recall the depths of sorrow at the loss of our most significant national enterprises, Jerusalem and the Temple.

ON THURSDAY night I attended a wedding. The daughter of one of Hebron's leaders was married in Jerusalem. As is wont at such weddings, the groom rubbed two sets of ashes on his forehead: ashes discovered in the Old City of Jerusalem, from the fire 2,000 years ago which destroyed the city, and also dust from Gush Katif, razed and obliterated almost three years ago, this summer. However, this past Thursday night had a particularly poignant significance. The groom was a graduate of Mercaz HaRav High School. He knew many of the young men killed there by an Arab terrorist just a few weeks ago. The night of his marriage was also the "shloshim" - the 30th day following the murders. That night there was also a large memorial service at the yeshiva in memory of the young victims.

So, when the groom recited the words, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem," all the people in attendance were remembering not only the Temple from two millennium ago, but the deaths of those eight students, only a short time ago.

This is, perhaps, the story of Judaism: a combination of sadness and happiness, mixed together, making for the Jewish people.

SOME EVENTS can be understood; others are difficult to fathom. We are currently celebrating the first anniversary of the conclusion of the purchase of Beit HaShalom in Hebron. Exactly a year ago attorneys gave us the green light, and in we went. This huge, 3,500 square meter structure, strategically located on the road between Hebron and Kiryat Arba, was the first property purchased outside of the borders of the original Jewish neighborhoods. The roof of the building serves as a lookout, with a view of Kiryat Arba to the east and the Hebron Hills to the south. It is an amazing sight; on the one hand, exceedingly beautiful, and on the other hand, a bona fide security asset.

Israel is on the verge of a 60th birthday. Since the birth of the state in 1948, despite all the problems encountered, Israel has made tremendous achievements. Who could have expected that a people being shoveled into ovens only a few years before, with over six million of their brethren exterminated, could overcome all odds and bring an ancient nation back to life, a feat unequaled by any other culture or nationality in the history of the world. It certainly does deserve to be celebrated.

However I cannot but sense that this celebration is somewhat bittersweet with the case in point an excellent example, a microcosm of issues continually encountered.

The Jews came back home to Israel; but to what kind of an Israel? Of course growth and development are measures of success. But do we remember where we've come from? Do we take into account the triumphs upon which modern Israel was born? Do we recall the bedrock which serves as the justification for the rebirth of our people in our homeland?

HEBRON WAS the first Jewish city in the land of Israel, home to our patriarchs and matriarchs. The Cave of Machpela is our people's second holiest site, after the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It was off-limits to Jews for 700 years, until Hebron came under Israeli control in the 1967 Six-Day War. As we celebrate 60 years of independence, so too we observe 40 years since the return of Jewish residency in Hebron during Passover of 1968.

Yet when Jews legally purchase a building in Hebron, 60 years after the rebirth of our statehood, such a transaction is automatically shrouded in controversy. So much so that the families in the building were prevented from installing glass windows throughout a snowy and rainy winter. At present they still may not install plastic shades on the windows, nor may they hook up the building to the city's central electric services. This is not due to any question of the legality of the purchase, but rather to a fundamental question: Can Jews continue to live, grow and develop freely in Hebron?

How can we, as a people, justify our existence in Tel Aviv or Haifa, if we do not recognize the validity of our presence in Hebron? If we cannot accept and respect the very pillars upon which our statehood lies, a peek into a crystal ball of the days and years to come looks dismal and bleak. A people with no past, or a people that refuses to recognize its past, has no future. A Jewish purchase of a building such as Beit HaShalom in Hebron should not be viewed as "problematic."

Instead it should be cheered on as a positive step in the renewal of Israel's oldest city.

The time has come for Jews throughout Israel and around the world to declare their allegiance to Hebron.

A Conflict of Cultures and Values

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:46:00 +0000

This morning one of the headlines adorning the Jerusalem Post reads, "Israel mulls PA troops in Hebron."

When called the previous evening for a reaction to this story, one of the points I made was, "Israel is allowing armed terrorists to 'legally' return to Jenin. After the number of soldiers we lost in Jenin cleaning out the terrorist nests there, I really don't understand how we can allow them back!"

In an article in HaAretz from March 28, by Amos Harel and Avi Yissacharof, it is written that the critical Kevasim junction is also slated to be opened. This junction, between Kiryat Arba and the southern Hebron Hills communities, is not far from the regional Judea command post, and leads to the area's industrial center, Fachs el-Masmas. Numerous terror attacks have occurred near this site. Should the junction be again opened, terrorists will have a clear escape route, leading to just about anywhere in Hebron.

Interestingly, but sadly, the article mentions that Barak may not hasten to open the junction because, "an attack which allows terrorists to pass though an area where there was a security barrier which was removed, will be negatively accredited to the Defense Minister."

And back to the Post: Hebron was a perfect place for the program (to deploy 'PA police'), (but) it was a sensitive issue due to the Jewish population in the city.

So what are we dealing with: security of the state of Israel and human lives, or politics?

A few weeks ago I met a man outside Ma'arat HaMachpela, who identified himself as a journalist, working for the Yisrael Post newspaper. When we began talking he told me, "you cannot image how much I hate you." As we continued to converse he said, "you really don't understand. I hate you more than you hate the Palestinians." I didn't give up, hoping to conduct a serious discussion with him. But in the end, just before he walked away, he concluded, "you know, I believe that a good settler is a dead settler." And with that he walked away.

I have no idea how many people in Israel think the above thoughts. More than likely, most of them would refrain from expressing them, especially to a 'settler' in Hebron. However, this particular man put all the cards on the table. Others have too.

The following was broadcast thirteen years ago on Kol Yisrael radio, on Friday July 14, 1995. I posted it in an article that same day [http://tinyurl.com/32mzzw]: "… Rabbi Rabinovitch had spoken to a reporter who had interviewed the Israeli Foreign minister a short time before. The reporter asked him, 'aren't you worried about what will happen to the 'settlers' in Judea and Samaria after the army pulls out?' He answered, "I have no problem with what will happen in Yesha. We will withdraw the army and then let's see what happens. They (the Jews) will either run away immediately, or the Arabs will massacre some, and then we'll see what happens."

By the way, in case you've forgotten, the Foreign minister in July 1995 is currently serving as President of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres. (And we also know what happened when the IDF retreated from areas in Judea and Samaria, and also Gush Katif.)

Hebron came under attack for almost two years, following the abandonment of over 80% of the city to the PA, including the hills surrounding the Jewish community. In a few days Hebron will mark the seventh anniversary of the murder of Shalhevet Pas, the ten-month old infant murdered by a sniper shooting from those very hills. Not too long ago another terrorist began shooting towards Beit Hadassah and hit two homes. Several bullets hit a baby's crib in an apartment on the building's second floor. Another bullet flew through my son's room, stopping in his clothes closet. And that is WITH the IDF still stationed in the hills, before renewal of an armed palestinian force in the city.

The question must be addressed: What are the goals of the so-called "Israeli leadership, and at what price?" If they consider it necessary to take 'calculated risks,' then at what cost? Who will have to pay the price should the 'calculated risk' backfire? Who will replace the mother or father, or son or daughter sacrificed to the god of 'calculated risks'?

But getting to the roots of the matter, do the so-called leaders care about Israeli life? Does it really make any difference to them if any of us live or die? According to Shimon Peres, circa 1995, or the gentleman mentioned above, who calls, 'dead settlers good settlers,' the answer would seem clear. But it's not only words that count; actions speak louder than words. Judging from the reactions of 'leaders' to the mortars falling on Gush Katif for years, or shooting attacks in Hebron or throughout Judea and Samaria, the answer would have to be a resounding 'no!' It might be expected that Israeli life in the 'cities' would be worth more than those of us living in Yesha. But judging from the reaction of rockets being shot at Sdereot or Asheklon, it seems that life there too, is considered to be cheap.

I have an idea.

I was just interviewed about the suggested compensation to be paid to those (Jews) expelled from Judea and Samaria. (Of course, such compensation to Arabs, when suggested by Rav Meir Kahane HY"D or Rehavam Ze'evi – Gandhi HY"D was considered racism. But when offered to Jews, it is considered a legitimate means to attain 'peace.') We should begin to collect funds to pay-off our present politicians, offering them money, homes, drink, anything they so desire, anywhere in the world, barring Israel. They will most definitely accept, being that nothing is more important to them than money. Once they have left we'll be able to start again, they way we should have in the first place.

Seriously, the objective is not to physically rid ourselves of those people, despite the fact that they are corrupt and dangerous to the existence of the State. But more treacherous are the ideas they espouse – human life is cheap while Eretz Yisrael and Judaism are worthless. Their despicable scorning of the three tenets of Judaism: Am Yisrael – the Jewish people, Eretz Yisrael – the Land of Israel and Torat Yisrael, while at the same time valuing only their own personal power and well-being, is abominable. Our primary struggle is not against our enemies from without; rather it is a battle against the enemy eating away at us from within; a conflict of cultures and values, the outcome of which will determine the face of the Jewish people for generations to come.

Three Cheers for Mercaz HaRav

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:46:00 +0000

This morning I must admit: I did something I'm not wont to do. I read an article called 'Heads to the right,' penned by Gideon Levy in Haaretz newspaper. Even stranger, I actually agreed with some of what he wrote. Not everything, of course, but bits and pieces.

For example, the 2nd paragraph: Mercaz Harav is the flagship of the last group in Israeli society still operating in the realm of ideas. Religious Zionists are the only group, aside from the ultra-Orthodox population, whose members are willing to lay down their lives for the collective and its worldview. Right on!

And he goes on to say: …without the Gush Emunim movement, supported by successive Israeli governments, there would be no settlements; and without the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, there would be no Gush Emunim. This institution, then, was the cradle of the settlement enterprise and its driving force. Right again!

But of course, it can't all be good. These last lines are prefaced with: Nor can anyone ignore the damage it has caused the country. Without the settlement enterprise, peace might have reigned here already… Oops.

And then, some of the lines are mixed: From Mercaz Harav emerged the rabbis that led the vilest move in Zionist history. Most of the delusional right-wing perpetrators and the mongers of hate for Arabs came from this flagship. Religious leaders such as Rabbis Moshe Levinger, Haim Druckman, Avraham Shapira, Yaakov Ariel, Zefania Drori, Shlomo Aviner and Dov Lior, all idolized by their students, raised generations of nationalist youths within those walls.

All of these lines can be analyzed, but the first words are really what interest me: Mercaz Harav is the flagship of the last group in Israeli society still operating in the realm of ideas.

Ah, those lofty ideals, which are today so blasphemed. So old-fashioned. Like these quotes:

It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical… In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I'll be able to realize them! The Diary of a Young Girl, eds. Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler, p. 332

One needs something to believe in, something for which one can have whole-hearted enthusiasm. One needs to feel that one's life has meaning, that one is needed in this world. Hannah Senesh [http://www.wisdomquotes.com/001779.html]

I also seem to remember, even though I cannot presently find the source, that either the poetess Rachel or Hannah Senesh asked, 'what will happen to us, here in Israel, after we've achieved our present goals. What will happen to our ideals then?'

But for many, such ideals have lost their taste. Today their lives are based upon secular materialism, hedonism and money. And let's not forget peace. Even at the cost of survival.

The Rabbinic leadership and student body of Mercaz HaRav must be lauded and applauded. For at least three different things:

As we say – Sur me'ra v'aseh tov – first veer from evil and then, do good!

Sur me'ra – Veer from Evil:

Yesterday the so-called education minister, Yuli Tamir visited the yeshiva. When leaving she was verbally attacked by people there. Bravo. She deserved everything said to her, including 'murderer.' As 'education minister' Tamir has allowed 'nakba' (the Arab word for catastrophe, which they use to describe the 1948 War of Independence), to be taught in Israeli schools as a legitimate part of the curriculum. This is nothing less than incitement, inciting Arabs against Jews and the state of Israel. Such incitement can only lead to bloodshed. Jewish blood being shed.

Yuli Tamir, one of the founders of Shalom Achshav, (Peace Now), is the antithesis of everything Mercaz HaRav has ever stood for. Thank G-d she was chased away.

Sur me'ra number two: The yeshiva refused to allow Olmert to visit and pay his respects or condolences. This too is an act to be praised.

Olmert was one of the initiators of the expulsion from Gush Katif. He has publicly declared his willingness to expel tens and hundreds of thousands of Jews from their homes in Judea and Samaria, while abandoning our land to our enemies, allowing them to continue attacking our civilian population.

Despite continuing attacks on Israelis, Olmert stubbornly insists on continuing negotiations with the enemy, in an attempt to rid ourselves of our land. He plans on holding negotiations even during the week of the 'shiva' – the seven days of mourning for the yeshiva's murdered eight young students. He is ready to abandon Hebron and divide Jerusalem, leaving the holiest sites in the world in the hands of our enemy.

How could Mercaz HaRav allow such a defiled person to walk in its holy midst, who, while offering 'condolences' is preparing the ground for more Israelis to be killed?

And now, Aseh tov – Do Good: This morning, when speaking on Israel radio, Rabbi Haim Steiner, when asked why the Yeshiva was politicizing the death and mourning of its students, (referring to the decision to refuse Olmert's visit), he answered, 'this is not politics. We are people of Torah and 'yirat-shamayim' (G-d fearing.) In other words, there are issues which transcend such mundane subjects as politics. There is G-d. There is Torah. Those who study Torah, the word of G-d, those who fear and revere G-d, those who make ideas and ideals a way of life, have the ability to discern who and what surround them. Eretz Yisrael is transformed from earth to a spiritual value, far exceeding the obscure standards of life significant to the Levys, Tamirs, and Olmerts of this world. Refusing to shake hands with Olmert is not politics – it is Torah!!!

This is why it was so important to make these points clear, from the very center of religious Zionism, Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav, during one of its most difficult moments.

Da'at Torah – the way of Torah, is not weak and lackadaisical. Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook zt'l, son of Israel's first Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook, and leader of Mercaz HaRav and the return to Yehuda, Shomron and Gaza following the Six Day War in 1967 wrote about his trip to Yaffo in the winter of 1949, visiting the home and Torah study hall where his father had lived and where he had grown up:

…It was an awesome moment. I was filled and spiritually uplifted by the energy binding me during my stay at the Talmud Torah…and afterwards (I went) again to the study hall "Ohr Zoreach" which had been shelled and destroyed and ruined by the British, may their names be blotted out…and I forced myself to walk back and forth, with the many sacred memories of my childhood and later years…filled with the anger of G-d and I felt empty there, at this terrible time at this terrible place, with the deepest of thoughts and sharpest expressions and speech, from myself and from holy verses, of the abundance of curses and vengeance which should occur soon on the heads of the wicked, on the rulers of malice and its perpetrators, which G-d the redeemer will bring about and judge them as they've done to us, as they have destroyed and ruined here, so too swiftly will it be to their palaces and halls…" (Ohr l'Netivoti, 315-316)

Amen, may it be His Will, speedily in our days.

Behind the Windows

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:12:00 +0000

There are times when you (I) think you've seen everything. And then something new pops up and you (I) pinch yourself, trying to discover if it's real or just a dream.

I've been pinching myself a lot lately, and each time I'm shocked to discover that it's not a dream.

Let me preface the forthcoming story with three short introductions.

First, every once in a while I receive letters asking why I post such items. I can only go back to the first article I recall having written, following the murder of Nachum Hoss and Yehuda Partuche just outside Hebron in March, 1995. I remember writing then that it's important that people KNOW – that events shouldn't be the inheritance of the few – that they should be public knowledge, on the table for everyone to see, to judge, and to do something about. I still believe that, even more so today.

Two: Despite what I am going to write, yes, I still believe in the sanctity of the State of Israel, in the Land of Israel. The State is, in my opinion, (and I know there are many who disagree for various reasons), a Divine gift for which we waited for over two thousand years. The State isn't at fault for all the problems we have, rather it's us, the people, who are screwing it up. (In short.)

Three: I'm frequently asked, 'what can we do?' OK – we all know the standard answers: make phone calls, write letters, etc. etc. (Again, in my opinion) there are two major activities people can partake in today to make a difference, and I'm sure this isn't the first time you've ever heard this. First, you can give money, making contributions and donations to whatever interests you (like Hebron). The battles we are facing today are unbelievably expensive ($20,000 a month to heat Beit HaShalom and literally tens and more tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees). Very simply, we cannot afford do it without mucho dollars. And that means people like you, because we don't have a monopoly on money.
However, if people REALLY want to make a difference, they have to come here to Israel – not for vacations, but to comeLIVE here, breath here, work here and 'change the way it is.' And it really can happen – it can be done. I know people don't like Aliyah speeches, but what can you do – sometimes the truth hurts. If you really believe in something, act upon it. Do it.

After you read the next paragraphs you may ask (if you already haven't, at least a million time) why would anyone want to go live there? I relate to that as 'the Spy's question – the same thing asked by 10 of the 12 spies Moses sent to search out the land following the exodus from Egypt. They looked around and asked themselves, 'why would anyone want to live here?' We know what happened to them and the damage they caused us, up through today. We are here in Eretz Yisrael because G-d gave us this land, it is our homeland, He created to Jewish people in order that we should live here and fulfill here His commandments. Need more be said?

OK – that was just an introduction. Now on to the good stuff.

By this time you're probably familiar with the famous, or infamous Beit HaShalom windows. A couple of weeks ago, following a fierce snow storm, Minister Eli Yishai from Shas started banging on the cabinet-room table, demanding to know why Jews in Hebron had to live without windows. Barak finally gave his okay. Then, the fun started.

One of my colleagues here received a call from the local Chief (named Taryk) of the Civil Administration, a branch of the defense ministry. This was a couple of days before another expected snow storm. He informed us that we could install, in Beit HaShalom, 'wooden frames with plastic' to protect its residents from the cold and rain.
"Ha," my friend answered, "you think they're living there without any protection at all. That's what we already have there."
So a couple of hours later Chief called back and said, "you can install aluminum window frames WITHOUT glass windows."
My friend: "Do me a favor. I'm busy. In another day or so it's going to start snowing again. So either issue me the permits I need for windows, or leave me alone."

A few hours later Chief called back and finally agreed to installation of windows – period.

Wow, great – a real victory. The windows were ordered and arrived in record time. The simplest windows in Israel were ordered, in order not to upset Chief or any of his bosses. Installation began. And then the fun started. Again my friend received a call, an hysterical call, from Chief.
"What are you doing there?"

"Installing windows."

"But you are also installing 'trisim' – plastic shades. You didn't get a permit to install anything made of plastic – only aluminum frames and glass windows."

"OK, so we'll change them from plastic to aluminum."

"But then they won't be the simplest windows, which you promised to install."

…. – " Look, the standard for the simplest windows, set by the Ministry of Housing, demands that all windows come with shades. We are only following that."

One of the reasons the Chief and his bosses allowed the windows was a result the community's agreement to post bond, guaranteeing not take advantage ofthe window installation in order to make other earth-shattering changes in the building. A creature named Ronit Levy, a left-wing activist dressed in military garb who works as a prosecutor for the IDF, wrote a letter to the court saying that they should consider demanding payment of our bond guarantee because we had violated the agreement and installed plastic shades.

So, all the shades that had been installed were removed, and today the families live with glass windows in very sunlit rooms.

Behind the scenes, or as we say in Hebron, behind the windows.

(See another two stories, not directly related to Hebron, on my Arutz 7 – Israel National News Blog - http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/9

--
The Jewish Community of Hebron

P.O.B. 105 Kiryat Arba-Hebron 90100

Tel: 972-9965-333 - info@hebron.org.il

The Hebron Fund - hebronfund@aol.com

Tour Hebron: Tel 972-52-431-7055 or tour@hebron.com

Help Hebron: www.hebrontruma.com

Web: www.hebron.com www.machpela.com www.hebrongifts.com

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It really is time to wake up

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:21:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered why, when you have an infection, it hurts. For example, if you have a tooth that's rotted, or you've cut yourself badly, but in a place where you don't necessarily see the wound, what would happen if it didn't cause you pain?

The answer is quite straightforward. The infection spreads, or if you're bleeding, you keep bleeding, and eventually you die. It's as simple as that. In other words, even though we go to great pains to avoid pain, such aches can save our lives.

Israel is hurting, but for some reason we don't feel the pain. Or perhaps we're ignoring it. How long have we been hurting for? I suppose I could go back hundreds and thousands of years. There's original sin, but back then there still weren't Jews. Perhaps though, as far as Jews are concerned, there's a second version of original sin: bowing down to the Golden Calf or the rejection by ten spies of Eretz Yisrael. Today, thousands of years later, we are still suffering from the identical afflictions.

Let's not go back so far. Let's start with the 'first intifada,' in the late 1980s and going into the early 1990s. There were numerous terror attacks which left many too many Jews dead and wounded. But that war is primarily remembered for 'rock-throwing,' which was not considered to be a very serious crime.

Aside from the fact that rocks can, do, and have killed people, the significance of that period was twofold. First, our enemy organized himself to rebel against the state of Israel and its Jewish inhabitants, with the set goal of eventually wiping Israel off the map.

True, rocks doesn’t seem that dangerous, but look at where they’ve led! That can be examined though point number two: That is, they attacked, they declared war, and we, collectively, the state of Israel, the prime minister, the defense minister, the cabinet, the armed forces, ignored them. In their eyes it was not a war, rather it was an 'uprising,' which could be quelled. However I remember quite vividly Defense Minister Moshe Arens, who then had the power and authority to do whatever was necessary, saying that 'it would take time.' Look how much time has passed and where we are today.

The infection had taken hold and was starting to spread. But where was the pain?

Then came Rabin-Peres-Oslo-Hebron-Wye. The disease had made its mark. Rather than fighting the infection with a good strong antibiotic to kill the illness, Israel's so-called leaders decided upon radical surgery: Amputation. Cut off a limb or two to save the rest. But sometimes the disease spreads faster than originally thought and local amputation isn't enough.

Israel kept hurting, the infection kept spreading. The pain continued but we insisted that it really didn't hurt. We offered to amputate more – Camp David II, version Barak, included a lobotomy. To no avail.

Intifada II. Major warfare. Hundreds and thousands of civilians and IDF personnel murdered in cold blood. Yet again our 'leadership' refused to accept the reality of the situation and continued to deny the throbbing of open, festering infections, swiftly spreading through the body of our country, our land, our people. Again they attempted major amputation. Gush Katif and the northern Shomron. Some ten thousand people expelled from their homes and their land, our land, abandoned to the cancer eating away at our souls.

But that too wasn't enough to eradicate the infection, the disease. Despite the tears of so many thousands of people, the pain of expulsion and destruction, the rest of the country was insensitive to their misery.

Where are we today? Rockets, falling by the hundreds and thousands on Sderot, fired from the same land we abandoned, shouldn't surprise anyone. Neither should the total disregard of the Israeli government shock anyone. After all, why shouldn't the terrorists shoot at us? When was the last time Israel reacted to attacks on its people? Mortars fell on Gush Katif for years and years, yet no one saw them, heard them, or felt the trauma and physical injury they caused. Gunfire was directed at Hebron and other communities throughout Judea and Samaria for two years, the source of which, again, was land that Israel GAVE to the enemy. For two years the Israeli government totally overlooked the suffering of its own people. Ditto Kiryat Shmona and other northern cities, who lived with Katusha fire from Southern Lebanon for years, yet had to watch as Israel fled, only to leave them again at the mercy of terrorists who utilized the vacuum to prepare and then shoot hundreds of missiles into Israel.

One more brief current example fresh out of Hebron. The Supreme Court recently ruled that, despite the continued rocket attacks on Israel, we must provide the 'civilian population' in Gaza with 'humanitarian aid.' Yet here in Hebron, twenty families in Beit HaShalom, legally purchased property, were not allowed to install windows or electric lines or tar the roof, despite the freezing winter weather. The windows have arrived but electricity still runs through a generator and apartments are full of puddles from water draining through the roof and walls to the floor.

Where do we stand today? The foreign minister, (an extremely apt title, because she is foreign to everything Israel ever really stood for) declares that we must continue to chop up our country for the sake of peace, even though the other side is incapable of keeping their side of the deal. We have a Prime Minister, (reminiscent of Chamberlain, holding an umbrella over the head of Abu Mazen), who insists that "Jerusalem is not on the table," or will only be discussed 'last.' But his counterpart denies this and proclaims, 'everything is being discussed.' Simultaneously, political parties such as Shas, continue to contradict reality, remaining in a government on the verge of amputation, stage III – this time the head and heart go.

Where are the people? Does anyone remember that only a few weeks ago a member of an official national committee of inquiry admitted that their conclusions were based, not on the virtues of a specific event, in this instance, the behavior of Olmert during the Second Lebanese War, rather on political factors: if he can bring 'peace' that must be a major consideration before any conclusions are reached.

Let's go back to our toothache. Such a small piece of bone, yet it can cause such excruciating pain. Sometimes, as first aid, the doctor or dentist will fill the area with some kind of temporary painkiller, to numb the pain.

It seems that this is what Israel has done to itself. I'm not sure if we have injected ourselves with some kind of Novocain which has totally dulled our senses, or have swallowed a large dose of sleeping medicine. But one way or the other, these 'medications' have seemingly killed all pain, thereby allowing the infection invading our body to run rampant, totally uncontrolled, bring us to an extremely dangerous threshold. Unfortunately there are times when the doctor, referring to a gangrenous limb, says, 'either the limb or the life.'

Many years ago, Rabbi Meir Kahane hy"d suggested transfer of Israel's Arab population from the State. He was called a racist, imprisoned and forbidden from running for Knesset. Another Jew, Rehavam Ze'evi, (Gandhi) hy"d, also suggested 'transfer' as a solution to the Arab-Israel conflict. He too was called a racist. The Arabs took both men seriously. Both were assassinated.

Presently Israelis, including ministers and MKs are offering payoffs to Jews, as incentive to transfer (expel) them from their homes in Judea and Samaria, in the name of peace. They are not called racists. They are called 'lovers of peace.'

The Jews in Judea and Samaria are, at present, the only people keeping Israel alive. They are the only ones who have not succumbed to the Novacaine-Sleeping Pill cocktail ingested by the rest of the country. But it is very difficult for a small number of people (percentage wise) to swim against the current of the rest of the population. We haven't been able to stop or prevent past catastrophes and I'm not sure that we'll be able to this time either. By ourselves. It is time for the rest of the Jewish world, in Israel and around the globe to stop the medicine, to arise, to feel the pain – no not the personal aches of individuals, but the pain of Am Yisrael over the ages, the pain of Eretz Yisrael, who seeing her children come home is now witnessing a process of self-destruction.

I highly suggest, as a way to start coming out of the stupor, that every single person reading this article find or purchase a DVD called 'Farewell Israel,' written and directed by Joel Gilbert. It can be ordered at http://www.hebron.com/english/www.farewellisrael.com. This is one of the most important, and also one of the scariest documentaries I've ever seen. I cannot recommend it enough. And after viewing it a few times, internalize it and pass it on to a friend. If this, together with present current events in Israel doesn’t stir you, I'm not sure if anything ever will.

It really is time to wake up.

A Full Cycle - A Brit at Tel Hebron

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 21:19:00 +0000

Photos: http://www.hebron.com/english/gallery.php?id=238
Video: http://www.hebron.com/english/show.php?id=83
More on Ohr Shlomo Torah Study Center: www.ohrshlomo.com

A few years ago I wrote about a special wedding which took place at Ma'arat HaMachpela. At that time Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook's grandson was married at that holy site. Rav Kook, Israel's first Chief Rabbi, was one of the most significant Rabbis and Jewish thinkers in the past few hundred years.
Following the expulsion from, and destruction of Yamit, Rav Kook's grandson, Rabbi Shlomo Ra'anan and his wife Chaya, moved to Hebron, to the Tel Rumeida (Admot Yishai) neighborhood. There they lived in a small caravan home for many years. Rabbi Ra'anan, a quiet and seemingly unimposing man was actually a great Torah scholar, whose modesty and humility characterized his life. Following in the footsteps of his father, Rabbi Shalom-Natan Ra'anan and his grandfather Rabbi Kook, he dedicated his life to Torah-study and dedication to Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. And, of course, his family.
Nine and a half years ago Rabbi Ra'anan was attacked and brutally murdered by an Arab terrorist who infiltrated into his caravan home at eleven o'clock at night and stabbed him to death. At the Rabbi's funeral the Rishon l'Tzion, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu declared that a Torah study center should be established where the Rabbi was murdered. As a result "Kollel Ohr Shlomo" – the Ohr Shlomo (the Lights of Shlomo) Torah Study Center was established in the very room where the Rabbi was killed. The Ra'anan's daughter Tzippy and her husband, Rabbi Yisrael Shlissel moved to Hebron and Rabbi Shlissel became dean of the new Torah study center.
Until the Shlissel's had a place to live, the Rabbi drove an hour and a half every day from his home to Hebron and back. One morning, on the transJudean highway, a terrorist standing in the middle of the road opened fire on Rabbi Shlissel. The Rabbi literally ducked, and miraculously was not hit. He continued his daily drive until their new home in the Mitzpe Shalhevet neighborhood was ready for them. They moved to Hebron with their many children and became official residents of Hebron.
Almost three years ago, the Shlissels, together with eight other families, were expelled from their Mitzpe Shalhevet homes. The Shlissels moved to a large caravan home in Tel Rumeida, only meters from where Tzippy's father had been murdered only a few years before.
The Ohr Shlomo Torah Study center is a very special place of Torah study. Some fifteen young Torah scholars spend their days preparing to be Rabbis. They are limited to five years of study at the Center, during which time they study for Rabbinic examines allowing them to take positions as official Rabbis. Graduates from the study center today teach in such diverse places such as Netanya, Ofakim, and even Ma'arat HaMachpela in Hebron.
At the helm is Rabbi Yisrael Shlissel, an important Torah scholar in his own right. As was his father-in-law, the Rabbi is very modest. But his knowledge and character have molded the Ohr Shlomo Torah Center into special place of study.
The Torah study is enhanced by the fact that the center is located on Tel Hebron, home of all the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, and also King David, who lived in Hebron for seven and a half years before establishing Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel. Torah study in such an atmosphere is distinctly unique.
The Shlissel's themselves have a large family, with three married children, one of whom was married only a month ago. However, last week they celebrated another special 'simcha' – festive occasion. Tzippy Shlissel gave birth to her eleventh child, a little boy.
Due to the cold, snowy weather, the baby's brit milah, (ritual circumcision), the Shlissel's decided to conduct the event, not at Ma'arat HaMachpela, rather in the Ohr Shlomo study hall. Despite the closed roads, many people arrived and filled the room for the festivity. Among those attending were Rabbis Dov Lior and Eliezer Waldman, both of whom teach at the Torah study center. With Rabbi Waldman holding the baby in his arms, Rabbi Lior recited the special blessings prior to naming the child. At the appropriate time, Rabbi Yisrael Shlissel, the baby's father, leaned over and whispered the new baby's name to Rabbi Lior who immediately repeated it for all to hear: Avraham Yitzhak . Little Avraham Yitzhak was named for his great great grandfather, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook.
On the wall of the Shlissel's caravan home, not too far from the Ohr Shlomo Torah Study Center, are three pictures. On the left is Tzippy's uncle, Rav Tzvi Yehuda HaKohen Kook. In the middle is Rav Shlomo Ra'anan, Tzippy's murdered father. And on the right is Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook.
These three men represent, perhaps more than any other people, the return to Eretz Yisrael. Rav Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook is arguably the father of modern Jewish religious Zionism. His teachings have led to generations of students and teachers, who continue today to imbue love of Torah, the Jewish people (Am Yisrael) and Eretz Yisrael to the masses. His son, Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda Kook, led the 'settlement movement,' the return to the heart of Eretz Yisrael, to Judea, Samaria and Gaza following their liberation in the Six Day War in 1967. His students settled Hebron and Kiryat Arba and followed to build the Shomron and Gaza communities. And Rav Kook's grandson, Rabbi Ra'anan represents above all 'mesirut nefesh,' the dedication and determination to Torah and Eretz Yisrael, willing to give literally everything, even his own life, to achieve these lofty goals.
The Shlissel's, Rabbi Yisrael and Tzippy, continue in the footsteps of their illustrious forefathers, beginning with Avraham Avinu and Sarah Emanu in their Tel Hebron home, through Rabbis' Kook and Ra'anan. It seems that now the cycle has been completed: Avraham Yitzhak Shlissel, named for his great great grandfather, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook, should be blessed to learn and teach Torah in his father's study center in Hebron, and in his great great grandfather's yeshiva, Mercaz HaRav, in Jerusalem, spreading the light that the Kook, Ra'anan and Shlissel families continue to emanate to Am Yisrael, in Israel and around the world.
Mazel Tov.
With blessings from Hebron.

WinogKatif

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 08:57:00 +0000

WinogKatif

I recall, over twenty years ago, during and after the first Lebanese War, hearing the Chief Rabbi of Hebron-Kiryat Arba, speak about the bloody conflict in the north. He exclaimed, time and time again, ‘who knows if the expulsion in the south didn’t cause the war in the north.’

Most people have forgotten by now, that shortly prior to the beginning of the first Lebanon War, Israel, then led by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon, destroyed Yamit, Ophira, and all other communities in the Sinai, liberated by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War. All Jewish residents of these communities were brutally expelled from their homes, which were then destroyed by the Israeli government. The Camp David Accords were the predecessor of Oslo, The Hebron Accords, the annihilation of Gush Katif and two northern Shomron communities, and negotiations with our blood-thirsty enemy for the expulsion of multitudes of Jews from Judea, Samaria and extensive areas of Jerusalem, including Temple Mount. Of course, the process doesn’t end here; it only concludes the negotiating process. Following implementation of such an agreement, (G-d Forbid,) the enemy would undoubtedly continue pushing for the completion of the first stage of their goal: the use of war-terror to capture all of Eretz Yisrael, bringing about the final solution: the destruction of a Jewish state in the Middle East.

Why only the ‘first stage of their goal?’ Clearly, the aim of Islam is not only the end of Israel; rather it is the Islamization of the entire western world and culture, including a takeover of Europe and North America. That seeds of that mission have already been planted; England, France and Scandinavia are being overrun by Moslems. According to recent studies, ‘Muhammad’ is expected to be the most popular boy’s name in England in 2008 [http://tinyurl.com/26w5u7]. (I highly recommend viewing the DVD documentary “Farewell Israel [http://tinyurl.com/35p3cr], for a fuller comprehension of this fact.)

So too, following the horrible destruction of Gush Katif, Israel found itself embroiled, not in one war, rather in at least four military campaigns. The first, coming directly on the heels of Gush Katif, was again, as twenty five years ago, from the north. Not too long afterwards, from the south. And let’s not forget Iran. That too is war; similar to the others, one-sided. The enemy has proclaimed its goal of exterminating a Jewish presence in Israel. Israel is still twiddling its thumbs.

However there is a big difference between what happened two and a half decades ago and today. Then, the war was on enemy ground. The second Lebanon War, as well as the continuing war from Gaza, is being fought within Eretz Yisrael. The rockets fired by Hizballah, blanketing the north, and the rockets being shot into southern Israeli cities and communities, have moved the war into Israel proper. Not only are soldiers in uniform casualties. Civilians are being targeted, terrorized, wounded and killed.

But in reality, this is nothing new. I mentioned a few sentences ago, that Israel is involved in four military campaigns; the fourth being waged from within Judea and Samaria, a war fought for years, primarily against Israeli civilians, which continues today. Not only Hizballah and Hamas are attacking Israel. Abu-Mazen’s ‘moderate’ Fatah terrorists have not forgotten how to kill and they are doing their best to do just that.

The Winograd Commission report, issued a few days ago, is a drop in the bucket. One of the most headlined conclusions from the report was the failure of the IDF leadership. The head of the pyramid was then Chief of Staff, General Dan Halutz. He was clearly unqualified for the job of ‘RamatKal,’ Chief of Staff. A former Israeli Air Force commander, Halutz may have been an excellent fighter pilot, but knowing how to fly a plane didn’t necessarily qualify him to take charge of all the IDF. Did the Winograd Commission examine HOW Halutz came to be army chief, WHY former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon fired Moshe Ya’alon a year early and brought in Halutz? The answer to that is easy: Ya’alon wasn’t crazy about abandoning Gush Katif. He probably would have done as ordered had he remained in the top job, but he wouldn’t have done so enthusiastically. So, goodbye it was to Ya’alon and welcome it was to Dan Halutz, who promised to do the job with a smile on his face, getting the dirty work done quickly. That Halutz knew how to do; to expel Israelis from their homes, to trounce the Jewish foe, the opponent of peace; that he could accomplish with ease. But to crush an enemy, threatening to destroy the state, killing and kidnapping soldiers, shooting rockets into Israeli cities, that was too difficult a task for the former fighter pilot.

Winograd dealt with the unpreparedness of the army, an issue which didn’t begin during the Halutz tenure, rather years before. What lay behind this lack of readiness?

I recall, years ago, during the Rabin-Peres years, taking my children to Tank Hill, in (the settlement of) Ramat Eshkol in Jerusalem, where one of the bloodiest and most important battles of the Six Day war was fought. We wandered around the memorial, museum and then watched a movie about the miraculous war. When we left I remember commenting to my wife that the movie’s theme seemed to be one of apology for having fought, and having won the war. She agreed with me.

That is the heart of the problem. An army cannot be expected to be victorious if the soldiers and commanders are conditioned into believing that it is wrong to fight for your survival; that the land you are supposed to be defending really doesn’t belong to you; that many of your countrymen are really the enemy and the enemy is really your friend.

How much time and money did the Israeli government spend to brainwash tens and hundreds of thousands of officers and soldiers in preparation for the expulsion from Gush Katif? They psychologically rendered the best of our best brain dead. They destroyed their thought-processes. They turned them into robots with one programmed message: these people, this land, are evil. They are a hindrance to the continued existence of Israel. They must be destroyed for the rest of us to continue to exist.

And in they went – the Israeli storm troopers, uniformed in black, to ‘follow orders,’ to fulfill the mission they’d been programmed to complete. And so they did.

But then, a short time later, when the real enemy attacked, they had no idea what to do. Neither did the ‘leaders’ who had self-hypnotized themselves into believing that the Messiah had arrived; the days of peace were at hand; terror and war had come to an end, the end-of-days had arrived. Peace Now!

Nobody with eyes of truth in their head could be surprised at the results of the Second Lebanese war or the continued paralysis preventing Israel from ending the rocket attacks on Sderot. Our so-called leaders are the very antithesis of leadership. They are terminally ill, sick with a cancer of the soul, which has filtered into their brains and down into their bodies. Surely Olmert must go, but not alone. Many of the others, in Kadima, the Likud and other political parties contracted this ‘I hate Eretz Yisrael-I despise ‘settlers’’ disease, which has eaten away their hearts and souls, leaving them empty shells, who may look just like everybody else, but are, in reality, golems, whose continued participation in Israeli political society is endangering the existence of the State of Israel.

True Jewish leadership can only come from people imbued with faith, true Jewish faith, with roots in Torah, with roots in Eretz Yisrael, with roots in G-d.

These are the authentic results of what should be called the WinogKatif Commission. Let’s hope the Israeli people wake up fast and implement these conclusions ASAP, saving not only themselves, but generations of Jews in Israel for years to come.

A Building Freeze or a Freezing Building

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:56:00 +0000

It’s out of the theatre of the absurd. Yesterday a colleague of mine received a phone call from an officer in an IDF unit stationed in Hebron. He had a request/demand. Two soldiers are stationed outside Beit HaShalom for security purposes. The officer told my friend that the soldiers are ‘cold’ and requested/demanded that people in the building supply them with an electric line for a heater to keep them warm.

My friend could not believe his ears. Only days before, Defense Minister Ehud Barak refused Hebron’s request to allow humanitarian renovations in the building, including instillation of simple windows, electric current, and sealing of the building’s roof to prevent water leakage. The letter received from the Defense ministry stated clearly: If you’re cold, go live somewhere else.

The same defense ministry, who refused us electricity, was now demanding that we supply electricity to IDF soldiers. My friend’s answer was short and sweet – Go talk to the Defense Minister. If he gives us electricity, we’ll be happy to share it with you.

A little while later this information was passed on to an Israeli journalist, who requested a response from the IDF. ‘How can you ask for electricity from Jews in Hebron when you yourselves refuse to allow them electric lines?’

A little while later he received his response: ‘The entire episode was a mistake. The IDF unit requesting electricity was not supposed to call the Jewish Hebron municipality. Rather, they should have made contact with the Arab Hebron municipality and asked to receive electricity from them.’

In other words, the army can take electricity from the Arabs to keep their soldiers warm, but Hebron’s Jews cannot receive any more electric lines to keep their children warm.

This afternoon I spoke to one of the building’s residents who told me as follows: We don’t have enough electricity for ourselves, but we’ve tried to help the soldiers guarding at the entrance because it’s freezing there. We’ve given them two of our own electric heaters, but due to the lack of electric current, both of them have burned out.

Early this afternoon I visited Beit HaShalom with my cameras. My daughter, son-in-law and their three children, aged three to three months, have lived there for the past ten months. They live in a one room apartment, divided into parent’s space, children’s space, kitchenette and living room. Their windows are filled withsome kind of corrugated plastic sheets, somehow sealed onto the walls. Two small heaters keep the room from freezing.

Another family in Beit HaShalom just welcomed their seventh child a few days ago. They live in similar conditions to my daughter.

Last night winter finally arrived in Israel. Extremely strong winds pounded the Hebron area, and Beit HaShalom was quite adversely affected. Many of the residents had closed their windows with large sheets of plastic, which up until yesterday were sufficient. That changed in the middle of the night, when the strong winds literally blew the plastic window-coverings away. Families found themselves as if they were camping outdoors in the middle of the winter. Rain started leaking into people’s rooms from the walls and roof, and puddles formed in their apartments. For a good part of today many Beit HaShalom residents attempted to fix their windows, again hanging huge plastic sheets against the window frames, attaching them with screws and glue, hoping that tonight won’t be a repeat of last night. However, many of them expect it to be worse. Snow is expected in Hebron, starting tonight and ending sometime on Thursday.

One of the families has three heaters in their room, but can only use two of them, the two smaller ones. The larger radiator remains cold; it uses too much electricity. Each family has an ‘electric budget’ which they cannot go over, or else the generator which provides the building’s current will break down.

The Hebron Jewish Community is spending some $20,000 a month to keep the building warm. The generator works 24 hours a day, at full power, to heat up the family’s apartments. (You can help if you’d like, and your assistance would be much appreciated: [www.hebrontruma.com]) No one I’ve spoken to have any plans to leave. I interviewed Shlomo Levinger, who lives there with his wife and five children and asked him why he doesn’t find somewhere else to live, as Ehud Barak suggested. His answer: “This is my home, I live here. Just like anyone else in their home can install windows, so too I should be able to. We haven’t asked for very much, just to replace these plastic sheets with something a little more solid to offer us protection, on humanitarian grounds. Last night the wind blew so hard that it knocked the screws holding on the plastic sheets out of the wall. Each child needed at least three blankets; it was very cold.”

While I was there, Shlomo was attempting to repair the window space, hoping that tonight would be a little warmer in his children’s room.

(Short videos of Beit HaShalom, filmed today, can be seen on the Hebron home pages – http://www.hebron.org.il/ in Hebrew and http://www.hebron.com/ in English).

The Israeli government is doing its utmost to force Beit HaShalom’s residents to leave; Ehud Barak, the current Defense Minister, is acting like a Russian Cossack. As another friend exclaimed today: ‘This is acting like a Jew? This is the way one Jew acts towards another Jew?’

The other Ehud has the authority to overrule his defense minister. But at the moment he’s more concerned with surviving in the Prime Minister’s office follow tomorrows’ release of the Winograd Commission Report, dealing with his failures during the Second Lebanon War. That certainly takes precedence over a few dozen men, women and children in subhuman conditions in Hebron. Besides which, Olmert already declared a full building freeze in all of Judea and Samaria. So the situation in Hebron falls directly within that category: Windowless, electric-less Beit HaShalom, if not part of Olmert’s building freeze, is quite literally a freezing building.

Warriors of our Land

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 01:16:00 +0000

Warriors of our Land

by David Wilder

The Jewish Community of Hebron

December 30, 2007

This morning I was told an amazing story, which I'd never heard before. I was sitting with my good friend and teacher, Rabbi Yisrael Shlissel, the dean of the Ohr Shlomo Study Hall located in Tel Rumeida. I had just related to him one on a list of horror items concerning Friday's battle, when two young Kiryat Arba men were killed by Arab terrorists. On this morning's news the Arabs claimed that Achikam Amichai and David Rubin were not killed by terrorists. Rather the incident was criminally motivated. The terrorist spokesman said that it was a drug deal gone bad and they started shooting at each other.

As a result of these charges, on Friday night, following the beginning of the Jewish Shabbat - Sabbath, police invaded the morgue in Kiryat Arba, stripped the two dead men, photographed them and took their fingerprints, in order to check out any past 'criminal' or 'drug-related' past.

It's enough to turn one's stomach.

When I finished telling Rabbi Shlissel about this, he told me his story. The Rabbi is, by the way, the son-in-law of murdered Rabbi Shlomo Ra'anan, who was stabbed to death in his Tel Rumeida home by an Arab terrorist over nine years ago.

Rabbi Shlissel told me that following the week of mourning for his father-in-law, the police requested that the murdered Rabbi's widow, Chaya Ra'anan, accompany them to the police station in order to answer a few questions. She had been present at the time of the murder and tried to save her husband, to no avail. She agreed and sat down with an investigator at the local police headquarters. When their line of questioning became clear, she abruptly got up and walked out. The police officer interrogating her suspected her of having murdered her husband and then setting up her home, (including igniting a firebomb in order to burn down their caravan home), to make it 'look like' a terror attack.

So much for our wonderful Israeli police, who suspect terror-attack victims of murder, and strip and fingerprint murdered Israelis because of terrorist's charges.

Difficult to believe. But the stories are true. This is the country we live in.

This is very similar to charges made by IDF officers, who have said, between the lines, that the two men and young woman with them shouldn't have been where they were, or that they should have first received an OK from the army. Had they done so, they'd still be alive.

Maybe so, but who would have been killed in their place? And why should Jews living in Eretz Yisrael have to get permission to hike in our own land? The so-called leaders of our country are attempting to close us into a ghetto, or perhaps something smaller than a ghetto. They'd prefer to lock us in and throw away the key. This is 'living?' This is 'being a free people in our Land?' as we recite in the Israeli national anthem, HaTikvah.

Clearly the Israeli government has drawn the borders for the yet-to-be-born 'palestinian state,' G-d forbid. Anyone driving into Judea, from Jerusalem in the north, or via the Transjudea highway from the west, has to pass though a 'border-checkpoint,' all ready to begin checking passports and stopping 'unwanteds' from entering 'palestine,' G-d help us.

The new Fatah-terrorist prime minister was quoted as saying that the killings 'pain' the palestinians. Of course the killings 'pain' them. It 'pains' them that only two people were killed, and not more. After all, there were three Jews present at the site; why wasn't the third person done away with too?

Not too long ago I wrote that America is our enemy. This riled up and even offended a few people. Perhaps I should have been more specific. Not all the American people are our enemy. But this American administration? What can you do? I cannot retract the truth.

There are three forces working against Israel today, two from the outside and one from the inside. From the outside there is Yishmael, today represented by the Arab world, represented by the Fuhrer of Iran, the demon of Al-Qaeda, and our peace partners across the road, which are the most sophisticated of the groups. The first two don't hide behind niceties. They say straight out: We are going to erase the Jews from the map. The third group prefers the Trojan horse method, as admitted by 'international statesman' Feisal el Husseini, just prior to this death, and backed up by one of his successors, Sari Nussebah, who recently declared that Jews have no place in Jerusalem, Hebron or even Jaffa.

The second group, is Asav, (Esau), which is today represented by 'the Western World,' namely, Europe, the UN and on top of it all, the United States. When the Secretary of State of the greatest power in the world compares the 'plight' of the palestinians to the discrimination against blacks in the United States, when the American ambassador to Israel meets with the president of the Israeli supreme court to 'talk about the occupied territories,' when the President of the United States is adamant about creating a new terror state in the world prior to exiting the White House at whatever price, the agenda is clear. Bush isn't coming to Israel in a couple of weeks to vacation in the Eilat sun. He's coming over to exert as much pressure as he possibly can to receive more and more Israeli concessions, in an attempt to force the 'piece-process' down our collective throats. Israel will have a hard time saying no; Bush is putting too much prestige on the line for Israeli leaders to be able to ignore or refuse his demands. Bush is, today, leading the frontal attack against Israel, using not nuclear bombs, rather statesmanship as his primary weapon. This is, perhaps, even more dangerous than a nuclear bomb; with such a bomb you know what you're up against; with statesmanship you can only guess at the significance and implications of the intended results. If this isn't an enemy, I don't know what is.

However, there is a third force pushing Israel into a corner. That force is, of course, ourselves. No, not all of us. But those people who are supposed to be 'leading' the people, are in fact leading, but in the wrong direction. Rather than portraying strength, courage and wisdom, they are rendering versions of the exact opposite. Israeli leadership has, for a number of years, been leading our people and our country down a dead end lane, a suicide path, which brought us to Oslo, Hebron, Wye and now Annapolis, the supreme betrayal of all that the authentic Israel stands for.

Achikam Amichai and David Rubin were warriors. Both served in elite units, one naval and the other air force. They were trained to protect their country, to defend their people, to do whatever necessary to defeat the enemy. They faced a surprise attack, but did not despair. At least two of the terrorists attacking them were killed; perhaps also a third one also. During the battle they fell, but they saved the life of a young woman who was with them. Had they not fought back, had they died without a fight, she too, almost certainly, would have been killed. They knew the odds were against them, but you do not give up without a fight.

Their love for their land, for their people, for their beliefs, their courage, their very lives, is the quintessential Jew in Israel: this is true leadership; this is the way a Jew should live today.

We may have lost two of the best, but we have, staring us in the eyes, the Jewish Israeli of the future. Not Olmert, Peres, Livni, not Mazuz, Beinish, or Barak, rather people like Achikam and David, they are our future.

Achikam means, my brother has risen; David, the eternal King of Israel. Achikam is a brother to all of us, he rose above the everyday drudgery of life, to give his life for his people, for his land, for his G-d. David exemplified the bravery of his namesake. May their lives and their memories be a blessing upon us all; may we learn from their lives and continue on the path that they laid out before us.

With blessings from Hebron.

Annapolitics

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:58:00 +0000

Annapolitics
by David Wilder
The Jewish Community of Hebron
November 28, 2007

During the early evening hours of March 19, some eight months ago, Hebron's Jewish community moved into a 35,000 sq. foot building, located on the main road between Hebron and Kiryat Arba. The building, purchased for over $700,000, was named "Beit HaShalom."

Initial police investigations led to a positive conclusion: the purchase is 100% kosher. The IDF commander of the Hebron region had no objection to a Jewish presence in the house; to the contrary, he regarded the site as a strategic asset and gave his blessings to the purchase.

However, members of the government, with then Defense Minister Amir Peretz at the forefront, demanded a solution to the new "Jewish problem" in Hebron. They didn't have long to wait. A recently invented military order, never before implemented, was pulled off the shelves: "An order against bothering usage." Hearings, based on this strange military order, began before a military appeals panel of three judges.

Twenty nine days after the Hebron community claimed the building, a Hebron Arab named Rajbi issued a claim in the Israeli Supreme court, saying that the building belonged to him and that he had not sold it to the Hebron Jewish community. (His claim was filed while he was being held in a Palestinian authority jail in Jericho. His lawyers claimed he was being held for his own protection).

The timing of the complaint must be noted. Squatters can easily be evicted for up to thirty days following their occupancy of a building. After that time period, eviction becomes much more complicated. Rajbi demanded that the Jews be expelled using this 'squatters' eviction law.'

Concurrently the police, who originally found the purchase documents to be in order, notified the court that they now had a suspicion that some of the documents were forged. Supreme Court president Dorit Beinish ordered the police to conclude their investigation within 45 days and report back to the court. (Justice Beinish, it should be noted, recently met with the American ambassador in Israel and discussed with him 'the settlers and the settlements.')

The police were unable to complete their investigation within 45 days; they delayed their report to the court four times.

A week and a half ago the prosecutor's office finally reported back to the Supreme Court: following conclusion of the police investigation, the prosecutor's office would support eviction of the Jews from Beit HaShalom, on the basis of the "squatters' eviction law.' However, they gave absolutely no reason for this conclusion. They made no mention of falsified documents, or of a fraudulent purchase. The impression left with the media was that the purchase was illegal, but no proof was offered.

Yesterday, during another hearing held by the military appeals panel, the judges demanded that the prosecutor explain their findings concerning eviction using the 'squatters' eviction law.' She responded: "…the position of the State is that the sale was kosher (i.e. legitimate)."

Yet, several hours later Hebron's attorney received an eviction notice stating that the building would be evacuated within 48 hours based on the "squatters' eviction law", during which time the decision could be appealed.

In other words, the sale of the building was legitimate, the documents are all in order, yet Jews still cannot live there. Why? Quite simply: Annapolitics.

Annapolitics has nothing to do with justice, fairness, objectivity, or basic human rights. According to various high-level sources, Israel, pre-Annapolis, promised the Arabs and Bush that the Jewish residents of Beit HaShalom would be expelled from the building in the very near future. The fact that the purchase was legal is irrelevant. The only factor which matters is appeasement: appeasing our enemies on both sides of the line: the Americans and the Arabs.

Make no mistake. The Americans are enemies. Under the leadership of Rice and Bush (in that order) the United States has been transformed into one of Israel's most dangerous foes. The policies being forced down our throats, including abandonment of virtually all of Judea and Samaria, as well as Jerusalem, is only the beginning. The Golan Heights are not far behind.

Why? It's likely that Rice and Bush are placing their history- legacy hopes on a miraculous Middle East peace accord. However, there's another reason - this is the price America is demanding of Israel to take care of the Iranian nuclear threat. But for Israel, this is like asking which do you prefer, to be murdered or assisted suicide?!

Israel's leaders aren't overly righteous either. Olmert: the results of 1967 will be changed significantly, and Foreign Secretary Tzippy Livni: 'it's no longer Arab against Jew, rather moderate against extremist.' These words leave little doubt as to the direction they are taking and how we, the residents of Judea and Samaria, will be defined (in one breath with Hamas and Hizballah).

What can we pray for? Also very simple. The lynchpin of this entire absurdity is Abu Mazen – Mahmoud Abbas, 'president' of the PA.

If Olmert goes, Tzippy, Barak and Bibi are waiting in the wings. Bibi – his reaction wasn't one of horror, rather that we conceded too much without getting anything in return. And when Bush concludes his presidency, who knows who will replace him.

But if Abu Mazen should disappear from the scene, the deal's off. So, maybe we should pray that Hamas get to him ASAP. They know how to do the job and he's more than likely in their sights. Why should the Jews of Hebron have to be the first sacrifice of Annapolitics?

Dirty Diapers

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:38:00 +0000

Dirty Diapers

David Wilder
November 14, 2007

The first step is to dispel all illusions. There shouldn't be any false hopes or mistaken impressions. Yesha council leaders called it an 'impending tsunami.' Big mistake number one: it is not impending; it is already upon us.

There may be those who are unaware of what's going on. Hebron is a good place for a beginner's education.

The purchase of Beit HaShalom, that huge 3,500 square meter structure between Hebron and Kiryat Arba some eight months ago is history. Presently eight families, including lots of children, are keeping Beit HaShalom Jewish. If there were not living there, in almost subhuman conditions, the site would have been long lost to Hebron's Jewish Community. As it is, the powers-that-be are doing their utmost to have us expelled from here too, but the wheels of justice spin slowly.

Where do things stand at the moment? Following purchase of the building, one of the neighborhood Arabs began dancing a war jig, claiming that the building belonged to him. Actually, he was involved in the purchase as a middleman, and had absolutely no idea who the actual buyer was. When the purchase was concluded, he had no choice but to scream bloody murder, otherwise his brethren would first torture and then kill him. During questioning by the Israeli police, he was shown a film of himself counting the money he'd received for the building. His response: I gave the money back and canceled the deal.

As a result of his loud denials and claims that the documents were forgeries, the Israeli supreme court ordered a police investigation to determine the legitimacy of the purchase. The initial police inquiries in March showed that the purchase was indeed legal, that the papers were in order. However that was not enough for the Supreme court. A second, in-depth investigation was necessary. The police were ordered to hand over their findings within 45 days. In the mean time, the Jewish residents of the building were forbidden to make any structural changes at the site. Any construction, or anything resembling construction, would necessitate a special permit, granted by the Defense ministry or the Israeli Civil Administration, a quasi-military organization under the jurisdiction of the Defense ministry, i.e., the government.

Forty five days came and went; the police returned to the court and requested an extension; the investigation was still under way. Since then, the police have requested numerous extensions, their job not yet completed.

In the meantime, winter approaches. Winter means wind, rain and cold. The residents of Beit HaShalom, perched on a hill overlooking Hebron and Kiryat Arba, began preparing for five or six months of winter. However, there were a number of issues to deal with. The building's windows were all open with no possibility of being closed because glass had never been installed. There was only one electric line running into the building, nowhere near the power needed to allow the residents to live normally. The third problem: the roof had never been sealed. Heavy rain would cause major leaks inside people's living quarters.

Hebron's leadership requested a permit from the Defense ministry on humanitarian grounds to: tar the roof, close the windows, and install additional electric lines. This request reached the desk of Defense Minister Barak. Barak, in August, refused to allow negotiations and delay forced expulsion of two families from the Mitzpe Shalhevet neighborhood. He gave the final orders: send in 3,000 troops to throw out the 'settlers.' Barak remained true to form and refused the latest request: no tar, windows or electricity.

The community appealed this decision to the Civil Administration military panel. Last week the answer came in: No, no, and no. The windows and electricity were refused unanimously. The tar was voted down two to one. Such actions, taken by Jews in a disputed building, might be considered an 'act of ownership.' Children, rain, winter, humanitarianism aside: let them suffer.

I've been told that the Israeli courts ruled, concerning illegal Bedouin settlements in the Negev in south Israel, that the government must allow them proper infrastructures on humanitarian grounds. Bedouins yes, Hebron Jews, no

Make no mistake, we will heat the building, using a generator and portable heating units. The fuel is very expensive – at least $6,000 a month. (That's over $30,000 for the winter.) The equipment will cost over $5,000. The real problem will be the leaky roof. However, we'll find a way to deal with that too. That's not really the problem. The real issue is the attitude of those people called 'leaders' – running the country.

It really shouldn't come as a surprise. After all, the government abandoned Yesha's Jews during the Oslo War, allowing people throughout Judea and Samaria to be shot at for over two years with almost no reaction or serious attempt to stop the attacks. So too in Gush Katif, where missiles fell for over five years. The reward for their heroism: expulsion and further abandonment.

Again, the war drums are rumbling. A synchronized orchestra, conducted by the American Secretary of State, with the Israeli prime minister standing in the wings, acting as first violin, reminiscent of legends of Nero's fiddling as Rome burned.

This being the case, what's the big deal, a few cold, wet Jews in Hebron?!

The big deal is that all of these instances are absolutely nothing compared to what's being planned. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Jews expelled from their homes, with nowhere to go. The heart of Israel being abandoned to the deadliest terrorists on the face of the earth, disguised as 'partners for peace.' Hebron, Jerusalem, Beit El, Shilo, - all to be disposed of, like a dirty diaper. Not only the places; the people too. And that is exactly how they will relate to us: the like contents of a dirty diaper.

It's not yet too late, but the countdown is getting close to liftoff. Don't be fooled and don't be surprised: This is what's in store for us in Israel. And afterwards, when our 'partners' start shooting down planes flying into, or leaving Ben Gurion airport, don't say you weren't warned.

Happy winter.

We are part of the story

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:46:00 +0000

November 01, 2007

This morning I read an unusually positive and touching article about Hebron in the NRG (Ma'ariv newspaper) internet site. [http://tinyurl.com/2e2ye8] The article contrasts the usual texts citing the "violent, extremist, law-breaking Jewish settlers" who are preventing I don't know how many hundreds of thousands of Arabs from living a normal life due to their presence in Hebron.

Every once in a while it's nice to sit back and enjoy a well-written, truthful article about the city of Abraham.

Approaching Shabbat Parshat Chaye Sarah I cannot help but reflect back to the founders of our People and wonder what they would say about all that is transpiring today.

I've no doubt that Abraham and Sarah would really enjoy participating in this week's Shabbat events in Hebron. Tens of thousands will visit Hebron and Kiryat Arba, praying at Ma'arat HaMachpela, joining tours in English, Hebrew, and probably other languages too. The streets will be full, literally from sundown to sundown, with tents polka-dotting gardens, parks, and anywhere there are a few meters to throw down a sleeping bag or two. The thousands who have registered in advance will receive Shabbat meals, ready to be devoured. Probably during the days of our Matriarchs, registration wouldn't have been necessary. Sarah, Rivka and Lea would probably have whipped up food for the multitudes without any fanfare. That is part of their legacy and part of our heritage. Such is the main trait of Abraham – chesed: abounding loving-kindness and good deeds.

This is the common conception of our Forefather Abraham. So too the Torah relates to him, both on a simple level and also on a much deeper spiritual plane. Jewish Kabbalah explains that Abraham is an embodiment of chesed and uses him to exemplify this trait.

However, it cannot be ignored that there is another side to our father Abraham – Avraham Avinu, also very much a part of his character, yet stressed less.

In Jewish mysticism, next on the list of traits, following chesed, lovingkindness, is gevura. Gevura can be defined in different ways. It means courage. But courage can take on many faces. For instance, our Sages teach us, "who is a gibor – he who is able to conquer his desires." In other words, gevura can mean physical heroism, but it also connotates spiritual courageousness, in this case, being able to overcome. Overcoming demands tremendous inner strength. Whereas chesed is a seemingly outgoing trait, gevora can be the opposite, expressing an almost introverted characteristic.

Usually this trait is related to Avraham Avinu's son, Yitzhak. In Jewish thought he represents the idea of gevura. But in truth, the holy Zohar teaches us that Avraham's original personality reflected not chesed, rather Gevura.

Three brief examples: 1) When Avraham was informed that his nephew Lot was taken as a prisoner of war, he stopped everything he was doing, put together an army, and pursued those who had captured him. Only after prolonged warfare, when he defeated his enemy and rescued Lot, did he return home. And then, as is related in the Bible, he refused to take any financial reward for his efforts.

2) Last week we read how Avraham was commanded to take his son from Hebron to Jerusalem and offer him as a sacrifice to G-d on Har HaMoria – today known as Temple Mount – Har HaBayit.

Avraham's entire life was built around the rejection of such human sacrifice and belief in one G-d. He had been promised that Yizchak would be his inheritor and continue teaching the world a monotheistic faith. Yet, when commanded by that same G-d who he so believed in to cut his son's throat, he did not hesitate for a moment. Our Sages teach from the Bible Avraham's quickness, his willingness to follow G-d's orders immediately.

These two cases prove without any doubt Avraham's gevura – his courage and heroism, both physically and spiritually. Fighting a war against kings who were, at that time, the rulers of the earth, equivalent to the United States, Russia and the EU all wrapped up as one, is no small feat. Defeating these empires requires skill and cunning. And courage.

Blind obedience in a voice from the heavens, to seemingly destroy ones future, to carry out an act in direct contradiction to all you have been taught, and to all you have educated others to, requires tremendous inner spiritual strength.

Avraham accomplished both of these tasks.

The final example may well have been the most difficult. Having succeeded in fulfilling G-d's word, having fought the war, having taken Yitzhak to Jerusalem, one can only imagine how physically and spiritually exhausted Avraham must have been. It is written that he returned not to Hebron, rather to Beer Sheva. There he received word that his beloved wife Sarah had died suddenly.

A normal person may have questioned G-d: This is my reward for carrying out your commandment? But not Avraham. He travels to Hebron and purchases the caves of Machpela as a burial site for his wife and family.

It is difficult to imagine the depths of the scene. Sarah is lying dead, needing to be interred. Ephron the Hittite demands only a huge sum of money, four hundred silver shekels, perhaps a million dollars in modern currency. Avraham could easily have relented, saying 'let me use the cave, without actually purchasing it.' He could have found another site, certainly not as prestigious, but also not nearly as expensive. But Avraham, knowing the sanctity of the site, having discovered there the tombs of Adam and Eve, knowing that this is the entrance to Gan Edan – the Garden of Eden, knowing that only he could preserve this holy site for his people for all generations to come, withstood the pressures and put the money down on the table. Four hundred silver shekels. The first land transaction in Eretz Yisrael, made by the first Jew, Avraham Avinu.

Avraham's gevura, his courage, his spiritual faith, allowed him to overcome. He was able to risk his life, his future and his money, in order to implement his willingness to obey G-d, in order to prove his true, one hundred percent belief in G-d.

This is what is missing today. True Gevura – an authentic willingness to put it all on the table, to say, 'this is what I (we) believe, and we are not going to move one inch. No concessions, we don't backtrack on our land, our people, our fundamental beliefs! Stand up for it, fight for it, but don't back down. That's what Avraham Avinu would do and say today, no doubt about it.

One of the reasons the newspaper article I mentioned at the beginning of this article is very special is because the author describes the following scene: Walking down to prayer on Friday night at Ma'arat HaMachpela he relates, in a very dry fashion, the fact that they would be praying where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca and Leah are buried, the same people his teacher would tell them stories about in kindergarten. "The child opened his eyes very wide and exclaimed: So Daddy, we are part of the story?!"

Yes, little boy, we are part of the story. We have been for four thousand years, and we will be for the next four thousand years. The hundreds of thousands who flock to Hebron each year, the tremendous outpouring of support at Hebron functions, such as our annual dinner on November 18 in New York, the words and letters we constantly receive are proof: we are part of the story, carrying on in the footsteps of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, of Kalev and David, of generations who dreamt of Hebron and generations that lived and died in Hebron.

Yes, little boy, you are right: we are very much a part of the story.

Happy Shabbat Chaye Sarah.

With blessings from Hebron.

Fried rice

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 12:38:00 +0000

October 26, 2007

A few days ago one of Hebron's least best friends, MK Yossi Beilin, introduced a bill into the Knesset calling for the expulsion of all Jews from Hebron. One of Hebron's best friends, MK Aryeh Eldad, pulled a fast one, introducing the identical bill, except that he exchanged the words, "Jewish Community of Hebron," with the words "Hebron Palestinians."

A great gimmick, which makes a point. Of course the left starting yelling and screaming about racism, to which he replied, 'what about you?" The bill, on its first reading, was defeated 47 to 11.

What bothers me is not Beilin or his friends. They are predictable. I can't say they are totally harmless, but their bark is certainly worse than their bite. What does bother me is the reaction of the present ruling Olmert clan. How did they react? Ministress Ruhama Avraham, answering in the name of the government said that 'this is a diplomatic issue which must be decided by the government, not by the opposition.'

Hearing that response, little red lights start flashing on and off in front of my eyes. My good friends at Arutz 7-Israel National News called me for a response, and this is what I told them:It is ironic that during the very weeks we are reading about Abraham, Hebron, and purchase of Ma'arat HaMachpela, the Knesset should be dealing with a bill promoting expulsion of Jews from Hebron, following in the footsteps of Nazi Mufti Haj Amin el-Hussainei and the British in 1929.
The government response also leaves much to be desired. The response should have been: Hebron, the first Jewish city in the land of Israel, home of our Patriarchs and Matriarchs, site of the 2nd holiest place to Jews in the world, is part of the eternal essence of the Jewish people, the Jewish state and Jewish heritage. It does not stand to reason that such a subject should even be broached. Hebron will remain an integral part of the State of Israel forever." So should have been the response. The fact that it was not so only strengthens the fact that this government must be toppled as soon as possible and a new government, recognizing Hebron's significance, should take power.

Over 70,000 people visited Hebron from R"H Elul thru the end of Succot and tens of thousands are expected next Shabbat, when we read about the purchase of Ma'arat HaMachpela. This is our strength, this is our support and this is our future! [http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/ 124023]

So, the question to be addressed is: why? Why didn't Ministress Avraham (name ring a bell?) say that Hebron will remain Jewish forever?

In the past, PM Olmert, talking about Ma'arat HaMachpela, exclaimed that Israel would never relinquish that holy site. However, he neglected to speak about the Jewish COMMUNITY of Hebron.

Over a half a year ago the Hebron Jewish Community completed purchase of a new, huge structure between Hebron and Kiryat Arba, called it Beit HaShalom, the Peace House, and moved in. Inevitably, due to pressure from the left, and an Arab yelling 'wolf wolf' ('forgery forgery' – which probably saved his life – otherwise he would have been tortured and killed), the case has been in court, and a final decision has yet to be made.

When we bought the building and moved in, the structure was nothing more than a shell. The community installed plasterboard walls, dividing the empty halls into rooms, allowing families to move in. However, there weren't any windows installed, nor were their electric lines hooked up to the building.

Due to leftwing demands and pressures, any construction in the building must be okayed by the Israeli "Civil Administration" or the Defense ministry. A couple of months ago, in preparation for winter, the community requested permission to: install windows, tar the roof to prevent leakage, and install electric lines to allow necessary heating in the building. These requests were based solely on humanitarian needs. The answer we received, straight from the desk of Defense Minister Ehud Barak was "NO!" No electricity, no windows and yes to a leaky roof.

Why did Barak so respond? Seemingly, he wishes to apply pressure on Yesha leaders to agree to remove so-called illegal 'hill-top settlements' (ma'ahzim) without a fight. A total building freeze in Judea and Samaria, including such sanctions in Hebron is, as far as he's concerned, a step in the right (left) direction.

Yet, I'm not so sure. The government and its long, extended arms, have been giving Hebron much grief. Barak refused to reconsider the expulsion and destruction of the homes in the Shalhevet neighborhood this past summer, despite the advice of some of his closest advisors. The 'Civil Administration' has plans to destroy another apartment and a room added onto another home as soon as they get a green light from the Supreme Court. The prosecutor's office is backing the planned destruction. Other pro-Arab, dangerous to Jews measures are also planned for the near future. Where is this all leading to? What is the 'between the lines' translation of Ministress Ruhama Avraham's response concerning Hebron?

I supposed you've already guessed. The answer starts with an "A." No, it's not the regime's report card. But it very well could be Annapolis.

Olmert won't be able to make any deals with Abu-Babbu about Jerusalem; that's still too sticky an issue. He will be able to come out with a declaration about a Palestinian state – 'everyone' agrees with that. But he needs something else, an issue with meat on the bones, to prove one hundred percent that he's serious, that he means business. He needs an issue that 'all' agree is a big bone stuck in the throat of the piece process. The big bone, is, of course, the 'settlements.' Which 'settlement' is the biggest and baddest of them all? Hebron. So what could be better than an announcement in Washington, about the impending removal of those 'problematic' Jews from Hebron?!

I wish it was a far-fetched idea. Unfortunately, I'm not sure it is. I don't know, of course, but wouldn't be surprised.

Who is standing behind the pressure on Israel to make such far reaching concessions? Undoubtedly, the White House. But WHO in the White House? George W. may give his blessings, but the woman running the show, (no, not Hillary yet), is Ms. Rice. Condi, looking for a place in history, realizes that it's now or never. And the American Secretary of State has a lot of punch behind her words. And she's punching, real hard. And George W is saying a lot of Amens.

What have Ms Rice and Mr Bush forgotten? Following the expulsion from Gush Katif the Americans suffered a tremendous catastrophe in New Orleans. Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes due to the storms and flooding waters of Katrina. That was AFTER some 10,000 people were expelled from Gush Katif and the northern Shomron.

This time lightening struck BEFORE; Just saying the words Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria (and about 80,000 people) – and some 500,000 people had to be evacuated from their houses, with over 1,500 homes destroyed.

Everyone knows that George W. is a 'born-again. And it's said that Condi is real religious herself. But it seems they've forgotten that the G-d of Israel watches over his people, and thoughts and pressures concerning Jerusalem, Hebron, and Eretz Yisrael can have serious repercussions.

According to media reports, authorities in California are looking for arsonists who intentionally set the hellish blaze. Those really responsible are planning the next cataclysm out of the White House: George W and Condi. I call them 'the burning bush' and 'fried rice.'

It should be worthwhile to keep in mind that this may have been the heavenly response to verbal expression of the expulsion from Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. G-d forbid, what might occur should it actually happen? First, the middle of the country, and now, the west coast. Where's next? Hope we never have to find out. It's preferable not to test the Almighty.

With blessings from Hebron.

Hebron and CNN

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:36:00 +0000

August 28, 2007

Hebron and CNN

Following screening of the CNN production "Warriors of G-d", including a 2 hour segment dealing with Judaism and Israel, I think it appropriate to post the following two letters, between myself and Mr. Jonathan Klein, President of CNN/USA. The two letter are, I think, self-explanatory.

I must note, that following my 'revelation,' I notified a number of people who had, like myself, agreed to participate one way or another, with CNN. Some of them immediately ceased all contact with CNN and refused to take part in the program. Others decided to continue.

Each person can draw their own conclusions.

David Wilder

Hebron

From: Hebron [mailto:mail?view=cm&tf=0&to=hebron@hebron.org.il]
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 5:44 PM
To: 'mail?view=cm&tf=0&to=public.information@cnn.com'
Subject: Cnn production of Religion and politics - produced by Andy Segal
Importance: High

Dear Mr. Klein,

A couple of months ago I was approached by one of your Israeli correspondents about participating in a program produced by CNN, dealing with politics and religion in Judaism. He introduced me to Mr. Andy Segal, who is producing the program, and we had several lengthy conversations, first by phone, and later in person, here in Hebron, in Israel. Our conversations were quite open and frank – I saw no reason to hide my suspicions about cooperating with CNN – the network's reputation concerning Israel is less than positive. We discussed this at great length, and at one point Andy requested to center the program around Hebron and the Hebron Jewish community.

Following much thought and conversations with colleagues of mine, I decided to refuse Andy's request, but did agree to participate in a more minor role in the program, basing our response to each request on its own merits.

A couple of weeks ago Andy again made contact and we spoke of several possibilities. He was interested in speaking to a family which had experienced terror first-hand, and had chosen to remain in Hebron, despite their loss and the dangers involved. I decided to try to assist and introduced him to Mrs. Tzippy Shlissel, whose father, Rabbi Shlomo Ra'anan, was killed by terrorists in Hebron some eight and a half years ago. He met with her three times: first an introductory meeting, followed by an in-depth interview, and followed, earlier today, by a filmed interview and filming of the family, home, etc.

So far so good.

However…

When we first discussed this project I asked Andy who was responsible for writing the script. He told me that he would be working on it, but there would be others involved. To the best of my recollection, my impression was that he was 'in charge' and for the most part, would determine the outlook of the script and would be 'on top' of the entire project.

This afternoon, that illusion shattered when he mentioned to me that in a few months, the chief international CNN correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, would be coming to Israel and would probably also want to speak with Mrs. Shlissel. Almost in shock, I asked him what her role is in this project. He told me that she is the narrator. I asked if she would have anything to do with writing the script and was told that "I will write the first draft." "Will she have anything to do with writing the final draft?" "Yes."

I then told Andy that had I known she was involved with this project I would not have had anything at all to do with it.

I am personally familiar with Christiane Amanpour. A number of years ago (about 10 years ago) she interviewed me. I had the dubious pleasure to have her yell and scream at me on camera. She obviously wanted me to scream back, so as to show her viewers 'an extremist from Hebron' exploding on camera. I refused to play into her hands and answered all her questions with a relaxed, calm smile on my face. However, I never forgot the interview. I haven't been yelled at, on camera, by too many journalists.

How can CNN produce an 'objective program' about Israel and religious settlers, when one of the prime elements of the program is known to be vehemently 'anti-Israel' and certainly 'anti-settlers,' so to speak? Her reputation is so blatantly prejudiced. For example: http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2006/03/from-terrorism-to-trash -collection_28.html

So when people ask: "Why did the Palestinian people elect a terrorist group?" The answer is because they see them as a lifeline.

Each time I go to the Palestinian territory of Gaza, I am shocked by the reality on the ground. On a recent visit, I passed through a short tunnel from the First World in Israel and emerged into the Third World that is Gaza. The poverty there is among the worst in the world.

Hamas officials told me they did not expect to win the election as overwhelmingly as they did. They say their main priority now is to meet the demands of the people for a better life.

But that may be impossible, because Israel and the United States refuse to deal with Hamas and have already cut funding to the new Palestinian government.

Posted By Christiane Amanpour, CNN Correspondent: 11:03 AM ET

A woman who justifies and backs Hamas is going to deal 'fairly' with Jews in Hebron, or anywhere else in Judea and Samaria? She is going to present us as 'religious nuts and fanatics' who are endangering world peace. She is certainly not going to present anything that could be considered positive concerning us, our lifestyles or our beliefs. She is certainly not going to present a balanced, objective program dealing with religious Jews and Eretz Yisrael.

I basically told Andy that I was out – and wouldn't have anything more to do with the project. I put a rather large degree of trust in Andy – I believed that he had the possibility to present an object, balanced program. However, I cannot have any trust whatsoever in Christiane Amanpour, whose reputation stands before her.

Andy Segal told me that you are responsible for this project, that you initiated it. Without being presumptuous, I think it fair to demand that Christiane Amanpour be removed from this project. I cannot imagine that such a biased person could have anything to do with a project dealing with religion and politics in Israel. The results are a foregone conclusion, even before the cameras start rolling. The question is whether the program you are producing is to be an interesting objective account of religion and politics in Israel, or another CNN-produced Israel (settler)-bashing?

I await your reply and hope, very much, to learn that Ms. Amanpour will no longer have anything to do with this project.

Sincerely,

David Wilder
Spokesman
The Jewish Community of Hebron

From: Klein, Jon [mailto: mail?view=cm&tf=0&to=Jon.Klein@turner.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 6:41 PM
To: mail?view=cm&tf=0&to=hebron@hebron.org.il
Subject: Response to your email dated January 30, 2007

February 13, 2007

Mr. David Wilder
Spokesman
The Jewish Community of Hebron
February 12, 2007

Dear Mr. Wilder,

Let me begin by thanking you for your comments. I am sorry that the Jewish Community of Hebron has chosen not to be represented in our documentary. Our mission is to produce a program that goes far beyond what is normally seen in daily news broadcasts so that our viewers can better understand the people who risk their lives -- and their children's - to live on land they believe is their birthright: Jerusalem and the West Bank. Our goal is not to find fault or fix blame -- but to simply understand. To that end, I believe that you are missing a prime opportunity to be heard, not only in the United States, but in 180 countries around the world, and I would ask you to reconsider.

Regardless of your decision, I stand by CNN's reputation as a fair and impartial source of information. On conflicts as heated and long-standing as that between Israel and the Palestinians it is not surprising that "both sides" are at times unhappy with our reporting. We often hear that we are biased towards the other side, and that may be the surest indication of our impartiality.

Christiane Amanpour is one of our most talented and prominent international correspondents, and she is supported by a team of our strongest producers. In fact Andy Segal, our senior producer, is one of the best. As you probably have discovered, Andy comes to the table prepared. He is fair, honorable and ethical - a journalist who takes his work very seriously. He has produced a number of award-winning documentaries. Andy and his team are researching, producing and writing this documentary, and you can be assured that his reporting will shape the final program. As a spokesman for a prominent organization, I am sure you appreciate the need for others input before you represent the positions and views of Hebron's Jewish community. The same is true at CNN - not only will Ms. Amanpour have input, but so will editors and executives, to insure journalist standards and practices are met. In the end a program like this will be fully vetted and sourced.

I can honestly say that if you decide not to contribute to this program - perhaps the fullest exploration of this issue ever seen on western television - you may regret missing the opportunity to let millions of viewers understand your story. I hope you will reconsider your decision, but if not, you can be assured the program will meet the highest standards of journalism.

Sincerely,

Jon Klein

President, CNN U.S.

One Time Warner Center

New York, NY 10019

Professor Hillel Weiss and the Hebron Expulsion: Words and Deeds

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:35:00 +0000

August 12, 2007

The past few days have been somewhat traumatic. True, the community had been notified of the impending expulsion. The thousand plus troops, dressed in black, gray, blue and green came as no surprise. Even Yaron London's statements about reviving the spirit of the Altelena, and permitting soldiers to shoot us has been heard before.

But some of the day's events were not expected.

During discussions conducted by the community leadership, one of the subjects raised was the 'western shuk,' i.e. the longer of the two buildings comprising the Rinat Shalhevet neighborhood, the structure perpendicular to the main road leading from the Tomb of the Patriarchs through the community neighborhoods. That building contained six apartments, a Torah study hall, and a room used by the children as a Bnei Akiva youth group club house. For the past year and a half this building was empty. The two families that had 'illegally' moved back into their old homes were in the smaller building, parallel to the road, and adjacent to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood and courtyard.

When a decision was made to refrain from voluntarily moving out, as had been done a year and a half ago, the question was raised: should we fill up both buildings with people, or should we just deal with the homes in question, the homes of the Yahalom and Bar Kochva families.

After much discussion it was decided to leave the empty and larger of the two buildings out of the dispute. 'That building is empty – leave it that way. At present the struggle is for the homes of two families – those two apartments, as well as the third home, formerly housed by the Shlissel family, will be the symbol of our opposition and our protest. Those three apartments will be filled with protesters, refusing to leave of their own accord. Should the government demand that these structures be empty, they will have to physically evict us. We won't leave on our own two feet.'

And so it was. The larger of the two buildings was left empty; no struggle took place there. However, the troops that expelled the families and protesters from the smaller building, upon concluding their initial task, took it upon themselves to destroy the six apartments in the larger building. It was a horrible sight to see: Israeli soldiers and police destroying Jewish homes in Hebron, and a Torah study hall, built in memory of a murdered ten-month old infant. It was distinctly reminiscent of other periods of our history, not in Israel, but rather in Russia, Poland, Germany, and other such countries. Then, the predators were Cossacks, and anti-Semitic Jew-haters. Today, in the State of Israel, 2007, the vulturous acts were taken by Jews, in uniform, representing the state.

It is not surprising that people might lose control of themselves. What is surprising is that virtually nobody did lose control. There was little violence initiated by demonstrators. The vicious brutality used was that of the Riot Squad "Yasam" forces and the border police. No one took up weapons against the destroyers, no knives, no guns, and almost no rocks or other dangerous objects. There were a few exceptions to the rule, but very few. Those were the instructions issued to the protestors, and an overwhelming majority abided by this decision.

I know people attending such demonstrations who intentionally leave their weapons at home. Even though they are licensed to carry arms, they lock them up in a closet, 'just to make sure.' However one of the things you cannot leave home is your mouth, or your emotions. Such horrid scenes reach the very depths of a person's neshama, a person's soul, and the suffering can be almost unbearable.

I've know Professor Hillel Weiss for a number years, have read some of his articles and have participated in discussions with him. He is an extremely intelligent man and has very firm beliefs. I personally do not agree with all his ideas or necessarily his form of expression. But clearly, his concern is not for his own benefit or well-being; his concern is for the Jewish people only.

The expressions he uttered towards the military commander of Hebron, Col. Yehuda Fox, are not necessarily to my liking, for a number of reasons. I personally know Col. Fox and, despite my major misgivings about his participation in the expulsion process, I know that he was not responsible for the decisions made on that particular day. But I must admit, even though I would not curse him, there are others that, even if I don't say the words out loud, I certainly think them about them. Not about Col. Fox, but about others, in much higher decision-making positions than the commander of forces in Hebron. There are, unfortunately, people in Israel, making decisions which could, G-d forbid, endanger the existence of the State of Israel. These people deserve whatever hardships should befall them, and you won't find any of us sad about their downfall. Some of these people are ignorant, but others are simply evil, and to hide this fact is stupid blindness. The truth must be met head-on, despite the unpleasantness of it all.

So even though I personally don't agree with Prof. Weiss' words in this particular instance, I find it difficult to swallow the media bias, which lambastes the Professor, but does not print pictures of the pogrom, which left Jewish homes in ruins. Why didn't the press print pictures of the destroyed furniture from the Bar Kochva or Yahalom homes, devastation which was totally unnecessary.

One other thing: true, Prof. Weiss' statements were very harsh. But perhaps people are unaware of a simple fact: Professor Hillel Weiss is the father of Tehila Yahalom , who has now, twice, been evicted from her home. The first time, it should be remembered, she, her husband and family agreed to voluntarily leave their home as part of an agreement with the Commander of forces in Judea and Samaria, who, representing the state, promised that families would soon be able to return to these homes, without any legal hassles. That agreement was broken by the State of Israel. This time she and her husband refused to give in. And Tehila's father, Professor Hillel Weiss, was more than just a little upset.

So, even though his words were harsh, and not necessarily what we would all agree to, Prof. Weiss said the words, but did not execute them. The police and soldiers in Hebron last week may not have said too much, but the damage they did was equivalent to pogroms of a hundred years ago.

Which is worse?

The Eternal Flame of Hebron

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 11:33:00 +0000

August 08, 2007

http://www.hebron.com/english/gallery.php?id=209
http://www.hebron.com/english/gallery.php?id=208

Beginning early Monday night the Hebron Jewish Community switched gears, moving into full-speed expulsion mode. The community had been gearing up for the planned expulsion for a few weeks, while at the same time conducting talks with various political and legal authorities in the Knesset and Defense ministry. Months ago the Hebron leadership authorized former Justice Minister, attorney Ya'akov Neeman to present a compromise solution to the issue at hand.

The Avraham Avinu neighborhood was founded by Jews exiled from Spain in 1540. This was the central Jewish community in Hebron for almost 400 years, until the 1929 massacre abruptly decimated the community, with the survivors of the pogrom expelled by the occupying British forces.

Land adjacent to the Jewish Quarter was purchased by Rabbi Haim Bajayo in 1807 on behalf of the community. Following the 1929 expulsion, Hebron Arabs constructed a market place – the Hebron "shuk" at this site. This market operated thru the 1990s – 2000s, being closed in stages by the Israeli Defense Forces for security reasons. The leases on the building expired and Hebron leaders requested to rent them. All requests were denied by the Israeli custodian for abandoned property, under whose auspices the buildings fell.

Following the murder of 10-month old Shalhevet Pass in March, 2001, Hebron residents moved into these empty structures and slowly transformed them into beautiful apartments, nine in number, as well as a Beit Midrash (Torah Study Hall) in Shalhevet's memory. They lived in these apartments for five years, during which time the issue revolved in the Israeli courts, in an effort to remove us from the buildings. A military appeals court recognized the community's ownership of the land and recommended that the buildings be leased to the Jewish community, however this recommendation was rejected by the state Attorney General Eliyakim Rubenstein.

After the expulsion from Gush Katif, the prosecutor's office decided to finally evict families from these apartments also. The day prior to the planned expulsion, community leaders met with General Yair Golan, commander of forces in Judea and Samaria, who offered them a deal. If the community would agree to voluntarily leave the apartments, the government would allow families to 'legally' return within a few months. Following a debate and vote in the middle of the night, the community accepted the deal. The next day the families moved out. A few days later the Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz, publicly announced that 'there had never been a deal.' He later changed this, stating that there had been an agreement, but General Yair Golan was unauthorized to finalize such a deal and it was null and void. This, despite the fact that Golan conducted numerous conversations with his superiors in the Defense ministry during the meeting with him in order to receive authorization to conclude the agreement.

Ten months ago two of the families who had agreed to move out of their homes, moved back in. Left with nowhere to live, and realizing that the agreement would never be honored, they decided enough is enough. With community backing, they returned to their abandoned homes. A few weeks ago the Supreme Court ruled that the government had the authority to again expel them, should they want to. The Israeli prosecutor's office, together with the 'Civil Administration' immediately issued expulsion orders. The families, with community support, refused to again leave voluntarily. Yesterday the expulsion orders were executed.

Hundreds of people came to Hebron to support the families and community. They filled the two family's apartments, as well as a third vacant apartment in the complex. The security forces numbered well over one thousand, including police, border police, the riot squad, and soldiers. At about 6:15 in the morning they attacked.

The doors to the apartments had been welded shut, so it took them some time to break in. People in the apartments offered no violent resistance, but just about everyone had to be dragged out. Where no cameras present, riot squad forces utilized excessive force, beating people and dragging them by their necks. A number of people were injured and necessitated medical treatment.

Within about two hours the apartments were vacant of people. The security forces then began destroying them, literally tearing the apartments apart. Amongst the rooms destroyed was the study hall/synagogue built in Shalhevet Pass' memory. All that was left was the eternal light, left hanging from the ceiling.

Ironically, this, more that anything else, represents the mood of Hebron's Jewish community. On the one hand, we have faced tremendous adversity and demolition. The site of people's homes in ruins is sickening. On the other hand, we know that the city of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, the city where David began the Israelite monarchy, is an essential, eternal element of the Jewish people, which can never be extinguished.

True, there are those who would desire to exterminate us, literally. A veteran, respected Israeli journalist/commentator, Yaron London, said during a television show that the IDF shouldn't have wasted so many soldiers to evict families from their homes. Rather, they should have sent in a small unit and shot the resistors, 'reawakening the spirit of the Altelena.' [ http://news.nana10.co.il/Article/?ArticleID=505495&TypeID=1&sid=126 ]

However, we know that that the light of Hebron, the light of Avraham Avinu, the light of Eretz Yisrael, cannot and never will be doused, not by politicians, not by police and not by bullets. Nothing can destroy the eternal flame of the Jewish people, certainly not the everlasting glow of the holy city of Hebron .

Hebron and Darfur

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 10:59:00 +0000

August 3, 2007

A few days ago I toured with an American family from California. A fifteen-sixteen year old youth asked me the same question any number of times during the two hours we spent together. I don't know if I was able to satisfactorily respond to his queries.

When we were at Beit Hadassah and I described how the women and children living there were surrounded and lived under siege, he asked, "What, Arab police surrounded them?" My response was, of course, "no, Jewish police." "But why would Jewish police do something like that?" he asked.

When I told them the story of a little boy with a tooth-ache who was sent from Beit Hadassah to nearby Kiryat Arba to the dentist, who upon returning to Beit Hadassah wasn't allowed back in, he again asked, "An Arab guard wouldn't let him in?" And of course again I answered, 'no, a Jewish guard." "But why would a Jew do that to a child?"

When we arrived at the Shalhevet neighborhood, the 'shuk,' and I related to them the events leading up to next week's planned expulsion of two families from that site, again he piped up, "Arabs are going to throw you out?" And of course I responded, 'no, Jews are going to expel us.'

He looked at me with astonishment, his eyes wide, filled with question marks. "I don't understand. What does the Israeli government care about two families in the Shalhevet neighborhood in Hebron? Why are they going to forcibly expel families? How can they do that?!"

Very good questions, coming from a young man, first time in Hebron. I have trouble giving him a good answer. Not that I don't know the answer. The question is, how to express it, so that it will be comprehensible.

Yesterday Hebron marked the 78^th anniversary of the 1929 riots and massacre during which 67 Jews were slaughtered and over 70 injured. The Washington Post article, which I responded to last week, stated that the survivors 'fled.' This is, of course, a lie. The survivors were expelled. They weren't expelled once. They were expelled twice. First in August, 1929 following the riots, and then again, in the spring of 1936. A large group of families desired to return to Hebron, but were prevented from doing so due to 'political considerations' determined by the Jewish leadership at the time. However a group of some 30 families did move back to Hebron in 1931, and lived in the city until a few days after Passover in 1936. At that time the British again expelled them, saying that the Mufti was inciting, there was going to be trouble, and that the British police wouldn't be able to protect them. They threw them out with the clothes they were wearing, but nothing else. That was the end of a Hebron Jewish community until our return in 1967. It was, for all intensive purposes, the first time in almost a thousand years that Hebron had no Jewish population.

In the 1920s and the 1930s there was no Jewish state, no Jewish army, no Jewish ability to truly defend themselves. Today, 78 years later, we have Jewish police, Jewish military, a Jewish government, a Jewish state. It seems that they prefer not to follow in the footsteps of the first Jew, Abraham, who, being commanded by G-d to "Lech Lecha" to "Go" to walk the land, the length and width of Eretz Yisrael, did just that, stopping only in Hebron, making this city his home, the first Jewish city in the Land of Israel. Rather, the Israeli state, using all of the resources available to such a sovereign body, prefers to follow in the footsteps of the Mufti and the British.

Ah, you ask, the Mufti? The Mufti slaughtered people. How can you compare the Israeli government to Haj Amin el Husseini, a Jew-hater whose incitement led to the 1929 riots?

Very clearly, Amin el Husseini's goal was the expulsion of Jews, starting with Hebron, and reaching Jerusalem, and other cities in Israel. He wanted Jews out, and cared not how it happened. He had plans to annihilate all the Jews living in Eretz Yisrael following Rommel's expected invasion of Israel during World War Two. He met with Hitler in Berlin in the 1930s and clearly discussed more than formation of the Muslim Brigades, which fought against the allied forces in Europe.

And our government, where are they? Are they defending their people? Where are they today, as Kasam rockets continue to fall on Sderot? Where were they last year when rockets fired from Lebanon blasted northern Israel? How are they, at present, preserving not only the physical entity of the State of Israel, but also its heritage, its history, its essence?

Yesterday, the new-old Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, effectively declared war on Hebron's Jewish residents, and seemingly on all Jews living in Judea and Samaria. Barak received first-hand information from high-ranking legal advisors within the administration that the families do not have to be expelled from their homes, that there is no court ruling compelling forced eviction of the families, and that there are legally viable alternatives to the expulsion which could be acceptable to both sides. (One of Hebron's ranking legal advisors, former Justice Minister Ya'akov Neeman offered such a compromise, labeled the "Neeman plan" months ago, on behalf of the community, but the compromise was rejected for reasons not specified.) Despite this information, despite the chance to avoid what could turn into an ugly clash, Barak prefers to flex his muscles and show the country what he's made of: Black uniforms, hard-rubber batons, tear gas, and lots of force. Blood, sweat and tears. ('Settler blood and tears, or course!) (The last time such a decision was taken, the result was Amona).

A year and a half ago, nine Hebron families and a Torah study hall voluntarily left these homes in order to prevent what could have been an extremely violent situation. The community was given a firm promise, in the form of an agreement with the commander of forces in Judea and Samaria, General Yair Golan, that following our voluntary exit from the homes, families would soon be allowed to 'legally' return. That was a year and a half ago. The agreement was voided by Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, using the excuse that Golan was not authorized to make the agreement. This, despite the fact that the General was on and off the phone with his bosses in the Defense Ministry during the meeting with Hebron representatives in order to receive their OK to the compromise.

Again we've been told that 'we can talk about the shuk after the families leave.' We've been through that once, once too many times. Not again. The property is Jewish property. A military appeals court recommended that the buildings be leased to the Hebron Jewish community. This too was rejected. What more do they want?

The answer to that seems very clear: they are looking for blood. Jewish blood. Shades of the Mufti – shades of the British; blood and expulsion. Not by Arabs and British, rather by Jews. Astounding. And very sad.

One of this morning's headlines in the ynetnews internet news site proclaims: 63 MKs demand that Israel not expel refugees from Sudan. [http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L- 3433224,00.html] So now I have a new idea. Let's bring those refugees to Hebron and let them live in shuk. That way nobody will dare touch them. Unless, of course, they convert. Once they're Jewish, watch out. Then, for sure, they'll face expulsion: not from Israel, but from the Shalhevet neighborhood in Hebron.

Eretz Yisrael or Soviet Israel

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 10:54:00 +0000

July 25, 2007

Yesterday the Jewish people marked the fast day, Tisha b'Av – the ninth day of Av. Exactly 1938 years ago the heart of Israel went up in flames. On the 9^th day of Av the Second Temple was destroyed by the Roman army. Some 650 years previously, on the exact same day, the First Temple was razed by the Babylonians. That day, Tisha b'Av, the 9^th day of the month of Av, is commemorated each year as a fast day, from sunset to sunset.

Other inauspicious also occurred on the same date. Most well known was the expulsion from Spain in 1492. The decree ordering Jews to leave Spain was issued on March 31, 1492. The expulsion was to be completed by July 31 of that year. July 31 was the 9^th of Av. [http://www.jewfaq.org/holidayd.htm]

However, most significant was the first Tisha b'Av, marked by the rejection of Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel, by the Israelites, who had been liberated from Egypt only months earlier. Moses sent 12 men to spy the Land. Those men were the leaders of the people, the 'president' of each of the 12 tribes. The best of the best. According to Jewish sources, they realized that upon entrance into the Land of Israel they would be replaced, they would no longer be 'leaders.' As a result, upon their return to Moses and the rest of the Israelites, ten of them slandered the Land, calling it a land of giants that devours it inhabitants. Only two of the spies rejected this slander, Joshua and Kalev, exclaiming that Israel is a 'very very good land.' But they were not able to convince the majority who tore their clothes, wailed and demanded to return to Egypt. As a result, G-d decreed this day to be a day of hardship and mourning, and so it has remained over the centuries.

In other words, the root of Tisha b'Av, the ninth day of Av, is the rejection of our G-d-given Land, of Eretz Yisrael.

The mourning period, prior to Tisha b'Av is quite intense and, in many respects, difficult. With the advent of the month of Av, many religious Jews refrained from eating meat or drinking wine until after the fast. In addition, they did not wear freshly laundered clothing or bathe for 10 days. It would be expected that following the path of thousands of years of history, thousands of years of calamity, destruction and mourning, our people would have learned the lesson of Tisha b'Av. Unfortunately it seems that this has yet to be learned and internalized.

Just 10 days ago, as the grief of the month of Av began, the state of Israel 'celebrated' the inauguration of the state's ninth president. The commencement of Shimon Peres' reign as president is another reason to mourn. Shimon Peres is the embodiment of the vile spies, who, thousands of years ago, maligned and rejected Eretz Yisrael.

Peres was the driving force behind Oslo over 13 years ago. As was then, still today. On the day of his inauguration the eleventh spy proclaimed, "We have to rid ourselves of the 'territories'".

The Prime Minister has mouthed the same thoughts: we shouldn't fool ourselves – we won't be able to hold on to the 'territories.' He has ordered the notorious minister Haim Ramon, recently convicted of a 'sex crime' to head up expulsion from and destruction of 'hilltop communities.' Ramon recently suggested a 'toned-down' disengagement: rather than abandon some 90% of Yesha, as Olmert proposed following the last elections, Ramon called for an abandonment of 'only' 70% of Yesha.

The Churban – the destruction of 1938 years ago continues.

One of the most difficult and emotional episodes faced during these days of mourning began today, exactly two years ago, when Gush Katif was deleted from the face of the earth. Not only is the memory heartbreaking. It is also nauseating. Last week a number of programs on radio, and articles in the press 'questioned' the wisdom of Sharon's 'vision,' bringing about the churan of Gush Katif and the northern Shomron. Hundreds and thousands have been left without employment or permanent housing. Homes have been broken; students who once excelled in their studies lost all motivation to continue. People who were 'temporarily housed' at certain Kibbutzim find themselves again about to be expelled from their homes due to disagreements between the government and the kibbutz administration concerning the cost of rent. The state of Israel has, for all intensive purposes, abandoned these people, who gave their entire lives to the 'greening of the desert,' who suffered mortar attacks and terror killings for years and years, yet refused to give up.

And of course, the result of Israel's abandonment of Gush Katif was readily known long before the expulsion. That land would be utilized as a base from which to attack Israel. Now, two years later, the Israeli media, one of the main stalwarts of Sharon's madness, is 'starting to ask questions.' Maybe, just maybe Israel made a mistake?! It really is nauseating.

Over the past week hundreds and thousands of youth have attempted to return to Homesh, one of the two communities destroyed in the northern Shomron. From the highest point in Homesh you can view the Israeli coast, from Netanya to Ashdod and Ashkelon. This land, now cleared of all Jews, is still under Israeli control. But Israelis are forbidden from being there, in accordance with the expulsion law passed some two and a half years ago, legalizing the uprooting of 10,000 Jews from their homes.

Of course those brave souls, walking for hours to reach their destination because roads were closed off by security forces, we 'greeted' by baton-wielding police who beat them and dragged them away. However, these people never give up and have sworn to return again and again, until the Homesh community is rebuilt on the ruins of the destroyed town.

And what about Hebron? The craziness continues here too. The story of the Shalhevet neighborhood – the 'shuk' is well known. The 'shuk' - the area of the old Arab market, was built on Jewish property purchased in 1807. The market was closed years ago and the buildings left vacant. Following the murder of the 10-month old infant, Shalhevet Pass, in March 2001, we moved into those buildings and renovated them, transforming them into apartments for 9 families and a study hall in Shalhevet's memory.

Following the expulsion from Gush Katif, the government decided to expel us from those apartments too. The day before their ultimatum expired, ordering us out, they offered us a deal: we leave voluntarily, and the government would work out an arrangement allowing us to move back in 'legally' in a short period of time.

We had a 'town meeting' about this in the middle of the night and took a vote, and it was decided to opt for the deal. The next day the families moved out. That was over a year and a half ago, and we still aren't back in. The attorney general first denied a deal had been made and then later, admitted it had been agreed upon, but voided it.

Some months ago two of the families who had moved out of the "Shalhevet neighborhood" moved back in for lack of any other place to live. When the authorities discovered them this too started bouncing around in the courts. Last week they were presented with eviction notices, demanding they move out by this Friday at 12 noon or be forcibly expelled.

We have decided not to move out willingly this time around. The families won't leave voluntarily. The Israeli government has a moral obligation to allow Jews to live on Jewish land in Hebron, especially at this site, having been evicted with the promise of return. Enough expulsions, enough abandonment of Jewish land, enough broken promises. This time we will not give up easily!

In a few days we will mark the 78^th anniversary of the 1929 Hebron massacre which left 67 dead, 70 wounded and hundreds expelled from their homes in Hebron. Is the Israeli government going to follow in the footsteps of our Forefather Abraham, who settled the land, who settled Hebron, or in the footsteps of Haj Amin el Husseini, whose murderous incitement led to the riots, slaughter and expulsion? Do we live in Eretz Yisrael or Soviet Israel?

The following letter was sent today to Defense Minister Ehud Barak by Chairman of seven Knesset factions:

To Defense Minister Ehud Barak:

At the present time, when we are marking 78 years since the 1929 riots, you are faced with a fateful decision concerning one of the sites which represents, more than anything else, the murder and the thievery of the Hebron Jewish community of those days: the site of the 'shuk' in Hebron, where presently several families are living.

We the undersigned, chairmen of various parties in the Knesset, turn to you with this request to refrain from expelling these Jewish families living in the 'shuk' and to study alternative ways to resolve Jewish quarters at this site, legally.

Before our eyes are the following factors:

We are dealing with Jewish-owned land, which was stolen as a result of the terrible slaughter. It is incumbent on the government to act to return the stolen property as would be expected in relationship to stolen Jewish property anywhere in the world.
The preset time is a time of reconciliation, during which we are attempting to refrain from conflicts which are avoidable. A solution to this issue, was suggested by a highly respected attorney, former Justice minister Dr. Ya'akov Ne'eman. This should be seriously studied prior to physical conflicts which would almost inevitably occur.
The residents of Hebron prevented violence and conflict similar to the occurrences in "Amona" when they voluntarily moved out of these homes, based upon promises that they would be allowed to return, honoring and respecting promises of representatives of the state, IDF officers. This type of approach is to be encouraged and rewarded, not discouraged.
The continued residency of Jews in the shuk does not harm Hebron's Arabs, who have enjoyed an alternative modern market place in the Palestinian side of the city. The site also does not expand the Jewish community of Hebron at all. We are speaking of maintaining the status quo and preventing actions which could cause instability in this sensitive area.

For all the above reasons, we request, that you order that the issue of Jewish residency in the shuk be studied seriously, and that in any case, you prevent, for the time being, any eviction of Jewish residents from the site.

Sincerely,

Knesset party chairmen:

Yoel Hasson, Kadima

Meir Porush, Yahadut HaTorah

Uri Ariel, National Union-NRP

Gideon Saar – Likud

Robert Ilatov – Yisrael Beitanu

Ya'akov Margi – Shas

Moshe Sharoni – Retirees

Aunt Rosa Comes Home

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Sun, 20 May 2007 10:52:00 +0000

May 20, 2007

Last week was Hebron Liberation Day, celebrating the 40^th anniversary of the return to the City of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs during the 1967 Six-day War.

This is always a momentous event, and this year even more so, considering all that's been happening in Israel over the past months and years.

When the Israel Defense Forces entered Hebron in June of 1967 they found white sheets hanging from the rooftops and windows. In actuality, the city was captured by one man, Rabbi General Shlomo Goren, then Chief Rabbi of the IDF, who liberated the city single-handedly. He was one of the first Jews to gain access to the second holiest site to the Jewish people in the all the world, Ma'arat HaMachpela – the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, in 700 hundred years. In 1267, following the capture of Hebron by the Mameluks, who expelled the occupied Crusaders, that holy site was declared a Mosque, off-limits to anyone not of the Islamic faith. And so it remained until the first week of June, 1967.

However, Rabbi Goren was in for a surprise. Defense Minister Moshe Dayan ordered that the Israeli flag, hanging on the side of the Ma'ara's outside wall, be removed and that all visitors entering the building remove their shoes 'because it's a mosque.' Those orders were later rescinded, but the policy was set and, in many respects, hasn't changed to this very day.

Despite the odds, Hebron remained in Jewish hands, and slowly developed. But when the Hebron accords were signed and implemented ten years ago, it seemed that the survival of Hebron's Jewish community was in jeopardy. With the advent of the Oslo War, otherwise known and the second intifada, and the daily shooting attacks from the surrounding hills into the Jewish neighborhoods, it looked like the blackest predictions might materialize. But they didn't. Hebron's Jewish community continues to thrive and prosper in spite of the problems. Our purchase and entrance into Beit HaShalom – the peace house, between Hebron and Kiryat Arba, proves the point.

How does one celebrate such a momentous occasion? Hebron Day itself, was Thursday, and I was privileged to spend most of the day with an old friend and partner to 'the cause,' Nachum Segal, host of the popular morning radio show in the New York metropolitan area, JM in the AM. On Thursday Nachum broadcast live from Hebron his entire show, which was a lot of fun. Using a make-shift studio in the Gutnick Center, just outside Ma'arat HaMachpela, Nachum, together with Hebron Fund director Yossi Baumol, interviewed numerous Hebron residents and personalities, giving listeners a real feel for the joy of the day. In addition the show was broadcast live on internet (audio and video). (Pictures and the sound track can be heard via the Hebron web site.)

This wasn't the first time Nachum broadcast live from Hebron. Over eleven years ago he broadcast via a cell phone and toured the city with Noam Arnon and myself. That too was a show I'll never forget. Nachum Segal is a true friend and associate in everything we do here, bringing Hebron to tens of thousands of people.

However, in reality, I didn't really feel Hebron Day until Friday afternoon, in a very round-about, yet somewhat direct fashion.

One of my friends called earlier in the week and asked if a Shabbat guest could sleep at our apartment on Friday night and I agreed. Friday afternoon a pleasant-looking middle-aged gentleman, dressed in a suit and tie and speaking with an accent appeared at our door. He introduced himself as Mordechai and came in. After a cup of tea and some introductory small talk, he asked if he could use my computer to check some email. Sitting him down next to the computer, I continued about my business, preparing for Shabbat.

A little while later I came back into the living room and found him staring, somewhat blurry-eyed, at a picture on the screen. The photograph, obviously taken decades ago, was of an attractive young woman, with a fur-collared coat and a white blouse. Her eyes stared at me as if she was standing in front of me, at that very moment. Mordechai turned and looked at me and said, 'this is a picture of my aunt. It is the first time in my life that I've ever seen her." And he turned back to screen to continue gazing at her. A little later he told us the story.

'Rosa was born and lived somewhere in Czechoslovakia. In the 1930s she managed to flee and immigrated to Belgium. In the late 1930s she married a widower and gave birth to three childen, living in Antwerp. She and her husband tried to obtain documents allowing them to escape Belgium also, but failed. During the last days of August, 1942, Rosa and her three young children were arrested by Nazis and transported to Auschwitz, where they arrived on September 3, after a three day train journey. Of the 555 women on the transport, only 88 were left alive for slave labor in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The other 469 were killed immediately. Being that my Aunt Rosa, my father's sister, was with three young children, she must have been gassed that same day. This is the first time I've ever seen her picture.'

'The Belgians saves all the immigration records and transport documents from that era, but they were classified as secret, and no one was allowed access to them. A few years ago, the documents were made public and over a period of time, computerized. I made contact with various officials who assisted me to locate my aunt, and a few days ago received an email containing documentary information and a picture. I was on my way to the airport and for some reason wasn't able to open the attached picture. But here, sitting at your computer, here she is, my Aunt Rosa.'

'My father was the only one of his family who survived the holocaust. We knew that he had a wife and children, all of whom were lost, together with his parents and brothers and sisters. But he never spoke to us about them. We found, written in his books, lists of names and their relationship to him. But he never talked about them. He died 27 years ago. But now, as least, I can see one of his sisters, my Aunt Rosa, who was killed with her three children, in 1942. She was 30 years old.'

Rosa, hy"d ended her life in the gas and flames of Auschwitz. But I have her picture here, next to me, and in a little while I'm going to take it over to Ma'arat HaMachpela. Maybe Rosa never made it to Hebron in body, but she sure did in spirit. We are here to keep that spirit and the spirits of millions and million of others, from the past, and in the future, alive. Hebron, the roots of our existence, continues to provide nourishment to our people. We are here to keep those roots from being destroyed. That's our privilege and our responsibility. This is why I can celebrate Hebron Liberation Day. If we are here, one way or another, all Am Yisrael is here.

Aunt Rosa, welcome home.

Count your blessings

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 10:51:00 +0000

April 19, 2007

Women and children in communal kitchen/dining room
at Beit HaShalom

In a few days we'll be celebrating the State of Israel's 59^th birthday. In a couple of weeks we'll be marking the fortieth anniversary of the Jewish people's return to Jerusalem and Hebron. There are, it seems, many people who ask themselves: what are we celebrating, or should we be celebrating at all?

Why ponder such questions? Let's start with a brief Hebron update. A month ago Hebron residents moved into a newly purchased structure – Beit HaShalom – the Shalom House, it was called. A huge building, almost 4,000 square meters large, Beit HaShalom is located above the main road leading from Hebron to Kiryat Arba. Recognized as a significant security asset by the IDF, military leaders from the Chief of Staff to the commander of the Hebron region refuse to condemn the Jewish presence there for 'security reasons.' In addition, the state attorney general is publicly on record as recognizing the legality of the purchase.

However, this has not prevented Defense Minister Amir Peretz from attempting to expel us from the site, solely for political reasons. Utilizing draconian measures, which demand that Jews (or anyone other than Arabs, for that matter) 'receive permission' from the government (under the guise of the 'civil administration of Judea and Samaria) in order to purchase and/or move into new property, orders were issued demanding that the community prove the legality of the purchase or be expelled. Hebron's attorneys are hard at work preparing the community's response. However, very likely, whatever Hebron's reply is, despite its legality, the chances that the explanations will be accepted range from slim to zilch. The panel making the decision falls under the authority of the Defense minister, who gives the orders and expects them to be carried out.

What then? Who knows? It has already been publicized that most of the ministers in the government oppose expulsion of the building's residents. Many Knesset members also back the Hebron community. Also, despite the Defense minister's authority to issue expulsion orders, such a command cannot be carried out with the approval of the Prime Minister, and very possibly, of the entire cabinet. Although the Prime Minister has not made any public statements concerning Beit HaShalom, people very close to him have expressed support for the community's presence in the building.

Of course, should it come down to the crunch, the community can always go the courts. In any normal country, Hebron's case would be considered to be very strong, perhaps even undefeatable. But we all know that the Israeli court system does not always deal with justice, rather, with legalizing otherwise illegal political policies. (See, for example, the Supreme Court ruling on the Gush Katif-Northern Shomron expulsion law.) So, it is almost impossible to predict the events of the next few weeks, at least as far as Beit HaShalom is concerned.

This being the case, knowing full well the absurdity of such problems, on top of what has happened in the past (Oslo, the Hebron and Wye Accords, Gush Katif) and current speculation concerning further planned expulsions and abandonments, why should we celebrate? On the face of it, what is there to be happy about?

Exactly 28 years ago, a group of ten women and some forty children moved from Kiryat Arba into an abandoned building in Hebron called Beit Hadassah. Jews had come back to Hebron during the 1967 Six-day war and lived in the regional military compound from 1968 to 1971. At that time the first buildings in Kiryat Arba were constructed. However, the goal was to return to Hebron. That goal was only realized in early May of 1979.

The women and children lived for months under siege; whoever left the building was not allowed to return. Husband could visit their families from 'outside the fence;' no one was allowed in. Living conditions were primitive, to say the least. Running water and sanitary facilities were a dream. Hepatitis was a reality. One morning Rebbitzen Miriam Levinger awoke to find her son Shlomo's eyes yellow. She expected all the women to flee following that revelation. But no one left. (Today Shlomo and his family live in Beit HaShalom.) For an entire year the women and children lived in Beit Hadassah waiting for the Israeli government, then led by Menachem Begin, to give their stamp of approval. That permission finally came, but only after a terrible terror attack at the site which left six men dead and twenty wounded.

That year, 1979-1980 , could easily have been a year of despair, a year of 'another attempt failed – why try again?' The women and children could quite justifiably have 'gone home.' After all, a year is a long time, and no one knew when that 'year' would come to an end, or what the final result would be.

But they held their own, the women, the children, their husbands, their extended families, their friends and the entire community. Truthfully, I think many more watching and waiting. Without sounding too mystical, more than likely the souls of all those who had once lived in Hebron, those who had died in Hebron, including the 1929 massacre victims, and perhaps even the neshamot, the souls of those millions lost in the holocaust, were watching and waiting. Had the time come? What are these people really made of ? Will Jews finally come home, come back to live in first Jewish city in Israel, will they withstand the pressures, or will they collapse? Will Hebron again be Jewish?

The women and children knew, consciously and subconsciously, in body and in spirit: all eyes are on us. The eyes of eternity - not sleeping, not slumbering: watching and waiting.

The women and children stayed put – they refused to bow to pressures, physical, political or psychological. And they won. Who would ever have believed it would happen? Jews, again living in Hebron, after an absence of fifty years. Ma'arat HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, the second-holiest site to Jews in the entire world, just down the street from Jewish homes, Jewish families, Jewish children. The dream came true.

In August or September of 1979, or during the cold winter of 1980, had you asked: what is there to celebrate – 'look what the Israeli government is doing to those 'poor' women and children in Beit Hadassah' – what might the response have been? But, thank G-d, today, so many years later, we do celebrate – we celebrate our return to Hebron and to Jerusalem and to our land. Had we not come back to Eretz Yisrael, had the state not been founded, more than likely, today we would not be here in the city of the Forefathers, nor would we be in Jerusalem, and who knows how many Jews would be in Israel at all.

Life is far from perfect, and there is much to be improved, but if we don't know how to count our blessings, and they are abundant, by my way of thinking we are blind to the good that G-d has given us. G-d gave us the framework and the tools and said "Go to it." True there have been many mistakes made, but the very existence of Jews living in Israel at all, and most certainly a Jewish community in Hebron, are indelible proofs that we can do it – we can succeed against all odds, we can be victorious in our yearning to resettle our land. And just as we have been triumphant in the past, so too, will we be successful in the future. No doubt about it.

With blessings from Hebron.

LIFE IN JEWISH HEBRON

noreply@blogger.com (David Wilder) — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 11:49:00 +0000

March 28, 2007

LIFE IN JEWISH HEBRON
From: AFSI: Mideast Outpost [http://mideastoutpost.com/] or http://www.afsi.org/OUTPOST/2007/Outpost_2007_04.pdf

(Editor's Note: This is the first in a series of articles Outpost will publish on the most important Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, the much maligned "settlements.")

If the Jewish people has undeniable rights anywhere on earth it is in Hebron. Hebron, numbered among the four holy cities (with Jerusalem, Tiberias and Safed) is the first Jewish city in history. It is the place where the Jewish national patriarchs lived and were buried. Their burial plot – Ma'arat HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs—was the first Jewish property purchased in the Land of Israel, and one of the Jewish people's most impressive monuments was built atop it.

The Jewish community in Hebron existed for thousands of years until it was brutally displaced in 1929—after Arab marauders murdered, raped and burned to death scores of Jews and dispossessed the community of properties that included hundreds of acres of real estate. Not surprisingly, after Israel's conquest of Judea and Samaria in the Six Day War of 1967, the restoration of Hebron loomed large as a goal for many Jews. In 1967 a group of religious Jews rented the Park Hotel in Hebron for the Passover period – and refused to leave. Pressure grew upon a reluctant government, which then allowed the group to settle on empty land adjoining the city, which became Kiryat Arba. But the Jews of Kiryat Arba did not give up on their goal of returning to Hebron itself.
A tragedy paved the way for the renewal of Jewish life in Hebron. In 1975 a baby boy named Avraham Yedidya was born to famous Hasidic artist Baruch Nachshon and his wife Sarah, who were among the first Jews to come to Kiryat Arba in 1968. Three months later Sarah found her newborn baby lifeless in his crib. The young mother was beside herself. "Everything in this world has a purpose," she thought to herself. "What was the purpose of her three- month old son?"

Sarah Nachshon decided that Avraham Yedidya would be buried in the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron. The cemetery had been last used to inter Jews slaughtered in the 1929 riots in Hebron. It is minutes from the traditional graves of Ruth and Jesse and overlooks Ma'arat HaMachpela. Perhaps, Sarah thought, this was the purpose of Avraham Yedidya, to take part in a sad but vital part of renewing Jewish Hebron. After almost fifty years, the Jewish cemetery of Hebron would again be utilized as a Jew's last resting place.

Late in the afternoon the funeral procession left Kiryat Arba for the ancient Jewish cemetery in Hebron. Then, suddenly, the mourners encountered soldiers and roadblocks. "No, you may not proceed to the cemetery," the soldiers ordered the mourners, "the cemetery is off-limits. You must bury the baby in Jerusalem."

One of the car doors opened. A short woman stepped out, with a bundle in her arms. "Are you looking for me—are you looking for my baby? My name is Sarah Nachshon. Here is my baby, in my arms. If you won't let us drive to the cemetery we will walk!"

Men with shovels and flashlights, and women, Kiryat Arba residents, walked through ancient Hebron in the early evening. They passed Ma'arat HaMachpela. They passed the sheep sty atop the 450 year-old Abraham Avinu synagogue, left in ruins, destroyed by the Jordanian occupiers and Hebron Arabs. Blockades, set up to stop the crowd, were pushed aside. Senior officers gave orders over their walkie-talkies: "Stop them—don't let them proceed"—but the soldiers, overcome by the scene, radioed back: "We can't stop them. If you want, come here and do it yourselves." The procession continued, past Beit Romano, Beit Shneerson, home of Menucha Rachel Shneerson Slonim, granddaughter of the "Ba'al HaTanya," up the steep hill to the ancient cemetery.

Sarah Nachshon released the body of her tiny son and it was lowered into the freshly dug grave, only meters from the mass grave of the 1929-Tarpat riot victims. Mustering her voice, Sarah spoke: "Four thousand years ago our Patriarch Abraham purchased Hebron for the Jewish People by burying here his wife Sarah. Tonight Sarah is repurchasing Hebron for the Jewish People by burying here her son Avraham."

Four years later a group of 10 Jewish women and 40 children resettled Hebron, moving into the abandoned Beit Hadassah building, just minutes from the cemetery. One of those ten women was Sarah Nachshon.

One of the most common questions I receive, from journalists and tourists alike is: What's it like to live in Hebron? What's everyday life all about?

There is a stereotype attached to places like Hebron, similar to the Wild West. In all honesty, it's generally not like that.

So, what is it like? Usually, life is a routine, just as it is elsewhere in Israel and around the world. I can speak for myself and I think this fairly represents most people here. I get up in the morning, pray, eat breakfast, and then go to work. There are many men who arise early for prayers at Ma'arat HaMachpela and then attend a daily Talmud class.

Each person has his/her own employment: there are men who study Torah in a yeshiva or kollel; a few men are sofrim (scribes); others work in some aspect of education, many here in Hebron or in Kiryat Arba. There's a doctor who lives in Hebron who has clinics around the county. We also have musicians, artists, nurses and office workers living in Hebron. Of course, during the day, the kids are in school, either in Hebron or Kiryat Arba. Those of high school age and above may study and live away from home, as is wont in Israeli religious society. After-school youth groups, clubs, library and homework assistance are all part of every day life.

Shopping, a post office, doctors and dentists, a medical center with up-to-date technology can all be found in Kiryat Arba. There are several supermarkets that are less than 5-10 minutes from our homes. Orders can also be given over the phone and delivered to our door. In other words, for the most part, it's not difficult to be self-sufficient within a radius of 10 minutes from our homes.

So when is life not so normal? One day last week my cell phone rang at about 4:50 in the morning. One of my colleagues was on the phone: Excitedly she said, "Get here fast, the police are here…" (In truth, not even my wife can get me out of bed so fast, especially at that time of the morning, but…)

And of course, as I write ( March 20), the Hebron community's purchase of Beit HaShalom (The House of Peace), between Kiryat Arba and Hebron, and our moving into the building, has radically changed my personal daily schedule and the lives of many others. [See: http://www.hebron.com/english/article.php?id=315] Many Hebron families have, as a result of the purchase, moved into the new building, albeit temporarily, in order to maintain possession of the structure. People are spending days and nights there, helping with necessary renovations. Hebron's Talmud Torah has started giving classes there. A neighborhood, where up until a few days ago Jews had no presence, is now thriving with Jewish life: men, women, many children and multitudes of visitors.

This kind of event generally does not occur elsewhere. In Hebron, this is the second time in a year that this type of 'adventure' has transpired. So in some ways it could be concluded that life in Hebron is quite different from just about anywhere else in the world.

And of course it's not normal for your own government to restrict your movements and ignore your most basic rights in the city where you live. Today Jews are allowed to enter only three percent of the municipal area of Hebron. Yet thousands of Arabs continue to live in the Israeli zone. The Palestinian Authority is deliberately establishing institutions in this area for the express purpose of "strangling" the Jewish community by attracting masses of Arabs.

Although the 1997 "Hebron Accord" stipulated that Jews should enjoy total freedom of movement in Hebron and the right to visit and worship at shrines such as Elonei Mamre and the Tomb of Otniel ben Katz, its provisions are totally ignored. Jews find it virtually impossible to register title to land. In the past 20 years the Israeli government has issued permits for only three buildings. Offspring of the Jewish community who marry and wish to live in their community cannot do so—due to the racist Jews-only building restrictions.

Under blatantly discriminatory guidelines from the State Attorney's Office, the Israeli government uses law-enforcement as a technique to harass the Jewish community. The procedures require the police to invest unprecedented resources in personnel, funds and motor vehicles in order to monitor the Jews. As a direct result of this over-enforcement there is wholesale opening of investigation files for trifling offenses and inconsequential activities, often ending with acquittals or closure of files on technical grounds. This adds up to a grievous, ongoing blow to the personal freedoms of the Jewish residents of Hebron, coupled with cumulative damage in the form of files that besmirch the inhabitants with criminal records—files that would not have been opened anywhere else in Israel.

One last point: it is important to keep in mind that no one is being forced to live in Hebron. All the people who reside here do so because they want to be here. Anyone who wishes to leave, for any reason, can do so. However, most people stay, regardless of the difficulties and the 'abnormalities,' despite the terror attacks and murders that have claimed dozens of casualties in Hebron's Jewish community since the "second Intifada" that began in September 2000.

They remain because it is a privilege to live in Israel's first Jewish city, and to walk in the footsteps of Avraham and Sarah, and King David. Despite the problems, Hebron is our home, and we are honored to be residents of such a holy city.

Of course, there are those who would say that we are crazy for wanting to live here. So be it: Crazy or not, Hebron is here to stay, and so are its Jewish inhabitants.