A ‘two-state solution’ is a contradiction in terms

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Category: Wilder Way

Published on Friday, 16 August 2013 12:54

Written by The Hebron Fund

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By: David Wilder / Elul 10, 5773, 8/16/2013

It was exactly three years ago that I wrote Serving Israel on a Silver Platter. It is just as relevant today as it was then, but in the name of rejuvenation, a few more points can be added.

First, in speaking with groups here in Hebron, many ask me about the ‘two state solution.’ I explain to them that it is not going to happen. Why?

Hizbullah in the north, Syria to the east, and Egypt and Hamas to the south. And who knows how long it will be until Jordan faces the same issues. And let’s not forget Iran.

That’s what we’re dealing with at present. Can we add to that creation of another enemy state, which will leave Israel with a nine-mile wide border. So, we won’t only be dealing with rockets from Gaza on Ashkelon, and even Tel Aviv, rather, from Tulkarem and Kalkliya on Petach Tikva, Netanya and Hadera. (See Mark Langfan’s map: http://bit.ly/13EHk8w)

And what about our main airport, Ben Gurion, which will be about 5 kilometers from ‘palestine?’

Yaakov Amidror was a General in the Israeli army, and held a number of high-level posts, including responsibility for Israeli intelligence. He is presently the director of Israel’s National Security Agency and is a top advisor to Netanyahu.

Amidror: Without Israeli control of the relevant territory east of the 1967 line, there is no way the Israel Defense Forces can prevent the firing of rockets and mortars from the hills dominating Ben-Gurion International Airport. One mortar shell per week in its vicinity will be enough to stop air transport completely…In 1974, a study undertaken by the U.S. Army's Command and Staff College reached the same conclusion as the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In order to defend itself, Israel must control the high ground east of the central axis along the West Bank's mountain ridge…"From a strictly military point of view, Israel would require the retention of some captured Arab territory in order to provide militarily defensible borders." According to the Joint Chiefs, their determination of the territory to be retained was based on "accepted tactical principles such as control of commanding terrain, use of natural obstacles, elimination of enemy-held salients, and provision of defense in depth for important facilities and installations…In the West Bank Israel should "control the prominent high ground running north-south."

Others who have voiced an opinion on this topic:

Henry Kissinger: ‘Israel needs defensible borders and he adds that Israel must not be pressured to withdraw to the 1967 lines’ – South Vietnam had international guarantees from twenty countries. Yet when North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam, no country took Kissinger's telephone calls. His implication was clear: do not rely on guarantees and risk withdrawing to the 1967 lines.

Shimon Peres told Ma'ariv in June 1976: "One must ensure that Israel will not only have length but width. We must not be tempted by all kinds of advisers and journalists to return to a country whose waist is 14 kilometers wide."

The late Mordechai Gur, as Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, told Newsweek in May 1978 that as a military man he had no doubt that to defend Israel it was necessary to remain in the high ground of the mountains of Judea and Samaria – from Hebron to Nablus. He also explained that Israel needed to remain in the Jordan Valley.

And the late Moshe Dayan, Israel's former Chief of Staff, Minister of Defense, and Minister of Foreign Affairs: "Whatever settlement is reached with the Palestinians and the Jordanians, the key positions that guarantee Israel's defense must be left to the free and exclusive use of the Israel Defense Forces. Those positions are the Jordan Valley and the mountain spine."

And finally, the words of the late Yitzhak Rabin: "We will not return to the lines of June 4, 1967 – the security border for defending the State of Israel will be in the Jordan Valley, in the widest sense of that concept." In 1980 he determined: "Our evacuation of the West Bank would create the greatest threat we can possibly face."

So wrote Amidror in 2005.

What has changed since then? Little things, like thousands of rockets shot into Israel from southern Lebanon in 2006 and from Gaza - land which we gave to our enemies.

In conclusion, we still have a lot of work to do, but, it is not going to happen:

a) the Israeli public is beginning to wake up. According to a poll published today in Ma’ariv/NRG.co.il: "53% of Israelis are not willing to give up land in Judea and Samaria, even in exchange for Palestinians giving up  the right of return and recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. 57% believe that Oslo hurt Israel."b) the numbers don’t add up. According to Dr. Guy Bechor, head of the Middle East Division at the Lauder School of Government, there are presently some million four hundred thousand Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. In the same area, today reside about 700,000 Jews; that is, 385,000 in Judea and Samaria and about 300,000 in Jerusalem. “In other words, the number of Jews is already equal to half the Palestinian population in the "territories." This figure is amazing, since during the second intifada Jews in Judea and Samaria numbered only 190,000. In a decade they have doubled their numbers.”

(These numbers do not take into account my expectation that in the next few decades, the Israeli population is going to double, as a result of mass aliyah (immigration) from the west. Many of the next 6 million Jews moving to Israel will undoubtedly live in Judea and Samaria, where there is still much open land waiting to be developed.)

c) And finally, a two-state solution, as being suggested at present, is ultimately a contradiction in terms. A so-called ‘palestinian state,’ alongside Israel, will continue our defense predicaments and generate new issues. It will create a lethal threat to the continued existence of the Jewish state and there is no reason for us to allow this to happen. It’s a no-brainer.

A Taste of Tisha B'Av

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Category: Wilder Way

Published on Friday, 19 July 2013 15:40

Written by The Hebron Fund

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David Wilder
July 17, 2013

The question arises: why, in the year 2013, in the State of Israel, should we still fast on the 9^th day of the Hebrew month of Av – known as Tisha b'Av? We are back in Israel, we have independence, we are back in Jerusalem, so why the necessity of a fast? True, both the first and second Temples were destroyed on Tisha b'Av, but being back in Israel should be enough to perhaps mark this day in a different way, without the severity of a 25 hour fast. After all, the destruction of the Temples was a forerunner to exile, galut; today the directions have been reversed; we are in a period of redemption, geula.

A few days ago, after the desecration of the Mezuzahs at Ma'arat HaMachpela, we became aware of some very interesting information.

Ma'arat HaMachpela, the tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, is, theoretically, overseen by the State of Israel. A couple of years ago Prime Minister Netanyahu added this holy place to his list of 'national heritage sites.' The defense ministry, together with the police, have legal jurisdiction at the site.

However, as with other such significant places, such as Temple Mount in Jerusalem, another organization has official, or unofficial authority, that being the Waqf, the Moslem Religious trust. Any authority they maintain is granted to them by the state of Israel, as these sites are within the state of Israel, part of the state of Israel and under Israeli civilian and security authority.

The present head of the Waqf at Ma'arat HaMachpela in Hebron is one Tayser Abu Sneneh. He was appointed to this position, it seems, a few weeks ago. He has quite an illustrious past. On the evening of May 2, 1980, he was stationed on the roof of a building across the street from Beit Hadassah. When a group of Jewish men arrived outside the building, beginning to sing and dance in the street, Abu Sneneh and his other 3 compatriots started throwing hand grenades and shooting. Six men were killed, about 20 wounded. Abu Sneheh, it seems, was the organizer and leader of this terrorist operation, in the center of Hebron.

Abu Sneneh, today a free man, is still quite proud of his murderous, bloody past. His facebook cover photo shows him, with the other murderers, 'victorious.' And this creature is today running the Waqf at Ma'arat HaMachpela.

Is it any wonder that Arabs should desecrate this site, given the opportunity to do so?

Shades of Tisha b'Av.

A few days ago Israel was notified that: "the European Union has decreed that contracts between EU member states and Israel must include a clause stating that east Jerusalem and the West Bank are not part of the State of Israel and therefore not part of the contract.”

“The decree, which will go into effect Friday, will forbid any cooperation, awarding of grants, prizes and funding for any Israeli entity in the specified areas."

These same countries did nothing while Jews were being shoveled into ovens at Aushwitz, while preventing Jewish immigration to pre-State Israel. Effectively, they assisted in erasing Judaism from Europe. Presently, they are trying to force Jews from their homes in Israel. Refusing to accept Israeli legitimacy in Jerusalem or throughout Judea and Samaria, they have adopted tactics reminiscent of Nazi Germany, demanding that Israeli products manufactured in Judea and Samaria be 'specially marked.' And now, they are demanding that any agreement signed between EU countries and the state of Israel contain a clause, 'recognizing the illegitimacy of Israeli presence in Judea, Samaria and parts of Jerusalem. In other words, Israel is being forced to accept and sign on EU policy in any agreement made with them. If this isn’t blatant anti-Semitism on a grand scale, what is?

But these are the least of our ‘shades of Tisha b’Av.

Exactly eight years ago today, the day after the 9^th of Av, the state of Israel began the expulsion from, and abandonment of Gush Katif and the northern Shomron. Some 10,000 people were exiled from their homes. According to statistics posted on Arutz 7-Israel National News, over 50% of those expelled are still lacking permanent housing. Over 16% are still unemployed. And others still have not recovered from the shock of the expulsion.

Of course, among those affected by this horrid act were residents of Tel Aviv, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beer Sheva, Kiryat Malachi, and just about all the southern area of Israel. Only some 13,000 missiles have been shot into Israel from the land we abandoned to our enemies eight years ago.

And what about our land? What about Eretz Yisrael? Why don’t we hear the crying and wailing of our holy land, being used by enemies to attack our people, land, no longer lived on by Jews, rather by those who wish to eradicate us, from the rest of our land, and, in essence, from existence?

The solutions are relatively easy. Remove the Waqf from all power, from all authority, in Hebron and Jerusalem. Place all our holy sites under total control of Israel, without stuttering and apologizing.

Build, build, build. In all of Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria. Implement the Levy report, allowing Jews to freely purchase and live in property throughout all of Judea and Samaria. Let the nations of the world know that we, and we alone, are the rulers of our land. They will not order us how to live in our land.

And of course, as a grand finale, take back Gaza, take back Gush Katif, repopulate the lands abandoned, let the families go back home, home to their land, their communities.

And let the rest of the world know – we will never, ever abandon our land again. We’ve been expelled by foreign powers, our holy city of Jerusalem ransacked and destroyed. But we’ve come home. Hebron will never again be Judenrein, Ma’arat HaMachpela will never again be off-limits, Jerusalem will remain, in its entirety, our capital city, for eternity.

This is what should be done. Yet, there are those, among us, who still don’t understand, who are will to make the same mistakes again, to expel Jews from their homes and abandon our land to our enemies.

Until all learn, until we realize and actualize our rights to our land, in Jerualem, in Hebron, and throughout all Eretz Yisrael, we’ll have to continue fasting on Tisha B’Av. Because, anyone who breaths deeply, can still smell the smoke pouring out of Beit HaMikdash, the Temple, in Jerusalem.

When we put the fire out, and start to rebuild, we’ll be able to stop fasting, and begin celebrating, on the 9^th of Av.

Zechut Avot: An Eternal Birthright

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Category: Wilder Way

Published on Friday, 09 August 2013 14:40

Written by The Hebron Fund

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David Wilder August 04, 2013  

The first time was many years ago. I had just concluded explanations about Yeshivat Knesset Yisrael” which arrived in Hebron from Slobodka, in Lithuania in 1924. The Hebron Heritage Museum at Beit Hadassah features an exhibit about this illustrious Torah-learning academy, nicknamed  the ‘Hebron Yeshiva,’ which includes a ‘class picture’ from 1928.

As I finished my brief account, an older man approached me, put his finger on a picture of one of the yeshiva students and asked me, ‘do you see him? That’s me.’

That was Rabbi Dov Cohen, a phenomenal Torah genius, who, following my tour, came back to Hebron and gave us his tour.

 I always thought that this was a ‘once in a lifetime event,’ having someone point themselves out in a photo taken so many decades ago, here in Hebron.

But it happened again.

 On Friday afternoon the Farbstein family came into Hebron for Shabbat. Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Farbstein, today dean of the ‘Hebron yeshiva,’ now located in Jerusalem, arrived with his wife and many grandchildren. And his mother, Rabbanit Chana Farbstein.

 Chana Farbstein was born in 1923. Her father was Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna, a Torah giant. Her grandfather was the legendary Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein,  dean of the yeshiva, located then in Slobodka, which, a year or so later, moved to Hebron. Chana lived in Hebron until the 1929 riots, in an apartment next to Eliezer Dan Slonim and his family.

Friday afternoon, before Shabbat, the Farbsteins took a short tour of Hebron, which began in the museum. When we approached the Hebron Yeshiva exhibit, she moved, as hypnotized, to one of the photos on the bottom row, stared at it, and then pointed to a small girl in the right corner, saying, ‘that’s me.’ To her right, a young woman had her hand on little Chana’s shoulder. ‘That’s my mother.’

A ‘once in a lifetime event.’ And it happened to me for a second time.

Chana later told us that she must have been about four years old at the time the photo was taken.

Even though she was barely five and a half at the time of the riots, she remembered them quite clearly: “I remember a big truck going through the streets. They were throwing rocks at our house and calling out my father’s name ‘Chezkel.’ They were looking for him. It was our good luck, he was in Jerusalem.”

“Do you remember what was told to you, what was going on?”

“No one had to explain. We knew exactly what was happening.”

She said that on Saturday afternoon, her family was removed from Hebron and taken to the ‘Strauss Building’ in Jerusalem, across the street from ‘Bikor Cholim hospital. Asked when she ‘left’ the city,’ she replied: “We didn’t leave. The British came, on Shabbat, and took us to Jerusalem.”

Later she also spoke about remembering the pain of having to pray at the 7^th step at Ma’arat HaMachpela, not being allowed to enter the structure. “We would stand there for a few minutes, and then leave.”

Were relations with Arabs always poor? “No, when we went shopping in the market an Arab with a large round basket would go with us. We would put the produce we wanted into the basket, he would carry it and later bring it to our home.”

Chana Farbstein is a phenomenal woman. She also stood with us on Friday afternoon, at the cemetery in Hebron, where 59 of the 67 massacre victims are buried. Her son, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Farbstein, recited two Psalms at the site, his voice breaking, sensing the atrocities and pain of the events occurring 84 years ago.

The next morning, Mrs. Farbstein walked from Beit Hadassah to Ma’arat HaMachpela for morning prayers, and later in the afternoon, to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood to attend a special class presented by her daughter-in-law, Dr. Esther Farbstein, an expert on Holocaust studies, author of the book, “Hidden in Thunder.”

After Shabbat, as I arrived to interview her, I found her sweeping the floor.

Her son, Rabbi Farbstein, told me that that last winter she had been very ill, and there was grave concern that she might not recover. But recover she did, and despite only meeting her for the first time, her inner strength and iron will were quite obvious.

The Hebron yeshiva lost 24 students during the massacre. The Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein moved the Torah academy to Jerusalem, but never really recovered from the horrors of that awful day, dying five years later. But the family tradition of Torah greatness continues, as was apparent during the Rabbi’s Torah class Saturday afternoon. Asked why the yeshiva hadn’t returned to Hebron following the 1967 Six day war, Rabbi Farbstein related that his grandfather, Rabbi Yechezkel Sarna, met with then Prime Minister Levy Eshkol to discuss this matter. ‘Eshkol,’ he said, ‘basically scared my grandfather, saying that he shouldn’t take such responsibility on himself. ‘

“However, every year, on Tisha B’Av, after reciting Lamentations, my grandfather would get on a bus and come to Hebron, to visit at Ma’arat HaMachpela.”

My encounter with the Farbsteins, and especially with Rabbanit Chana, left me full of wonder and amazement. As we left them Saturday night, I told her, ‘here in Hebron we are blessed with ‘zechut avot,’ with the birthright of our ancestors, beginning with Abraham, thru to King David, and continuing on to such heroes as your father and grandfather. We are links in a chain, trying to follow in their footsteps, to continue where they left off. “

This is our inheritance, our legacy, an eternal bequest, from time immemorial.

Who's afraid of the big bad...

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Category: Wilder Way

Published on Monday, 15 July 2013 15:49

Written by The Hebron Fund

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David Wilder
July 14, 2013

Many years ago I participated in Friday morning tours around Hebron. I clearly remember, one such day, when we were escorted by Rechavam Ze’evi, Gandhi, HY”D. He asked where we would go, and pointed in a particular direction. Someone commented, ‘no, we can’t go there. Even the army doesn’t go there.’ With that, Gandhi exclaimed, ‘if the IDF won’t go there, we will.’ And off we went.

The Tomb of the Patriarchs, Ma’arat HaMachpela, is divided into two sections; one for anyone not Jewish and the other for anyone not Moslem. Excepting ten days a year, when they have access to the entire building, and ten days a year when we have access to all of it. Each can choose the days they want, which usually consist of various holidays.

During the Moslem month of Ramadan, they have the entire building each of the four Fridays of the month. Being that Ramadan began last week, this past Friday the site was closed to Jews and open only to Moslems. In order to ensure that all Jewish belongings and property remain safe and intact, all moveable items are removed to a side room, while cabinets and other similar objects are locked.

                       
On Friday night, following closing of the site, a group of Jews were allowed to enter to move all the items stored, back to their original places, in preparation for Saturday - Shabbat morning worship services. To their surprise and shock, they discovered that two Mezuzahs were missing, and a third damaged.

A Mezuzah is a small scroll, written by hand on parchment, placed in a storage case, and hung on all doorposts of a Jewish home or building. It is considered a holy item, and is very rarely removed, after being affixed to a doorpost.  Two of these were stolen during the Moslem access to the entire site, while a third was damaged.

This morning, Deputy Religious Affairs minister, Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan, visited the site for early morning prayers. He then met with Hebron and Kiryat Arba residents and leaders, as well as with the local police commander of the place. To his utter surprise, and chagrin, the officer told him that during the Arab holy days, when they access the entire site, no Israeli security forces are present inside the building. This, out of fear for their safety and security.

To be fair, this particular officer is not responsible for security at this holy site. Security is placed in the hands of the IDF and a border police contingent. Actual policy is determined by the army and defense ministry.  But his revelation left many present, including myself, with a terrible feeling. How is it possible that the arguably best army in the world, which may have to deal with an Iranian nuclear threat, which has developed the most advanced weaponry on earth, is afraid of a few thousand Arabs, at Machpela?

There are cameras inside the building, but as the officer explained, they were not able to film or capture the culprits. And this is not the first time such damage has occurred. Once a couple of books of Psalms were forgotten. We received them back in pieces.

On Friday night, our workers discovered three books of Koran, which the Arabs had forgotten. Today they were returned to the Arabs, without any damage having been done to them.

It is, by my way of thinking, unimaginable that the IDF should be afraid to station troops wherever, and whenever necessary.  If this entails decreasing, and limiting the number of Arabs in the building at given time, so be it. We don’t have to tell the IDF what to do, or how to operate. But our enemies should know that there is a price to pay for desecration of Jewish holy sites and items. Otherwise, it’s quite predictable that this coming Friday, and the one after that, and the one after that, what exactly will happen. The desecration will continue, and that is unthinkable. Not in the state of Israel. As MK Orit Struck said this morning, for 700 years the Arabs prevented us from entering this holy site, and now, we are willing to allow them total access, denying ourselves our own access, and they take advantage of that to defile our holy place?! Absurd!

Our security services must not be afraid of anything. To the contrary, our enemies should be shivering and shaking at the very thought of seeing an Israeli, in uniform or out of uniform, knowing that such violations of holy places, such as Ma’arat HaMachpela in Hebron will entail the most  serious of repercussions.

We must not be afraid. Of anything. It is them who must be afraid. An only them. We have nothing to fear, we never have, and we never will. Period.