Judea Electronic Magazine, No. 2.1

Judea Magazine, No. 2.1


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JUDEA ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE  Vol.2, No.1  Shvat-Adar 5754/Jan-Feb 1994
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Contents: SPECIAL PEOPLE

* Special People:
  - From Kfar Giladi to Tekoa: Continuing the Family Tradition
  - Jewish Heroes: Noam Cohen - Rabbi Fruman of Tekoa: A Different
Approach
* From the Pages of History:
  - The Jewish Quarter of Hebron - Jewish Roots Throughout Judea
* Rebuilding Jewish Life:
  - Beit Orot Yeshiva on the Mount of Olives - Beit Yatir in the South
  Hebron Hills - Population Growth in Judea and Samaria
* In Search of Peace:
  - Murder in Hebron: Violating the Sixth Commandment - What Our
Neighbors Really Think - The Battle for Judea

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Special People:

        FROM KFAR GILADI TO TEKOA: CONTINUING THE FAMILY TRADITION

     Yula (Yael) Biran lives with her husband and seven children in the
new neighborhood overlooking Tekoa Canyon at the edge of the Judean
Desert. She teaches science and math and is presently Acting Principal of
Tekoa Elementary School.
     Yula was born in Kfar Giladi in 1958, a kibbutz in the Upper Galilee
panhandle founded by "HaShomer" (The Guardsmen) -- the first Jewish self-
defense organization in Eretz Israel in this century (1908-1920), which
strongly believed in settling and working the Land of Israel. Yula's
great-aunt Kayla married Yisrael Giladi, a "Shomer" in whose memory Kfar
Giladi was named. Another great-aunt, Zippora, married Alexander Zaid,
also a legendary "Shomer." He helped establish Kfar Giladi and later
moved his family to an isolated hilltop guarding the road between Haifa
and the Jezreel Valley, to help defend Jews travelling on the road from
Arab attacks. While riding out to the aid of a nearby kibbutz one day,
Alexander Zaid was ambushed and murdered by Arabs. Yula's grandparents on
her father's side, Rivka and Akiva, lived in Jerusalem and their home
became a meeting place for "HaShomer." Later their children and then they
themselves moved to Kfar Giladi.
     Yula's grandparents on her mother's side, Mordechai and Yetta Segal,
although born in Russia, lived for some time in the United States in the
first decades of this century. They were vegetarians and "hippies" who
travelled through America before coming to Israel. Upon arriving in Eretz
Israel, they wanted to live out the Zionist dream on a kibbutz far from
civilization and found themelves in Kfar Giladi. Yetta Segal served both
as secretary and treasurer of the kibbutz.
     Mordechai Segal turned to teaching when there became a need to open
a school on the kibbutz. He later developed the educational program for
the kibbutz movement and went on to found two teacher-training centers --
the Kibbutz Seminar in Tel Aviv and the Oranim Teachers College near
Haifa. Mordechai, although schooled in yeshivot, was not an Orthodox Jew.
He believed in the ideology of the "new Jew" which advocated putting
aside the old religious ways in favor of the "pioneering Jew" who, in
that ideology, could not be religious. Mordechai, however, felt that
Jewish culture must be preserved and so he taught the first generation of
kibbutz children from traditional Jewish texts such as the Mishna, as
well as secular subjects. Mordechai's educational outlook also emphasized
a love of nature, of walking in the land and learning its secrets.
     Yula Biran explains that Tekoa Elementary School, where religious
and non-religious children learn together, may be the only place in
Israel which still follows her grandfather's educational philosophy. The
curriculum emphasizes traditional Jewish texts as well as the life
sciences. The children go on many wonderful class trips to learn about
their land. Yula had studied her grandfather's educational ideas and
adopted many for the Tekoa school when it came time to establish its
curriculum.
     In tenth grade, Yula moved from Kfar Giladi to Kibbutz Givat Haim
where her grandfather Mordechai was then living, in order to attend high
school at nearby Kibbutz Maagan Michael. She was attracted to it because
it was an open or free school where she could plan her own program of
studies. It was during this time that she met Amit, her future husband,
who had been born and raised at Kibbutz Givat Haim. Upon graduation, Yula
served in the Israeli army for two years as a soldier-teacher in the
field school at the nature reserve of Maagan Michael and stayed for a
third year to train teachers and guides. 
     In 1981 Yula and Amit made arrangements to live at an ashram in
India where Yula would learn Eastern medicine and Amit would work as the
facility's maintenance person. They flew to Bombay together with their
baby daughter, but were unexpectedly refused entry by the Indian
authorities. After three days at the airport, having exhausted all
avenues of appeal, they decided to continue on to Nepal and apply for an
Indian visa from there. They finally received the visas but meanwhile all
three of them had become very sick and had to extend their stay in Nepal.
With their money running out, they decided to go first to Australia to
make money before heading to India. Once there, Amit found work on a farm
in Queensland, but Yula could not work because of the baby. Finally they
realized that none of their plans were working out and all the signs were
telling them to go back home to Israel.
     The Birans returned home and began to look for a spiritual community
in which they could search out their Jewish roots. They moved to Yodfat,
a moshav in the Galilee where they did find people on a spiritual quest
but one with little emphasis on Judaism. Yula and Amit began to invite
guest speakers to come and teach at Yodfat and they themselves travelled
to Jerusalem to learn. In Jerusalem they made contact with Makor Haim --
the yeshiva of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz -- and there they met Rav (Rabbi)
Menachem Fruman of Tekoa. Rav Menachem and his family spent a Sukkot
holiday week with the Birans at Yodfat, and Yula and Amit began
considering another move -- to the community of Tekoa. Spiritually, Tekoa
felt right, with a Rav they could learn with and a place that was out in
the country, factors important to the lifestyle they sought. Yet Tekoa
was also "over the green line," which at the time was a problem for the
kibbutz-raised couple. Rav Menachem told them that Shimon Peres, as
Israel's Minister of Defense, helped establish Tekoa in 1977 and that the
people of Tekoa were not "fanatics." So the Birans came to make their
home in Tekoa with their by then four children, and have since had three
more.
     Yula likes the isolation and the closeness to nature of living in
Tekoa's new neighborhood at the edge of the desert, very much like her
grandparents Mordechai and Yetta who went out to Kfar Giladi, far from
civilization, to be pioneers. Amit is the security officer for the
neighborhood and as such continues in the tradition of Alexander Zaid and
Yisrael Giladi of "HaShomer." Ideologically-motivated Zionist pioneers
like those in "HaShomer" were always very few in number, yet their impact
was great. Yula feels that the only adherents of Zionist ideology left
today in Israel are those living in the more than one hundred small towns
and villages in Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and the Golan Heights, guarding the
borders of the Land of Israel so that future generations of Jews will
have a country. -- Y.A.

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                         JEWISH HEROES: NOAM COHEN

     On 13 Feb 1994, Noam Cohen of Jerusalem was killed near Ramallah by
Hamas terrorists. Cohen, 27, was a special agent in the Israel General
(Internal) Security Service -- the Shabak -- and one of the Arabs he
worked with suddenly switched sides and set him up for ambush.
     Noam Cohen was one of thousands of unsung Jewish men and women who
daily risk their lives to protect their fellow Jews. _Maariv_ (18 Feb 94)
describes Cohen as a youth from a religious home who served 6 years in an
elite combat unit and then joined the Security Service, all while
remaining religious.
     According to Jewish law, one is permitted to ride on Shabbat and
religious holidays only for the purpose of saving a life. Before one such
holiday, Noam was informed of an operation that would require him to fly
out of Sde Dov airport in Tel Aviv during the holiday. He arranged to
stay with friends in Tel Aviv the night before and on the day of the
operation he began the long walk to the airport. While he was walking he
received a message on his beeper that the departure time had been moved
up. With no other way to make the flight, he caught a cab and rode to the
airport. When he returned from the operation, he walked back to his
friends. Upon his return home to Jerusalem after the holiday, all he said
to his family was: "We did something that may have saved many Jews."

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                RABBI FRUMAN OF TEKOA: A DIFFERENT APPROACH

                                 Amos Navo

     Thirteen years ago, Hadassah and Menachem Fruman moved to Tekoa from
Kibbutz Migdal Oz in the Etzion Bloc.  Hadassah became the kindergarten
teacher in Tekoa, and today teaches 6th grade in the Tekoa school. 
Menachem, 48, a Gur Hassid born in Kfar Hassidim, went to Hebrew
University where he studied philosophy and read Camus and Kafka.  He went
into the army and fought in Sinai in the Six-Day War.  The Frumans built
a simple house near Herodion, opposite the wild desert, where they are
raising their ten children.
     Menachem Fruman went to the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva and soon became
close to the yeshiva head, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook.  Rav Kook invited him
to live in his home and Fruman became his personal aide.  From Mercaz
HaRav flowed the idea of the completion of the Land of Israel, and from
this yeshiva came Hanan Porat (today an MK of the National Religious
Party), Moshe Levinger (founder of Kiryat Arba), and Yoel Bin-Nun, to
establish the Gush Emunim movement and to settle the Land.
     Menachem and Hadassah were at Yamit and were evacuated by the army. 
When members of the Jewish underground came to check Fruman out as a
possible ally, they quickly realized that they had no one to talk to.  As
the years passed, it would be differences over attitudes toward the
underground that caused his resignation from the Gush Emunim council.
     Rabbi Menachem Fruman believes that peace with the Arabs is
possible.  "I suddenly came to the realization that it might be possible
to solve the Jewish-Arab conflict in a different way, in a way that
advances both the Jewish and Arab cultures."
     Fruman does not believe that Rabin and Arafat can make peace.  He
calls it a "wedding of blood," creating another national state that rules
by force and weapons.  "This is an agreement with the forces who are in
decline.  The PLO is near collapse."  In his opinion, only the clergy and
philosophers from both sides can solve the conflict because they are the
people of truth.
     He has taken this task upon himself and every spare minute he seems
to be meeting with Arabs.  "The mitzva of our times is to make peace," he
says. So Fruman travels to the Arabs to begin the mitzva.
     He has been doing this for years, between the roadblocks and the
stones.  Most of his meetings are in Arab homes.  Sometimes he sleeps
over.  He has already met tens of Arabs, members of the PLO and Hamas,
including some high-ranking leaders.  He comes to them wearing a big
white kippa and tzitzit hanging down from his trousers, brings out the
Bible and teaches them Judaism, and they bring the Koran and teach him
Islam.  They are shocked that a Jew takes interest in their religion.
     "The Wise One Fruman" they call him with respect.  His appearance
causes notice.  He is a tall man with a long beard and twinkling eyes who
laughs easily.  He doesn't know Arabic so he speaks with them in Hebrew
and sometimes English.  "In joint meetings with clergy we compare Judaism
to Islam and find much in agreement," says Rabbi Fruman.
     Fruman has succeeded in reaching the leadership of the Hamas in
Gaza.  A car met him at the checkpoint and brought him to a meeting of
some 16 people.  Fruman brought them gifts, and he left his gun at home. 
"I had an agreement with my wife," he said, "that if I didn't call by 3
p.m., that she should call the security forces, who knew of the meeting,
and ask them to act.  The discussion continued and continued and I didn't
pay attention and didn't phone home until two minutes after three. 
Fortunately, my wife knows my strange ways and gave me a chance of
another few minutes.  For 2 1/2 hours we discussed religious matters; we
hardly touched politics.  They had interesting questions," he remembers. 
In the middle, they stopped to pray so he stopped to pray as well. 
"Suddenly, one newly religious young man came up to me and said: 'You
speak so beautifully, why don't you become a Muslim?'  I burst out
laughing."  When it came time to leave, they agreed to meet again.
     "I came to the conclusion that the people from Hamas are a better
partner for dialogue than the people from the PLO.  Today the PLO is in
decline, but the religious forces such as Hamas are in ascent.  Not all
in Hamas are murderers, not all are extremists; there are also moderates.

Therefore it is more valuable and more important to discuss matters with
the ascending forces rather than the declining forces."  (Excerpted from
_Yediot Aharonot Magazine_, 14 Jan 94)
     Postscript: In January 1994, Rabbi Fruman was appointed Rabbi of
Judea by the Israel Ministry of Religious Affairs.

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From the Pages of History:

                       THE JEWISH QUARTER OF HEBRON

     Jews returning to live in the Land of Israel began purchasing houses
in what became known as the Jewish Quarter of Hebron before 1600.  They
remained until the massacre of 1929.  Some returned two years later but
were driven out by the Arabs again in 1936.  The quarter was partially
occupied by Arab squatters and partially left to fall to ruins.  The
properties that the Jewish community was forced to abandon included nine
synagogues, three yeshivas, two schools, the court, an infirmary, mikve,
two visitor's houses, bakeries, stores, and a hospital.
     The Avraham Avinu (Our Father Abraham) Synagogue, renovated after
the Six-Day War and a 5-minute walk from the Cave of Machpelah, stands in
the center of the Street of the Jews in the old Jewish Quarter.  Today,
with its adjacent apartments, it is a revived center of Jewish life in
Hebron.  Until 1974, the ruined synagogue had been used to house goats
and store straw.
     Another site to which Jews returned was the Jewish quarter's
hospital
-- Beit Hadassah, populated by a determined group of Jewish women and
their children in 1979.
     Still another island of revived Jewish life in Hebron is Tel
Rumeida. Jewish tradition holds this place to be the ancient Jewish
burial site of Jesse, father of David, and of Ruth.

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                       JEWISH ROOTS THROUGHOUT JUDEA

     Judea is the Jewish heartland, the location of numerous Jewish towns
and villages during 4,000 years of Jewish history in the Land of Israel.
The _Israel Guide_, published by the Ministry of Defense, details the
evidence of Jewish roots throughout Judea.
     ADURA - The Jewish town of Adura, west of Hebron, is near the site
of ancient Aduraim, one of the defense cities of Judah, and whose name
appears in the history of the Maccabees. (p. 204)
     BEIT TSUR-CARMEI TSUR - The new Jewish town of Carmei Tsur is
located near the original site of Beit Tsur, located between the Etzion
Bloc and Hebron.  In the days of the Hasmonean Jewish leadership it was
the site of battles with the Greeks.  The town is mentioned in the Books
of Joshua and Nehemiah, and was one of the 15 fortified cities protecting
the borders of Judah.  In a later period it served to protect Jerusalem
from the Edomites.  In 165 BCE, the forces of Judah Maccabee held off
attacks there, only to be overrun two years later by enemy forces riding
war elephants. (p. 188)
     CITIES OF THE PRIESTS - "And the children of Israel gave the Levites
these cities with the open land about them...for the children of Aaron":
Kiryat Arba, Hebron, Yatir, Eshtemoa, Dvir, and Beit Shemesh - all in the
land of Judah (Joshua 21:8-16).
     ESHTAMOA - South of Hebron, the town of Eshtamoa was populated by
Jews through the Talmudic period and remains from even the Israelite
period, including an ancient synagogue, may still be seen.  
     MAON - The Jewish village of Maon, southeast of Hebron, was
reestablished not far from the ruins of the Jewish city of Maon, part of
the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Judah (Joshua 15:55).
     HALHUL - Today an Arab town with no Jewish presence, Halhul was
numbered among the cities which were part of the inheritance of the tribe
of Judah (Joshua 15:58).  During the time of the Second Jewish
Commonwealth, Shimon bar Giora and his forces set out from Halhul to
conquer Hebron.  Jewish tradition holds that it is the burial place of
Nathan the Prophet.
     CARMEL - Like nearby Maon, Carmel is another Jewish village
southeast of Hebron which was reestablished near the ruins of the ancient
Jewish city of Carmel, also named as part of the inheritance of the tribe
of Judah (Joshua 15:55). The city was also important in the days of Saul
(I Samuel 15:12). One of David's officers, Hezrai from Carmel, was from
the town (II Samuel 23:35).
     GEDOR - Gedor is a city of Judah mentioned in the Book of Judges
(15:58). The site of a large ruin near Beit Omar between the Etzion Bloc
and Hebron, archeological excavations in 1974 uncovered a cemetary and
hundreds of fragments of metal and pottery whose origins indicate the
existence of a large settlement during the Israelite period.
     TEL PAOR - Tel Paor is the site of the ancient Jewish city of Paor,
located less than a kilometer north of the modern-day town of Elazar.
Numerous burial caves have been found along the northern slopes of the
tel and it has been the site of a number of archeological finds from the
Israelite period. In the Septuagint translation of the Bible into Greek,
a sentence appears listing the cities of the Jerusalem area, part of the
region of Judea, as including Paor, along with Tekoa, Beit Lehem, Beitar,
and others. (p. 246)
     TEL ZIF - Southeast of Hebron near the modern-day town of Pnai Hever
is Tel Zif, site of the ancient Jewish city of Zif. Zif is mentioned in
the Book of Joshua (15:55) as part of the tribe of Judah, and appears
again in I Samuel (23:14-24) in the story of David escaping from Saul. As
David was hiding near Zif, Saul's son Jonathan went to him and said "Fear
not, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you and you will be
king over Israel, and I will be with you, and Saul knows it" (23:17). Zif
was also among the 15 cities fortified by King Rehavam to defend the
kingdom of Judah. Reference is even found in the Mishnah to the "honey of
Zif." In various places in Judea pottery and coins have been found
imprinted with the names of four cities, including Zif. Numerous findings
have come from burial caves at the site. Until the Six-Day War the site
was used as a Jordanian army base. In recent years this extraordinary
site has been threatened by rapid Arab expansion in its direction. (p.
249)

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Rebuilding Jewish Life:

                 BEIT OROT YESHIVA ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES
                                Levy Cohen

     Until recently, the only Jews who could be found on the Mount of
Olives in Jerusalem were dead ones.  One of the world's most ancient
Jewish cemeteries takes up a considerable part of the real estate on the
southern slope of the mount.  But not one Jewish institution or home
stood in the remaining area of one of Judaism's holiest sites until three
years ago.
     The Mount of Olives is central to Jewish history.  The Book of
Samuel mentions that King David would go there to meditate before the
Temple was built.  The Prophet Zechariah includes it in his End of Days
vision.  During the time that the Temple stood, bridges would connect it
to the Temple court, and pilgrims would build tents on its slopes during
the festivals.
     The Mount of Olives was the first "beacon" mountain, where bonfires
would be lit to inform the diaspora of the start of a new month.  In the
Middle Ages, Jews would camp on its slopes and gaze at the ruins of the
Temple, which was still forbidden to them.  In a tradition that continues
to this day, Jewish pilgrims would carry home a handful of its soil to be
someday thrown into their own graves, to hasten their ultimate
redemption.
     Yet despite the holiness of the site, until the founding of Beit
Orot Yeshiva, the mount remained judenrein, at least of live Jews.  A
wealthy Jewish patron bought the land for the yeshiva, which proceeded to
make plans for a massive expansion that would include new classrooms and
dormitories on the vacant plot.  The yeshiva recently placed seven prefab
buildings on the site, but was ordered to remove the offending units.
     Beit Orot acquired the property through legal means, and in
expanding the yeshiva they are only trying to fulfill the same religious
freedom enjoyed by their neighbors in the Church of All Nations, the
Russian Church, and the Mormon Center.  (From _In Jerusalem_, 14 Jan 93)

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                   BEIT YATIR IN THE SOUTH HEBRON HILLS

                                Moshe Kohn

     Beit Yatir is a 40-family Orthodox moshav shitufi (collective
settlement) in the South Hebron Hills.  In the evening one sees lights of
surrounding communities: Arad, Beersheba, Sussiya, Hebron; east is the
Judean Desert.  Not far away are the extensive remains of the biblical-
talmudic town of Eshtemoa, including a fine medium-sized synagogue, and
doorpost niches that once contained mezuzot.  The Jordanians had a police
post at the site of Beit Yatir, proof of its sensitive strategic
location.
     According to Mayor Haim Livneh, the moshav's thriving economy is
based on: 200 dunams of apple, almond, nectarine, cherry and plum
orchards, some of the produce going to the moshav's dried-fruit factory;
200 dunams of vineyards, half of which produces wine grapes that rank
high in the industry, and half table grapes; 4,000 dunams of field crops
- wheat, potatoes and vegetables, and flower bulbs, mainly narcissus; a
new dairy of 130 cows yielding 1.1 million liters annually, slated to
grow to 250 cows yielding 2.25m. liters; two chicken runs producing
250,000 fowl a year for eating; an electronics plant established by
several local engineers, engaged in research and development and grossing
NIS 300,000 a year; and an electricity-generating wind turbine that sells
its production to the Israel Electric Corporation.  The orchards and
vineyards, dairy, and fruit-drying plant provide the livelihood of 80
percent of the members; the remaining 20 percent earn their living in
education and the electronics plant.  (Excerpted from the _Jerusalem
Post_, 19 Jan 94)

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          POPULATION GROWTH IN JUDEA AND SAMARIA FASTEST IN ISRAEL

     The fastest population growth in Israel in 1993 was in Judea,
Samaria, and Gaza where the number of Israeli citizens grew by 9.3%,
compared with 2.5% overall in Israel, according to the Central Bureau of
Statistics (_Yediot Aharonot_, 23 Feb 94) -- from Yesha News Service.

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In Search of Peace:

             MURDER IN HEBRON: VIOLATING THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT

     When a madman in the United States enters a fast-food restaurant or
climbs a tower at a college and opens fire on the innocent crowd with an
automatic weapon, we understand it as a random act of madness and evil
which seems to occur spontaneously in American society every so often.
     "Thou shalt not murder" is the Jewish Sixth Commandment. Thousands
of Jewish men and women with access to automatic weapons have for years
been in daily proximity to crowds of Arabs and do not randomly open fire.

They do not do so, even in the face of continuing rabid hatred by large
sections of the Arab public, because Jewish society in general accepts
and seeks to follow this commandment.  This is particularly hard because
such a large section of Arab society does not share our belief in the
Sixth Commandment.
     Peace means no killing.  It doesn't mean they get to keep killing
us. Nearly 50 Jews have been murdered since the Israeli-Palestinian
"peace" agreement -- thirty-three in Israel, more on the Lebanese border
in ambushes by the Hizbullah or in battles with terrorists on their way
to attempt mass murder of civilians, and now even in Brooklyn.  In Israel
everyone is waiting for some horrible act of Arab revenge in which more
innocents will die.  The Arabs are expected to take revenge, and the Jews
never to do so. How come the Arabs get to keep murdering and it doesn't
seem to count, but when a lone Jew does the same they appoint a national
commission of inquiry? Where is the Khadi of Hebron or the Mufti of
Jerusalem to pay condolence calls on the Chief Rabbi after Jews are
murdered, as he did with them?  We and the Arabs don't seem to be playing
the same game.  If murder is evil and forbidden and we are to live side
by side in peace, the Arabs must stop their decades-long killing of Jews
just because they are Jews.
     The week before the incident in Hebron, the Israeli security
services warned of an expected mass attack against Jewish worshippers at
the Cave of Machpelah.  Dr. Baruch Goldstein, the emergency duty
physician, was instructed to prepare the medical supplies and equipment
he would need to treat the anticipated victims.  Time after time in
recent months, Dr. Goldstein was called to certify the deaths of his
neighbors and friends, such as Mordechai and Shalom Lapid, Efraim Ayubi
and Erez Shmuel.  Time after time he was called upon to perform emergency
field surgery to save the lives of those wounded from the bullets of
Hamas and Fatah. (_Maariv_, 4 Mar 94, Shabbat supplement, p. 15, by Nadav
Haetzni)
     On the evening before the incident, during the Purim holiday prayer
service at the Cave of Machpelah, hundreds of Arabs approached the
doorway to the synagogue screaming "Slaughter the Jews."  The soldiers
who were present closed the doors and prevented any harm but, in
accordance with current policy, did not disperse the Arab crowd. (ibid.)
     It is hard for Jews to understand Goldstein's behavior for we are
not a people who hates as deeply and kills as easily.  A survey of
Israeli public opinion found that 78.8% of Israelis condemned Goldstein's
actions. (_Jerusalem Post_, 1 Mar 94)  When his mentor Rabbi Meir Kahane
ran for the Knesset in 1984, he received only 1% of the vote.  When the
Kach party ran in the municipal elections in Kiryat Arba, it received
only 15% from the electorate of the most ideological town in Judea and
Samaria.  The ideology of Kach is a tiny minority among those living here
and the entire incident rests on the actions of one individual from among
that tiny minority.  One man broke the Sixth Commandment.  The rest of
the 140,000 Jews in the new towns and villages of Judea and Samaria did
not. Most Israelis understand this.  In the same survey, 77.6% opposed
dismantling Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and 61%
supported a continued Jewish presence in Hebron. -- M.A.

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                      WHAT OUR NEIGHBORS REALLY THINK

     The Palestinian Communications Office in east Jerusalem recently
surveyed the political views of 949 Arab residents of the Gaza District
after the Rabin-Arafat agreement.  The little-publicized results were as
follows:
1) What type of authority do you envision for the Palestinian state?
   A. A state in the West Bank and Gaza alongside Israel - 18%.
   B. A unified democratic state of Arabs and Jews - 11%.
   C. An Islamic state of Hamas and Islamic Jihad - 71%.
2) Are you prepared to change the Palestine National Covenant and
recognize Israel?
   A. Yes - 20%;   B. No - 56%;   C. Not sure - 24%.
3) What type of rule should the Jewish settlements be under?
   A. Under the independent Palestinian authority - 63%.
   B. Under Israeli rule - 25%.
   C. Not sure - 12%.
4) Does the Palestinian opposition have a chance to block the agreement?
   A. Yes - 55%;   B. No - 28%;   C. Not sure - 17%.
5) Are you prepared for cooperation in intelligence matters between
Palestinians and Israelis under autonomy?
   A. Yes - 6%;   B. No - 84%;   C. Not sure - 10%.
   -- (From _Kol Haaretz_ newspaper, 11 Jan 94)

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                           THE BATTLE FOR JUDEA

     The Jewish people is engaged once again in a battle for Jewish
possession of Judea.  The current episode is the latest in a series of
such struggles which have occurred over the last four millennia of Jewish
history.  The legitimate, elected government of Israel encouraged all of
us to come live here.  It staggers the mind to confront the possibility
that any Jewish government would act to uproot Jewish families from a
place called Judea just because a different political party came to power
in Israel. -- M.A.

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JUDEA Magazine is an academic-oriented bi-monthly electronic magazine
produced and transmitted from Judea, Israel.  Its focus is the
rebuilding of Jewish communities and Jewish life in Judea.  Internet:
amiel2@crosswinds.net  Mail: Judea Magazine, Yael and Mark Ami-El, Editors,
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