Judea Magazine, No. 2.2
Hebron Etzion
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JUDEA ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE Vol.2, No.2 Nisan-Iyar 5754/Mar-Apr 1994
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Contents: HEBRON
* The Entrance to Paradise
* Hebron: The Week Before the Shooting
* Hitching a Ride on Hebron
* Jewish Life in Hebron for 3,000 Years
* The 1929 Arab Riots
* Wide Support in Israel for Returning to Hebron
* Hebron is Not Yamit
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THE ENTRANCE TO PARADISE
The Cave of Machpelah ("the Double Cave") in Hebron is the
traditional burial place of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, Leah
(Rachel is buried in Bethlehem) and, some say, Adam and Eve. On this
site, which Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for 400 shekels of
silver in Genesis 23, the Jewish King Herod, builder of Masada, Herodion,
and the Temple Wall in Jerusalem, erected a four-story rectangle of
massive stone blocks.
For thousands of years, Jewish worshippers have been making
pilgrimages to this site, held by Jewish folk tradition to be the
entrance to Paradise. During much of that time, a Jewish synagogue
existed within the Herodian walls. However, for the last few hundred
years, until 1967 when Hebron came under Israeli rule, Jews were
forbidden to pray inside the Cave of Machpelah. Before 1967, Arab guards
of the Wakf (the local Arab religious authority) prevented Jews from
going past the seventh step approaching the site. Jewish worshippers
would leave notes with their prayers in the outside wall, just as at the
Western Wall in Jerusalem. In recent days the Hebron Wakf has renewed
its demands to prohibit Jews from entering the Cave of Machpelah.
When after 1967 Jews were once again permitted to enter the site, it
immediately became a major focus of pilgrimage. During the traditional
festival seasons, thousands of Jews come by the busload to the Cave of
Machpelah. Women approach the Tomb of Rebecca and begin to weep. Proud
men stand before the Tomb of Isaac and blow the shofar -- the ram's horn.
Individuals and groups enter the Hall of Isaac and begin to pray.
In the span of a few weeks during my IDF reserve duty at the Cave of
Machpelah at the time of the High Holy Days in 1985, I saw the crowds of
Jews coming to visit. I will always remember these warm, beautiful
people -- immigrants from Yemen and North Africa who blessed me because I
was wearing the uniform of an Israeli soldier and who prayed for my safe
return home; the Lubavitcher hassid whose smile made me glad to be a Jew;
the young Bratslaver hassid with his big black hat who explained to me
that the Messiah just might come tomorrow. We reservists were all
impressed by the great love, awe, excitement and reverence displayed by
these Jews for the Cave of Machpelah.
The tombs of the Patriarchs seen by visitors are only
representations allegedly built over the true sites of the tombs three
floors below. While Moslem religious law does not forbid archeological
exploration, they do have a tradition which holds that Moslems who
descend below to seek out the actual graves will die the same day.
It is said there are three entrances to the tombs below. The main
entrance was blocked hundreds of years ago by a tomb which the Moslems
say is that of Joseph. The Jews believe Joseph is buried in Shechem in
Samaria. A second entrance is under the stones near the east wall in an
area under tight Moslem control. A Moslem guard sleeps on the spot at
night. A third entrance is a narrow hole in the floor of the Hall of
Isaac, covered by an ornate grating. Every day the Moslem guards unlock
the grating and refill oil lamps suspended on chains one floor below. It
is too dark to see anything except the flame of the lamps, yet it piques
the curiosity of many who wonder what is there.
Soon after the Cave of Machpelah came into Israeli hands, Moshe
Dayan opened the grating and lowered down a slender, young girl, the
daughter of a friend. She reported seeing a passageway and stairs
leading down even further, which were blocked by stones after a few
steps. The day after Dayan reported his findings, Arab newspapers
headlined the story "Jews Break into Cave of Machpelah." No further
exploration has been undertaken.
In recent decades many Jews have begun to ask a number of disturbing
questions: Since Israel won the war in 1967 and controls the territory,
why doesn't Israel control the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the Cave of
Machpelah, perhaps the two holiest sites in the Jewish religion? The
Israeli government will certainly be more generous to the Moslems than
they were to the Jews when they were in control. Why should the Israelis
not determine procedures at the sites in terms convenient to all
worshippers including Jews? Why should Jews not be the custodians of the
Cave of Machpelah, whose Jewish ownership is registered in the Bible and
which serves as the main synagogue for the growing Jewish community in
Hebron-Kiryat Arba, as well as a holy site for every Jew throughout the
world?
(M.A., From "Hebron: Jewish-Arab Flashpoint," _Jerusalem
Letter/Viewpoints_, No. 44 (3 Dec 85).
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HEBRON: THE WEEK BEFORE THE SHOOTING
Carl Bishop
I recently returned from a trip to Israel. I am not a Jew, but I am
very interested in seeing the biblical sites. My visit to Hebron was
very interesting and memorable. I had visited it in June 1992 and during
my recent visit, I noticed a disturbing difference in the attitude of the
Arabs.
I visited the Cave of the Patriarchs on four occasions during the
week prior to the shooting incident. Each time, I was threatened and
struck by the Arabs. On Friday night, February 18, during Sabbath
prayers, some of the Arabs rioted and came running into the area which
had been assigned to Jews. Israeli soldiers forced them back into their
assigned area.
The following morning there were several scuffles which resulted
from death threats and insults by Arabs who had again spilled over into
contact with Jews during their prayers.
Immediately following havdala on Saturday night, February 19, the
Arabs came pouring into the area where the Jews were congregating,
yelling "Murder the Jews." They overran some of the soldiers who fought
to protect local Jews and a tour group of 120 American Jews who were
touring Gaza, Samaria and Judea. The Arabs broke through and struck me,
but more soldiers came until the Arab mob could be pushed back at
gunpoint into the room where the Arabs were supposed to be praying. It
was the scariest moment in my life.
(Letter to the Editor, _Jerualem Post_, 1 April 1994)
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HITCHING A RIDE ON HEBRON
Aryeh Palgi
It is said that when Hebron was taken in 1967, the city's residents
were certain that the IDF would kill them, to settle the old score which
still remained from the 1929 riots, and many were amazed when such
revenge did not come. I am reminded of these stories when I hear the
expressions of concern over the vengeance "which must come" from the Arab
side, following the loathsome act in Hebron.
Several expressions of the Arab protest bother me. The vast
majority of Arabs took a comprehensive approach, passed sweeping
judgment, almost without distinction, and convicted all of us. They
exploited this most unfortunate opportunity to settle all the accounts.
Why was there not even one official Arab voice which tried at least to
hint that this was an unusual act, by a single individual? Why have all
of us suddenly been made bad guys?
Expectedly, the shabab in the territories rioted. But why did the
leadership show such understanding for them and not restrain them? Why
did they pelt us with rocks in Nazareth, Jaffa and Wadi Ara [in pre-1967
Israel]? It is certainly acceptable for them to feel solidarity with the
relatives of the victims in Hebron, but why acts of violence all of a
sudden? Has anyone from the Israeli public, from the official Israeli
leadership, ever thought that after a massacre or murder against us we
need to respond with violence against that part of the Palestinian people
called the [Israeli] Arab minority in Nazareth, Jaffa or Um al-Fahem?
(From _Al Hamishmar_, a newspaper affiliated with the left-wing
Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz movement, 3 March 94).
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JEWISH LIFE IN HEBRON FOR 3,000 YEARS
Hebron is a city in Eretz Israel 19 miles (32 km.) south of
Jerusalem in the Judean Hills. The name Hebron derives from the root "h-
b-r" meaning friend. In the Bible, Hebron is also referred to as Kiryat
Arba: "Now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiryat Arba" (Joshua 14:15).
To the south of modern Hebron, on the hill known as Tel Rumayda, was
the site of the Israelite city. Numbers 13:22 states that Hebron was
founded seven years before Zoan, the capital of the Hyksos, which was
founded in about 1720 BCE. The city was conquered by Caleb son of
Jephunneh (Joshua 15:13; Judges 1:20).
After the death of Saul, David chose Hebron as his royal city and
was anointed there as king over Judah (II Samuel 2:1-4). In addition,
Abner was buried there (3:32), his traditional tomb is still standing.
Eventually David was anointed king over all Israel in Hebron (5:1-3).
The city was also one of the levitical cities and a city of refuge
(Joshua 21:13; I Chronicles 6:42); it was an important administrative
center and this was the reason why Rehoboam fortified it (II Chronicles
11:10).
After the destruction of the First Temple the Jewish inhabitants of
Hebron were exiled. According to Nehemiah 11:25, however, there were
still some Jewish families living in the town. In I Maccabees 5:65
Hebron was attacked by Judah Maccabee and its towers set on fire. The
reincorporation of the town into Judah took place after the conquest by
John Hyrcanus at the end of the second century BCE and Hebron again
became a Jewish city. During the first war against the Romans, Hebron
was conquered by Simeon Bar Giora, the leader of the Zealots. It was
later burned down by the Roman commander Cerealius, but Jews continued to
live there.
The first period of Arab conquest (638-1100) was a relief for the
Jews of Hebron after the cruel Byzantine rule. The testimony of
historians from an earlier period and documents discovered in the Genizah
give a fairly clear picture of the continuity of the Jewish settlement in
Hebron. A story appears in several versions in both Muslim and Christian
sources which tells of the permission Omar gave to the Jews to build a
synagogue near the Cave of Machpelah, as well as a cemetery.
There is tangible evidence from the 11th century (1000) about
continuing Jewish settlement. From documents from the Genizah it is
possible to formulate a genealogical reconstruction for four to six
generations of two Hebron families, from which it can be seen that the
Jewish population was concentrated around the Cave of Machpelah and that
the synagogue was built near the cave. One of these two families held
the inherited title "people of the tombs of our forefathers" and was in
charge of maintaining the holy place. This even included the burying of
the dead brought by Jews from near and far for burial close to the Cave
of Machpelah.
Crusader rule (1100-1260) brought a temporary end to the Jewish
settlement in Hebron when the Crusaders captured the city and expelled
the Jews. It is possible that Jews began to settle again in Hebron
toward the end of the period of Crusader rule, and by the beginning of
the 13th century (1210) mention is made of a Jewish dyer "and his group"
in Hebron.
The Mamluks (1260-1517), who expelled the Crusaders, made Hebron
their district capital, at which time the Jewish settlement was
perceptibly renewed. Nahmanides, who immigrated to Eretz Irael in 1267,
wrote to his son that he could "go to Hebron to dig a grave for himself
there." Such an action would have been unthinkable had there not been a
Jewish settlement in Hebron.
The tolerant Muslim attitude toward the Jews which had existed in
pre-Crusader times did not continue with the return of the Muslims. In
1266 it was decreed that the Jews were not to enter the Cave of
Machpelah, and this decree was strictly enforced until 1967. A Christian
traveler who visited Hebron in the first half of the 14th century
reported that "Christian and Jewish people are regarded by them (by the
Muslims) as dogs, and they do not allow them to enter such a holy place."
The prohibition is mentioned by both Meshullam of Volterra (1481) and
Obadiah of Bertinoro (1488), who visited Hebron. They both recount that
the Muslims "built a wall at the entrance of the cave, in which they made
a small window through which the Jews pray." According to these same
accounts, the number of Jews at that time was 20 households.
Nevertheless, Jewish settlement in Hebron was considered as very
important by the Jews, as seen in evidence found in both Christian and
Jewish sources. At the end of the 15th century Christian pilgrims report
about a Jewish pilgrimage to Hebron: "the Jews recognize them (the graves
of the Patriarchs) and hold them in great esteem...and make pilgrimage
there from Jerusalem and even from other countries." "There is a
tradition among all the people of the land that burial in Hebron is
better than in Jerusalem."
R. Isaac Hilo from Larissa (Greece) reported in 1333 that the Jews
of Hebron were engaged in a prosperous trade in cotton, which they
themselves wove and spun, and that they were also engaged in all types of
glasswork. Some scholars maintain that the Venetian Jews who immigrated
after the Crusades introduced the art of glasswork to Hebron. R. Hilo
also mentioned "an ancient synagogue in which they prayed day and night."
The Jews of Hebron suffered a great calamity at the beginning of the
Ottoman period (1517-1917). In 1518 Japheth b. Manasseh from Corfu wrote
about the attack by "Murad Bey, the deputy of the king and ruler in
Jerusalem," on the Jews of Hebron. Many were killed, their property
plundered, and the remainder fled for their lives. Later in the 16th
century some of those Jews who were expelled from Spain settled in
Hebron.
The consolidation of the Hebron settlement took place in 1540 when
Malkiel Ashkenazi settled in the town. Ashkenazi bought the courtyard in
which the Jews of Hebron lived and built some additional buildings in the
same location as the well-known synagogue, which was named for Abraham
the Patriarch. Askhenazi served as Hebron's rabbi and his legal
decisions and customs were regarded as irrevocable Jewish law not only in
his time but in subsequent generations as well.
Toward the end of the 16th and at the beginning of the 17th
centuries some of the most important kabbalists of Safed moved to Hebron.
The most famous among these was Elijah de Vidas, author of the well-known
moralistic work _Reshit Hokhmah_ and a student of Moses Cordovero and
Isaac Luria, as well as Isaac Arha and Menahem b. Moses Ha-Bavli, also
disciples of Luria. The teachings of the Kabbalah and mysticism made a
deep impression on the spiritual life of Hebron, and a spirit of
asceticism was widespread. These were prevalent in Hebron for
approximatley 300 years until the settlement of the Habad Hasidim in the
19th century. Thus, the settlement in Hebron grew and became stabilized.
The community was a beneficiary of contributions from the diaspora
and the general campaign for the four holy cities (Jerusalem, Hebron,
Safed, and Tiberias). In the 16th century the charitable organization
known as Yahaz was established. This was a kind of united fund whose
name was a combination of the first letters of Jerusalem, Hebron, and
Safed.
A central factor in the difficult situation of Hebron's Jews in the
17th century was the huge debt owed by the community to the ruling
authorities as a result of various decrees. Characteristic of the
situation is the legend which tells about a tyrannical governor who
forced the community to pay him thousands of grushim by threatening to
burn half of the town and sell the other half into slavery.
In the middle of the 17th century (1659) the famous philanthropist
from Amsterdam, R. Abraham Pereira, established the yeshivah Hesed le-
Avraham in Hebron, where distinguished rabbis and scholars lived at that
time.
Jewish life in the 18th century was marked by decrees of explusion
and a blood libel, yet there was a certain increase in population as a
result of the breakdown of the Jewish settlement of Jerusalem in 1721 and
the immigration of Abraham Gershon of Kutow, the brother-in-law of Israel
Baal Shem Tov. Gershon relates that in the single Jewish courtyard there
was so little room that they could not even let him bring his family. In
the beginning of the 19th century the Hebron settlement was to gain some
relief when in 1807 and 1811 the Jews bought and leased over 800 dunams
of land.
Among the scholars of Hebron in the second half of the 18th and the
beginning of the 19th centuries was Hayyim Joseph David Azulai (called
Hida), R. Mordecai Rubio, the rabbi of Hebron and head of the Hesed le-
Avraham yeshivah, and Raphael Hazzan, author of works of Jewish law.
During this period the philanthropist Simon Wertheimer established a
large fund which regularly supported the poor of Jerusalem, Hebron, and
Safed. In 1814 Hayyim Baruch of Ostrava was appointed as the emissary of
Hebron and he succeeded in organizing a network of funds. Sir Moses
Montefiore, who visited Hebron in 1839 and was impressed with its beauty,
also made generous contributions to the town. There is also evidence of
independent economic progress made by the Jews who dealt in wine (1838),
crafts, and trade (1876 and after).
In 1840 R. Simon Menahem Haikin moved to Hebron from Safed to headed
its community of Habad Hasidim and to organize its internal life. In the
middle of the 19th century Elijah Mani founded several public
institutions including the Bet Hamidrash Bet Yaakov, and reorganized the
Sephardi kolel in Hebron, freeing it from the administration of
Jerusalem. In 1900 R. Shalom Baer of Lubavich established the yeshivah
Torat Emet and in 1904 Hayyim Hezekiah Medini founded a yeshivah for
young people. There was a hospital in Hebron by 1895 and the Jewish
population reached 1,500 by the late 19th century. In 1907 the German
Hilfsverein set up the first school that included secular studies in its
curriculum.
With the outbreak of World War I, the young men were conscripted
into the Turkish army, the channels of financial assistance were blocked,
hunger and plagues created havoc among the populace, and the ghetto of
Hebron was almost entirely emptied of its inhabitants after the closing
of the kolelim in the town -- except for the Sephardi kolel. In 1918,
however, when Hebron was captured by the British and World War I ended,
the Jewish settlement began to recover. The education department of the
Zionist organization established schools for boys and girls, as well as a
kindergarten. In 1925 the Slobodka Yeshivah from Lithuania was
established under the leadership of Rabbi M.M. Epstein, and the Jewish
population rose to 700 in 1929 out of a total population of 18,000.
The year 1929 dealt a heavy blow to the Jewish settlement with the
killing of many of Hebron's Jews by Arab rioters (see following article).
However, of those who survived, 35 families went to resettle in 1931.
The community slowly began to rebuild itself, but everything was again
destroyed in the upheavals of 1936. On the night of April 23, 1936, the
British authorities evacuated the Jewish inhabitants of Hebron.
(From _Encyclopedia Judaica_, Vol. 8, pp. 226-236).
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THE 1929 ARAB RIOTS IN HEBRON
M. Sayar
Next to the Cave of Machpelah is an entrance to the Casbah of
Hebron. From there it is a short distance to what was once the Jewish
quarter.
On August 23, 1929, an Arab motorcyclist sent by the Mufti of
Jerusalem sped into Hebron and spread the report that Muslims had been
attacked in Jerusalem. At the same time, local Arab clergy incited
crowds against the Jews, aided by calls from the mosque towers to go out
and murder the Jews. Yet the results were relatively "light" that day,
only one Jew was slaughtered by the crowds.
The next day, however, on the Sabbath, the Muslim community
perpetrated a full-scale massacre. The local sheikh issued a special
festive proclamation announcing that the religious leadership permitted
Muslims to take the women and property of the Jews -- "just rise up and
take it." The march of death to the Jewish quarter began, with the
bloodthirsty mob led by the sheikh and some of the town notables. The
rioters went from house to house, raping and slaughtering with no one to
stop them, committing atrocities in every house they attacked. In one of
the Jewish homes a girl was raped by 15 Arabs while her parents were
forced to watch the terrible act. Another daughter whose clothes were
stripped off pleaded that they just kill her. The rioters had mercy on
her and satisfied themselves by splitting open her stomach. All of these
atrocities were witnessed by the youngest daughter, hiding under the bed
and unnoticed by the rioters.
Not far from there Arabs broke into the house of the pharmacist and
with great merriment they cut off his leg and his two hands, then gouged
out his eyes and raped his eldest daughter. His wife and other children
were also seriously wounded.
The British officer commanding the Hebron police attempted at a
certain point to stop the crowd. He fired into the crowd of rioters but
was immediately pelted with rocks and knocked off his horse. Afterwards,
he gathered his policemen next to the Hadassah Hospital and ordered them
to open fire. The Arab policemen carried out the order and fired -- into
the air. The hospital and the nearby buildings went up in flames. The
massacre and atrocities continued.
Here and there, in the midst of the terrible atrocities, there were
glimmers of humanity and neighborliness. In one house where some 20 Jews
had taken refuge, the Arab owner and his son blocked the doorway and
prevented any of the rioters from entering. They stood there for hours
blocking the entrance until the police arrived and took out the Jews.
In a few places Arabs hid their Jewish neighbors in basements or
bathrooms and took care that the rioters would not discover them. Later
on, in the report sent by the Jews of Hebron to the High Commissioner it
was stated that if it were not for the few Arab families who protected
the Jews, not a single Jew would have been left alive in Hebron.
Fifty-nine Jews were massacred that day. Seven more of the many
wounded who were brought to Jerusalem died of their wounds. The Jews of
Hebron, who had numbered 400, were brought to Jerusalem under heavy
guard. (_Maariv_, 27 Feb 94)
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WIDE SUPPORT IN ISRAEL FOR RETURNING TO HEBRON
In Spring 1968, 26 years ago, the founders of the Gush Emunim
movement and the Land of Israel movement began the Jewish return to Judea
and Samaria with a Pesach (Passover) Seder in Hebron. The Jewish
settlement of Hebron was supported by former Prime Minister David Ben-
Gurion, Prime Minister Golda Meir, President Zalman Shazar, Defense
Minister Moshe Dayan, and Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon, as well as
79% of the Israeli public and by a vote in the Knesset. Today Hebron-
Kiryat Arba is home to 7,000 Jews.
David Ben-Gurion: "We would be making a great and terrible mistake
if we did not resettle Hebron, the neighbor and predecessor of Jerusalem,
with a large Jewish presence in the shortest time possible" (_Sefer
Hebron_, p. 15). Golda Meir, in presenting the government decision to
build 250 apartments in Kiryat Arba, said of the Jews who sought to
demonstrate against the settlers in Hebron: "Jews went to demonstrate
against Jews living in Hebron? How could this be that Jews should be
forbidden from living in Hebron?" (_Yediot Ahronot_, 20 Feb 70). Zalman
Shazar: "I was horrified to hear of Jewish youth, Zionists, say that we
should not settle in Hebron" (_Hatzofe_, 7 May 70). Moshe Dayan: "The
Jewish settlers in Hebron violated no law and there is no reason to
remove them from the city or to prevent others from joining them"
(_Hatzofe_, 4 June 68). Yigal Allon: "We are forbidden to accept the
fact that because of the murderous pogrom in 1929 Hebron should be a city
free of Jews. There is no connection between settlement and the chance
for peace in the area" (_Knesset Record_, 25 Mar 70).
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HEBRON IS NOT YAMIT
Ariel Sharon
It is with a heavy heart that I have appealed to the citizens of
Israel to oppose the evacuation of Jews from Hebron. Hebron is
Jerusalem, not Yamit. I have called on Jews to stage a passive, non-
violent popular resistance against the declared intentions of the
government because the security and the rights of Jews everywhere in the
Land of Israel will be undermined almost irreparably if the government
goes ahead with its plans for Hebron. If, despite the protests, the
government implements its plan, it must know in advance that we shall
return to Hebron.
We created the IDF to protect the Zionist ideal of settlement which
was endangered from the start by Arab aggression and threats of
annihilation. This was even before we returned to Hebron, when only with
immense dificulty did we manage to keep the 1948 part of Jerusalem. If
the government uproots the Hebron Jews it will be uprooting a cornerstone
of the IDF: to protect every Jew who has setled anywhere in the Land of
Israel.
As of this Pesach, every Jew must feel as if he himself is about to
be exiled from Hebron. He must understand that if he does not rise to
stop this, he may be uprooted from his home in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beersheba
and any other place. In contrast with the days of exile, it is not only
the privilege but the duty of every Jew in this democratic state to rise
and warn his government through passive resistance of the evil that it is
liable to bring upon him. What Jews could not do in Germany and in
Poland before annihilation, they must do in their own country; they must
stand up and resist.
Zionism came about first and foremost to bring us back to Jerusalem,
Hebron, Shilo and Beit El. It is from these places that we came, it is
about these places that we dreamt, it is to these places that we yearned
and prayed for 2,000 years. Only if we return to them can we again be a
free Jewish people. The whole enterprise of the Jewish renaissance is
nothing but the settling of a Jewish minority in the heart of hostile
Arab areas. It was true about the pre-state Yishuv and it has been true
of the State of Israel, in every settlement or group of settlements in
Tel Hai, Petah Tikva, Be'er Tuviya, Safed, Tel Aviv; settlements in the
Negev, Galilee, the Hefer Valley, Karmiel and Hanita. That is why every
Jew must understand that at stake in Hebron is not the destiny of a few
hundred Jews, but the fate of the whole Jewish community in the Land of
Israel.
* * *
Ariel Sharon was Israel's Minister of Defense at the time of the
evacuation of the Jewish communities from the Yamit Bloc in Sinai after
the Peace Treaty with Egypt. He was also the architect of the Israeli
counterattack into Egypt that turned the tide in the Yom Kippur War.
(From _Jerusalem Post_, 4 April 94)
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REMOVING JEWISH SETTLERS FROM SAFED?
Pesach visitors to Safed report that Arabs have been visiting what
used to be the Arab quarter in Safed before they fled in 1948, taking
photographs of their former homes which they speak of repossessing. They
apparently believe that current Israeli government policy makes this
inevitable.
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More than 985 Jewish villages were recorded as existing at the time of
the Roman destruction of the Second Jewish Commonwealth. (Dio Cassius,
_History of the Romans_)
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IN THE FIGHTING SPIRIT OF THE MACCABEES
"Not since the pre-state "Aliyah Bet" (bringing Jewish immigrants to
Israel through the British blockade) have we seen such a great build-up
of Zionist adrenaline, of the fighting spirit of the Maccabees, as we see
now in the settlements. It is an honor for us to be able to participate
in the effort to save the country from the claws of the PLO." -- Hagai
Segel (_Maariv_, 11 March 94).
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