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"Rebuilding Jewish Life in Judea, Israel"
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JUDEA ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE Vol.9, No.3 Iyar-Sivan 5761/May-June 2001
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Website: http://www.crosswinds.net/~judea OUR 9TH YEAR!
Contents:
* The View from Judea
* In Memoriam - Kobi Mandell and Yosi Ish-Ran:
The Funeral of Two 14-Year-Old Schoolboys / Terrorists Murder Teens
Near Tekoa / Tekoa in Mourning / Lag B'Omer on Another Planet /
Smiling Through the Tears in Tekoa / No Escape, No More to Give /
Tekoa, Then and Now / Tekoa Hit by Palestinian Gunfire
* To Restore Serenity to This Nation
* They Murdered Sara
* Stories from Arab "Palestine":
Blessed is He Who Dons a Vest of Explosives / Israeli Arab Journalist
Escapes PLO Captivity / Where did $5 Billion in Aid Go? / P.A.
Officials Stealing Ambulances
* The Heart and Soul of Our People
* 2 A.M. at the Gate
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THE VIEW FROM JUDEA
There are too many horrors to recount -- Kobi Mandell and Yosef
Ish-Ran from Tekoa, Sara Blaustein, Esther Elvan, and Baruch Cohen from
Efrat, 21 teenagers in Tel Aviv -- all murdered just because they were
Jews. You go numb after a while. Day after day there is horrible news,
not as part of some soap opera but as the unfolding of daily life here
in Judea, Samaria, and all of Israel. The radio talk shows discuss the
pros and cons of civilians purchasing body armor. That's a nutty way to
live by any standard.
Well over a hundred innocent Jewish civilians (among them 19 U.S.
citizens) have been murdered over the last eight months by Arab gunmen
and suicide bombers. Jews do not target Arab civilians. This is the
crucial difference, although the Washington Post teaches Americans that
everyone here has died in a "cycle of violence," as if everyone has
been killed in a typhoon, an act of nature, ignoring the defining fact
that Arabs are shooting at and murdering Jewish civilians daily in the
Land of Israel.
No, nobody's moving away. Where is it safer? Tel Aviv? Netanya?
Hadera? Sderot? - all targets of recent Arab terror in pre-1967 Israel.
In 1973 Gen. Arik Sharon encircled the Egyptian Third Army and
saved Israel (and played an important role in the wars of 1948 and 1967
as well as in the years between), all so that Jews would have a country
called Israel today. In 1993, when Judea Magazine first began and
Mordechai Lipkin was murdered on the road between Tekoa and Efrat,
Ariel Sharon, then holding no office, came to sit with the people of
Tekoa on the hill above the spot where Mordechai had been murdered.
Sharon feels what we feel about the Jewish people; of that, there is no
question.
So we are waiting for what must come when we live so close to
thousands of people filled with a furious hate over our very existence.
The Jews in Israel remember well the lessons of the past and will fight
to continue living -- we have no choice.
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In Memoriam - Kobi Mandell and Yosi Ish-Ran:
THE FUNERAL OF TWO 14-YEAR-OLD SCHOOLBOYS
Sara Bedein
Thousands attended the double funerals held at the Gush Etzion
Junction of14 -year old Yosef Ish-Ran and Koby Mandell, who were
discovered in the early morning hours following a night-long nerve
wracking search. The bodies were found in a cave near the Haritun
Caves, half buried under a pile of blood-soaked rocks with only their
feet sticking out, a short distance from their homes in Tekoa. Next to
their bodies were strewn their bags containing their uneaten sandwiches
and water.
The massive crowd of mourners included hundreds of children,
friends from the two schools which they attended in Efrat and Alon
Shvut, as well as their many friends from Tekoa. The funeral was
delayed an hour and a half because of the need to wait for lab test
results. Not satisfied with crushing the skulls of the two youngsters,
the inhuman murderers continued to mutilate and abuse the bodies long
after their last breaths were drawn. Those who discovered the bodies
reported that the faces were so badly mutilated that they were no
longer recognizable as human beings. The only way to make a definite
identification was through fingerprints.
The massive crowd awaited the funeral procession that was on its
way from Tekoa. Psalms were chanted over the loudspeaker and the crowd
chanted back the words of the psalms written centuries ago by King
David - many of these psalms were written in the very caves near where
the boys were found dead when King David hid in the Judean Desert caves
when fleeing from King Saul and his soldiers.
Hundreds of children held on to each other, tears streaming down
their faces. The mass of mourners, covering every inch of ground,
parted like the Red Sea to make way for the families. The heartbroken
sobs of the small children who stood over their big brother's body was
too much to bear. The whole crowd wept out loud. Then Koby's mother,
Sherri, was led/carried to the body of her first born child. The sight
of the raw pain on her beautiful face cut like a knife into the hearts
of all. Sherri, a talented author and teacher of creative writing, lay
her head down on her son's ravaged body, holding him in a tender
embrace, weeping inconsolably, and we felt like our hearts would break.
The children of Tekoa promised to hold their Lag B'Omer bonfires
tonight at the site of the murder. The cave where the bodies were found
is situated at the edge of the Judean Desert, less than a kilometer
from Tekoa. These big caves, the largest in the Middle East, where the
prophet Amos, as is written, tended his flocks in "Tekoa," held all the
mysteries and adventure of Adventureland. It is the place the children
of Tekoa go to hang out, talk to wandering Bedouins tending their
flocks, paint, meditate and celebrate the beauty of nature. For the
children of Tekoa it is the extension of their backyards. The beautiful
landscape this time of year is covered in the bloom of spring. Now it
is sprinkled with blood.
Wake up Israel. Wake up world. Smell the blood.
(9 May 2001)
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TERRORISTS MURDER TEENS NEAR TEKOA
Margot Dudkevitch and Herb Keinon
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of Efrat said the cruelty of the incident
defies any kind of understanding. "The profound distinction between
Israel and its enemies is that if a child is killed by Israel, it is in
an act of defense directed at a building where shots were fired at
soldiers. In the case of Kobi and Yossi and Shalhevet, the enemy picked
out innocent children to destroy them." Shalhevet Pass was the Jewish
infant shot dead by a Palestinian gunman in Hebron.
* *
Rina and Ezra Ish-Ran live in a mobile home overlooking wadi Tekoa,
600 meters from where their son was murdered. Rina works as a hospital
nurse and Ezra is a police officer. Seth and Sherri Mandell immigrated
to Israel seven years ago from the U.S. and moved from Efrat to Tekoa
in 1998. Seth was a Hillel rabbi at the University of Maryland and
worked in outreach programs for foreign yeshiva students in Israel.
Sherri, an English teacher, is a frequent contributor to the Jerusalem
Post.
* *
The Gush Etzion community of Tekoa was established in 1975 as a
Nahal outpost by then Defense Minister Shimon Peres. Community
spokesman Amiel Ungar noted that by 1977, under the Begin government,
it was populated by civilians. "Today there are 230 families living
here from all over the world, including Israel, France, the U.S., and
Russia," he said.
Geula and Hananel Elias spoke to the Jerusalem Post while strolling
with their baby daughter, the third generation to be raised in the
community. "I grew up here, my parents were one of the first families
to move here. I had a wonderful childhood," said Geula. Secular and
religious families live side by side in the community," added Hananel.
"We are a close-knit community. When something so tragic occurs it
affects all of us. "We want to live here in peace, but how can we do
it?" he asked and pointed towards a new neighborhood where 200 housing
units are under construction, proof of the residents' determination to
stay on and develop.
* *
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon praised the determination and
steadfastness of the residents of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, saying that
"They are the biggest heroes of this period. They are standing on
Israel's front line, and they are enabling us to protect the country. I
can only say that I have deep appreciation for thsir activities, this
is truly a type of heroism the likes of which I have not seen in
years."
(Jerusalem Post [front page headline story], 10 May 2001)
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TEKOA IN MOURNING
Mark Ami-El
On one side of Tekoa canyon is Tekoa, and on the other side is El
David, two Jewish towns. There are occasional Arab shephards on the
hills of the canyon, but you have the feeling that the canyon is in the
middle of a bloc of Jewish towns, not at the edge of Arab territory.
Most of the army-age youth from Tekoa were allowed to come home for
the funeral. I asked our son, "I know you've been down to the caves
next to Tekoa a few times, but wasn't it always with a large group?" He
answered, "Abba, I've spent many hours down at the caves, even alone or
with one other; I have for years; we all do. It's our back yard."
A year ago I was at Kobi Mandell's bar mitzva. His family came to
Tekoa 2 years ago along with about 5 other American-origin families.
Kobi was 12, which is a hard age to adjust to a new social group, but
the Tekoa kids made an effort to bring him into the group, and the bar
mitzva speeches were all about this and how he was now part of the
community.
Many people were touched by the terrible news, and scores of
individuals who possess a Jewish soul and knew someone in Tekoa made
contact with them after hearing the news.
Everybody around me is in mourning. I read that there are stages to
mourning. I've seen denial and numbness and tears. The next stage are
the thoughts of revenge. Israel seems to be having another war, and it
is going to intensify.
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LAG B'OMER ON ANOTHER PLANET
Eli Birnbaum
In Tekoa, normally there are dozens of Lag B'Omer bonfires, with
each age group in a different location. Parents take the younger
children by the hand and go to each, listening to the singing and the
music while visiting other siblings. This year is different. After
talking it over with most of the youth it was decided to have one fire
- only one. To walk there you leave the houses, slowly pass the
vineyards and follow the rising moon over the desert landscape. There
in the Wadi at the ancient cistern the fires were lit. This was just 30
meters from where Kobi and Yosi were murdered. The fires echoed off the
low walls of the cistern, casting a eerie glow over the dozens of young
people who sat and, slowly rocking from side to side, began to sing. No
guitars, no instruments, just singing. It went on and on over the hills
and through the caves. Souls reached into the depths of their pain and
called out in song. In Tekoa, Lag B'Omer will never be the same.
* *
While sitting with their friends I asked who was closest to Kobi,
with whom did he share his secrets, and the answer was Yosi.
At Kobi's funeral his younger brother, sobbing, pleaded for him to
come back to talk to him. "I have so much to tell you, but now all I
can say is Kaddish [the mourner's prayer]."
* *
Now Shabbat is about to enter. Already near the youth's condolence
tent, kids are sitting on the grass in twos and threes talking quietly.
The service begins in this non-conventional synagogue. On the canvas
wall are posted pictures of Koby and Yosi. In a corner a small pile of
stones has a waterfall of candles cascading gentle light over its
surface. A sheet is hanging from one of the walls with colored messages
written to the two friends. Seth (Koby's father) is there with Daniel
(Koby's younger brother).
(12-14 May 2001)
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SMILING THROUGH THE TEARS IN TEKOA
Gil Hoffman
TEKOA - "I love this place, but it took away my son," Sherri
Mandell, mother of slain teenager Ya'acov (Koby) Mandell, told
President Moshe Katsav yesterday when he came to Tekoa to pay a
condolence call on the family.
The wadi where Koby and his friend Yosef (Yossi) Ish-Ran were
battered to death last Wednesday was beautiful like the Grand Canyon to
him, Mandell said, as she showed Katsav pictures of her son's bar
mitzva, taken less than a year ago, not far from the site of his
murder.
Katsav said that the fact that the Mandells had made aliya from the
United States only seven years ago made their loss even more of a
tragedy. "I didn't come here because of politics; I came here despite
the politics," she told Katsav.
The family moved to Tekoa because of its picturesque countryside,
its warm and widely assorted population, and its unique sense of
spirituality, they said.
Koby's brother, Daniel, described him as a star baseball player,
who collected baseball and basketball cards, loved pop music and the
songs of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.
His mother described an almost symbiotic relationship she had with
her son, who was youthful in spirit and mischievousness but very mature
in how thoughtful and caring he was for the members of his family and
his community.
(Jerusalem Post, 14 May 2001)
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NO ESCAPE, NO MORE TO GIVE
Sherri Lederman Mandell
We want to stop listening to the news and watching TV. It is so
unbearable that we have reached the point of saturation; no more -- no
more listening to reports about our children, our soldiers, our
husbands, our mothers, our fathers dead, maimed, dying, lost,
suffering.
I am cleaning house, something I generally don't do. Each corner
has to be swept, each bed needs to be made. It is a way of feeling that
I can cope. My house is clean and in order, so the world is good.
On Independence Day, my daughter read the names of 12 people from
our area who were killed in the most recent battles. This is not
Holocaust Day; this is not some distant battle. This is the battle of
today.
We can try to deny it, but we can't escape it -- a battle is raging
around us. No matter how much we don't want to listen, we lie in bed
and hear the shooting.
There is no way not to listen. But what is the message we are
supposed to hear? It's not clear anymore. We want peace, but peace is a
word that is not the absence of war. Peace has to have value in itself.
We have been dreaming about peace. But we have been dreaming with our
eyes closed.
Now our eyes are open. We can't escape the sounds of battle. And
what is most alarming is this: The battle is a result of giving
everything we could. To give more, makes no sense.
*
[The writer's 13-year-old son, Koby, was stoned to death in a cave
in Israel last week; she wrote this piece before her son's death, and
it is published now with her permission.]
(Washington Post, 14 May 2001, p. A21)
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TEKOA, THEN AND NOW
Haggai Segal
In Tekoa, unlike in previous similar situations, they are not
talking about establishing a new settlement as the "appropriate Zionist
response" to the shocking murder. The residents there, who established
nearby Nokdim after David Rosenfeld was murdered by terrorists, and
attempted to build another town after their neighbor Mordechai Lipkin
was murdered almost eight years ago, know that with this government,
such talk stands no chance.
Following Lipkin's murder in 1993, Ariel Sharon arrived in the area
- Lipkin's widow said she remembers till this day the great concern and
care that he showed her and her family - and said, "In my opinion,
there must be at least one more settlement between Efrat and Tekoa.
The road here has seen several murderous attacks on Jews, and only a
continuous Jewish presence here can guarantee normal Jewish life....
Every effort must be made towards this end, not only because of the
historical value of the area - this is where the Jewish nation was born
as a nation - but from a pure security standpoint."
In the same conversation eight years ago, Sharon related to the
possibility of talking with Arafat, saying, "True, negotiations are
conducted between enemies - but not with murderers, and there is no man
with more Jewish blood on his hands since World War II than Arafat."
Ilana Lipkin, widow of Mordechai Lipkin, has since moved with her
children to nearby Alon Shvut. She told Arutz-7 today, "I think
yesterday [the day of the discovery of the bodies of the boys] was one
of the hardest days in my life, even in comparison with the murder of
my husband, which was a terrible tragedy for me and my children; when
adults are killed, it can somehow be seen as part of our war for this
Land, but for children to be killed, this is very difficult for me....
I immigrated to Israel [from the Soviet Union] 13 years ago, out of a
clear desire to build our home in Eretz Yisrael, and so that my
children, our children, should grow up as Jews, as Israelis....When we
arrived at the cemetery yesterday, with my two older children, at the
funeral, my children suddenly turned to me and said, 'Ima (Mom), we
weren't at the burial of Abba (Dad).' I explained to them that they
were very small, but that whatever they are seeing here now, that's
what it was like then."
(Arutz Sheva News Service, 10 May 2001)
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TEKOA HIT BY PALESTINIAN GUNFIRE
20 May 2001 - Jerusalem Day - During the evening celebrations .50
caliber gunfire hits three homes including that of the Mandell family.
23 May 2001 - 22 hours after an Israeli-proclaimed cease-fire, we
hear shots bouncing off the stone walls of homes on both sides of us.
Two houses away, a bullet penetrates a children's bedroom window, just
missing the two children in the room. We find the bullet on the floor,
a .50 caliber round fired from a heavy machine gun at the southern edge
of Bethlehem, 2 kilometers north of Tekoa.
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TO RESTORE SERENITY TO THIS NATION
Rabbi Benny Elon
We are about to commemorate the receiving of the Torah, in
preparation for which we stood at the foot of Sinai "as one person,
with one heart." This unity is a necessary pre-condition for the war
that, with G-d's help, we are about to wage very soon. We cannot win
with half the nation standing and protesting against us. There is no
choice: This campaign [to achieve unity] demands patience and
persistence, and it costs us in blood, but - this nation is uniting.
It is demanding not individual reactions to terrorist attacks, but that
the government clarify to the whole world that we are not strangers in
this land, but that we have returned to our Land from which we were
banished.
We are a nation that is becoming stronger and more united behind
its government and its demand for quiet, independence, and sovereignty.
We know that we cannot leave the situation as it is, and plan to
repair whatever needs repairing. We are a nation of "remnants of the
sword" and G-d calls upon us to "help them rest" [based on Jeremiah
31,1]. This is our job - to restore serenity to this nation, to
strengthen it, and together, we will emerge victorious against all our
enemies. G-d is fighting for us; He has shown us, and will continue to
show us, great miracles and wonders.
(Arutz Sheva Israel National Radio, 23 May 2001)
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THEY MURDERED SARA
Dov Gilor
This past week, Arafatīs terrorists murdered our dear friend, Sara
Blaustein. Norman and Sara Blaustein had spoken many times of their
dream to settle in Israel with their thirteen-year-old daughter, Atara.
I recall how happy they were, just several short months ago, when they
finally achieved their dream and moved to Efrat to join other family
members in Israel. Sara integrated so quickly into the social and
religious fabric of Efrat that few realized that she was a new
immigrant. Sara loved the many Torah classes and the proximity to her
beloved Jerusalem.
Wherever Sara lived, Staten Island, Lawrence or Efrat, her home was
always open to everyone. She really knew how to make guests feel
welcome. She worked tirelessly for the community and for Israel. As
Norm cried in his eulogy, Saraīs hand was always open to give charity
and to help others.
One of Saraīs favorite projects was her weekly trip to Rachelīs
Tomb. "We must never allow the Arabs to gain control because we are
afraid to travel there." Tuesday was her day and she had fulfilled her
"Mitzvah" on the day of her murder. Norm and Sara were also very active
supporters of the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, the organization
working so hard to buy back property in the Old City of Jerusalem. Sara
had, in the past, served as the executive director of the project.
Each day, Norm and Sara had made it a practice to study the
writings of the Jewish Prophets together. During their trip to pray at
the Wailing Wall, Norman and Sara were discussing what they had
recently studied. Just then, a car with several of Arafatīs terrorists
sped past and sprayed the Blaustein vehicle with murderous gunfire. As
they lay there waiting for help to come, Norman cried out to Sara many
times, but to no avail. Sara and Esther Elvan (a hitchhiker) were dead,
Saraīs son, Sammy Berg, had a bullet in his back and another in his
side, and Normīs face, eyes and nose were badly cut up by glass.
The funeral was held the following evening so that Saraīs son,
Yoni, her daughter, Adina, and other family members from the USA could
arrive. Saraīs son, Sammy, attended the funeral despite his two bullet
wounds.
As I rode on the bulletproof bus from Jerusalem to Efrat I could
not contain my disbelief that only in Israel must a Jew travel in his
own country in a bulletproof vehicle. Why are we so foolish to allow
this? Why is world opinion more important than human life? If Sara had
been murdered in the USA, soldiers and police units would have gone in
to wipe out the terror nests.
Rabbi Riskin, in his eulogy, declared that military response is not
vengence but rather justice. The one-sided cease-fire is really
surrender. Saraīs brother, David Zev Unterberg, in the name of the
family, requested that an Israel government representative not attend
the funeral as long as the policy of "restraint" is continued.
After the initial eulogies in Efrat, we boarded our buses and cars
to travel to the Gush Etzion cemetery. As we watched from the lead bus,
there were more than one hundred cars and buses winding their way out
of Efrat in a huge procession. As we passed each Jewish community,
people, holding Israeli flags, lined the road with bowed heads. This
beautiful silent tribute to Sara was overwhelming.
May G-d revenge her blood and may her memory be blessed.
(Arutz 7, 6 June 2001)
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Stories from Arab "Palestine":
BLESSED IS HE WHO DONS A VEST OF EXPLOSIVES
In Friday's sermon broadcast live on Palestinian Authority
Television, preacher Dr. Muhammad Ibrahim Maadi praised the suicide
terrorist slaughter in Tel-Aviv and called for continued suicide
attacks. Excerpts (supplied by Palestinian Media Watch):
"Woe upon whomever will not raid, and not tell tales of raids. Woe
upon whomever does not give his children Jihad [Holy War] education....
Blessed is he who fights Jihad in the name of Allah, blessed is he who
goes on a raid in the name of Allah, blessed is he who dons a vest of
explosives on himself or on his children and goes in to the depth of
the Jews in their sinful discotheque. I ask of Allah that we see the
Knesset building collapsing on the heads of the Jews."
At a memorial ceremony yesterday for victims of the Dolphinarium
slaughter, President Moshe Katzav said, "Not even one Moslem religious
leader could be found to condemn the murder of children."
(Arutz Sheva News Service, http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com,
12 June 2001)
***********************************************************************
ISRAELI ARAB JOURNALIST ESCAPES PLO CAPTIVITY
"I want to apologize to the people of Israel. I feel that I lied to
you and I am sorry. I, who believed in peace, ask myself now what is
the chance of reaching peace with these people [the Palestinians]. I'm
sorry and it hurts me to reach the conclusion that there is no one with
whom to make this longed-for peace." So stated Israeli Arab journalist
and author Yosef Samir, 63, who escaped after 64 days in captivity by
the Palestinian security services in Bethlehem.
"If they could do what they did to me, when everyone knows me and
knows my opinions, me who was outspoken on behalf of their rights, me
who they tortured and degraded, who else would want to talk with them?"
(Maariv, 8 June 01, p. 2)
***********************************************************************
WHERE DID $5 BILLION IN AID GO?
In the last 7 years, nearly 50 nations have given more than $5
billion to the Palestinian Authority to build an infrastructure for
economic independence. In practice, most of the funds were used to
build houses. The per capita income in 1999 was 10 percent lower than
in 1993 at the time of the signing of the Oslo agreement.
(Makor Rishon, Yoman, 2 Mar 01, p. 20)
***********************************************************************
P.A. OFFICIALS STEALING AMBULANCES
Officials in the PA Health Ministry are complaining that health
equipment donated to the Palestinians from around the world has been
stolen. A senior PA source told Itim News Agency that the problem
recently reached a climax when eight ambulances, donated from Egypt and
Saudi Arabia, suddenly "disappeared;" they were later discovered in a
Bir Naballah car lot, north of Ramallah, where they were being offered
for sale.
Other PA officials told Itim that many other medical items received
by the Health Ministry had disappeared and were similarly later
discovered to have been sold, "apparently by senior health officials
who pocketed the money." The sources said that an official complaint
had been lodged with the PA, but nothing had yet been done.
(Arutz Sheva News Service, http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com,
12 June 2001)
***********************************************************************
THE HEART AND SOUL OF OUR PEOPLE
Eli Wohlgelernter
The 13 visiting Orthodox rabbis from North America heard that
despite the attacks, in the Gaza District Jewish settlers not only are
not leaving, but that more are coming in, and new houses and schools
are being built.
"These people who are settled here, they are the ones who are the
heart and soul of our people," said Rabbi Steven Weil of Congregation
Beth Jacob in Los Angeles. "This is not the story that the New York
Times or the LA Times tells; this is a totally different story. These
are people trying to live, trying to earn a living, trying to raise
children - and they're not getting in anybody's way, they aren't in the
Arabs' way, and the way it is reported in the world's press is sick."
(Jerusalem Post, 4 May 01, p. A3)
***********************************************************************
2 A.M. AT THE GATE
Jonathan Chernoble
It's 2 a.m. at the guardhouse by Tekoa's front gate. A young
soldier stands outside in full battle gear - helmet, flak jacket,
ammunition belt, and rifle. Just inside the guardhouse, through an open
window, sits his guarding shift partner, a young man from Tekoa's
yeshiva, who is reading aloud a passage from the Talmud by candlelight.
At the beginning of the shift, the soldier asked the yeshiva
students about the book he had brought with him, and the student
mentioned the particular section he was currently learning. In one of
those coincidences that happen all the time in Israel, the soldier -
who is not religious - responded that he had taken Talmud in high
school and that particular section was the very one he had studied for
his matriculation exams.
So in the peaceful early morning stillness of the Judean Hills, two
young Jews learned Torah by candlelight - a scene that has surely
occurred many times throughout the ages.
***********************************************************************
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Mail address: Judea Magazine, Yael and Mark Ami-El, Editors; Tekoa;
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