Judea Magazine, No. 7.2
Hebron Etzion
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"Rebuilding Jewish Life in Judea, Israel"
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JUDEA ELECTRONIC MAGAZINE Vol.7, No.2 Adar-Nisan 5759/Mar-Apr 1999
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Website: www.virtual.co.il\clients\judea
Contents:
* Still Singing After All These Years
* Three Israeli Mothers
* Building in Judea and Samaria Under Netanyahu
* Modern-Day Exorcism in Jerusalem
* Special People: Edna -- Security Officer of Har Gilo
* Excavations Begin at Tel Hebron
* The First Jewish Fighting Unit in the Warsaw Ghetto
* Irving Moskowitz: Restoring Jewish Life in Eastern Jerusalem
* Peace Requires an Arab Change of Heart
* Deriving Meaning from Death
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STILL SINGING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
Israel Independence Day, 1999. In Tekoa, the old-timers and their
children crowd into the Beit Knesset (synagogue) for a community ceremony
at the end of Remembrance Day for Israel's Fallen Soldiers, which
immediately precedes Independence Day. At the end, everyone stands and
sings Hatikva -- "to be a free people in our land." Corny and outdated?
Not where I live. The voices of the over-50s were still strong, and they
were reenforced by a whole new generation who grew up here -- in Judea.
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THREE ISRAELI MOTHERS
I'm sure that mothers all over the world talk about their children
whenever the opportunity arises. On a recent afternoon, three Jerusalem
women, all originally from North America, met at one of the city's malls.
The conversation turned very quickly to children, and it turned out that
all three had daughters around the same age who were in the Israeli army.
One daughter is serving in Intelligence and of course what she does is
top secret. The second is a medic who just finished an officer's
training course, and the pride in her mother's voice was unmistakable.
The third is an instructor in the Tank Corps -- a highly regarded and
prized position among those who know. All of these women talked with
great animation about what their daughters were accomplishing personally
and what they were contributing to the country.
Then the conversation turned to their sons -- all going into the
army in the next two years. Each boy was dreaming of going into one of
the elite combat units and each of the mothers was both proud of her
son's ambition and terrified of the consequences. With girls, it's easy
to be proud of their accomplishments in the army without having to fear
for their physical safety. With boys, it's a whole other situation --
immense pride and fear, all mixed together, knowing that these boys,
soon-to-be men, will be putting their lives on the line for their
families, people, and country.
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BUILDING IN JUDEA AND SAMARIA UNDER NETANYAHU
Yehoshua Mor-Yosef
Yair Maayan, 30, is head of the Coordination and Follow-Up Unit in
the Office of the Prime Minister, and a resident of the village of El-
David in Judea.
When asked about the pace of construction in the Jewish villages of
Judea and Samaria under the Netanyahu government, he replied, "Go out to
the villages and look around you. You can't miss it. If you wish, look
on the surrounding hills as well."
Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai signed orders that make state
land near Jewish villages part of those villages, a goal that was finally
achieved after repeated efforts during the previous four governments.
Now it is possible to create a Jewish presence in these areas through
farms, fences, roads, and light poles, in every place possible according
to law. Mordechai also approved the master plans of many villages which
had been frozen by the previous government.
The main objective was to add a new neighborhood to every village,
and after that, to build up the infrastructure: roads, interesections,
lighting, power lines, and water reservoirs.
In reality, what the government does not do officially, the settlers
do out in the field. The government allows the construction of new
neighborhoods contiguous to existing houses. The settlers choose to begin
on the farthest hills included in the master plan of their village and
then fill up the area in between.
Another bureaucratic change that is having a major impact is the
decision to have Matz -- the government road construction agency -- take
responsibity for the roads in Judea and Samaria. The change is already
visible in the field -- more lighted intersections and more Mandatory-era
roads brought up to Israeli standards.
By the end of 1998, the Jewish population of Judea, Samaria, and
Gaza reached 180,000 citizens, an increase of 40,000 during the three
years of the Netanyahu government, and by the fall of 1999 another 5,000
families are expected to join them.
Netanyahu did not restore the policy of previous Likud governments
for government-built housing in Judea and Samaria, but decreed a
fundamental change allowing only market-driven, private construction. As
a result, even if the government changes to one that is unfriendly to
building in Judea and Samaria, there is no government-built housing whose
construction could suddenly be ordered frozen.
(_Nekuda_, March 1999, p. 56-58)
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MODERN-DAY EXORCISM IN JERUSALEM
The media in Israel have widely reported the removal ceremony of a
"dybbuk" [wandering soul] that was performed by kabbalist Rabbi David
Batzri, together with some 30 other rabbis, in a Jerusalem yeshiva in
mid-April. The event has aroused reactions from many quarters, ranging
from total scorn to a desire to repent. It was broadcast live over
haredi radio stations, and many people were invited to the ceremony, in
order to "publicize the sanctification of G-d's Name, and to cause more
people to believe in the existence of an afterlife" -- according to Rabbi
Batzri's son, Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri. The younger Rabbi Batzri told
Arutz-7 radio that an "unbelievable amount of people have called and
expressed the desire to observe the commandments as a result."
Rabbi Batzri [the son] related that a woman whose husband had died
three and a half years ago had recently been plagued by the soul of her
husband, which "entered her body and spoke from within her in his own
voice to his sons and friends....The woman underwent terrible suffering.
Finally, after great hesitations, my father agreed to perform this
ceremony, feeling that the life of the woman was at stake -- for the
dybbuk had threatened to kill her by choking." In a subsequent
conversation with an Arutz-7 correspondent, the younger Rabbi Batzri
explained that a "wandering" soul suffers more than one that faces
immediate divine punishment. In the exorcism ceremony, Rabbi Batzri is
heard talking forcefully with the dybbuk, whose short answers are
delivered in a raspy and sometimes unclear voice. "My father told the
dybbuk over and over that he has no right to harm anyone....The dybbuk
said he had committed many sins, but did not want to elaborate....My
father then performed a "tikkun" [sublimation of the soul], and forced
the dybbuk to exit the woman's body through her toe. She later felt great
pain there for a few hours, but now, thank G-d, she is perfectly
healthy." The entire ceremony [in Hebrew] may be heard on the Arutz-7
website at .
(Arutz-7 News Service, Tuesday, April 27, 1999, www.a7.org)
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Special People:
EDNA -- SECURITY OFFICER OF HAR GILO
Throughout the years of the intifada, I would hear the voice of Edna
Elmakayis from Har Gilo reporting on the emergency radio frequency. Edna
is the security officer of the village of Har Gilo, located on the first
mountaintop south of Jerusalem. She is also an ambulance driver,
represents the village in the Etzion Bloc Regional Council, and is the
mother of five children.
Q: How did you choose to become a security officer?
A: I served in the regular army in a number of tasks and after I
left the army, I applied for this job in light of my experience. I've
been doing it since 1986.
Q: Do you think women can do this job better than men?
A: I'm sure of it because they are more sensitive than men and it is
easier for them to deal with residents and soldiers. Any woman can
fulfill this job if she has the motivation and is serious enough.
However, she must have support from home because the job includes
responsibilities around the clock.
Q: What is the atmosphere like in your home?
A: Basically, it is a normal home with the sound of radios and
beepers in the background, but the voices of my five children drown out
the sounds of the radio.
Q: Can you tell us about your role as an ambulance driver?
A: During the height of the intifada, an army water truck was
attacked at the Beit Jalla intersection and one of the reservist soldiers
was struck in the head with a rock. I treated him first, and then he was
evacuated to hospital in Jerusalem with a fractured skull and internal
bleeding. I later learned that my action helped save his life. Cases
like this give me the motivation to continue.
(From Michael Karkovsky, _Gushpanka_, March 99, p. 4)
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EXCAVATIONS BEGIN AT TEL HEBRON
Archeologists working under the auspices of the Israel Department of
Antiquities have begun preparations for excavations at Tel Hebron (Tel
Rumeida), considered to be one of the most important archeological sites
in Israel, second only to Jerusalem and the area of the Temple Mount.
Finds could date back to the Canaanite Era -- the time of Abraham. King
David also lived in Tel Hebron for over seven years.
In mid-April, caravans (trailers) housing two Hebron Jewish families
were removed from the site, after the families moved to new locations in
the neighborhood. A tractor has begun clearing out the remaining rubble
and in a few days actual digging will begin. The archeologists cannot
predict how long the dig will take place until the work commences.
Following conclusion of the archeological work, permanent housing
will be built for Hebron's Jewish residents in the Tel Hebron
neighborhood.
Tel Hebron residents say: "It has been worth living in caravan homes
for the past 15 years and to suffer the conditions of living in such
homes just to save such an important archeological site. If we had not
lived here, this land would have been transferred to Arafat, would have
been covered with Arab housing, and would have been lost to the Jewish
People."
[See pictures of the beginning of archeological work at Tel Hebron -
http://www.hebron.org.il/pictures.htm]
(Hebron Press Office, April 25, 1999)
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THE FIRST JEWISH FIGHTING UNIT IN THE WARSAW GHETTO
One of the little-known stories told on Holocaust Remembrance Day
this year describes the response of the Jabotinsky-affiliated Betar
Zionist organization in Poland to the coming Nazi threat. The story is
little known because the popular historians wrote only of Mordechai
Anelewicz, leader of the socialist Hashomer Hatzair, who led one group of
heroic Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April 1943. But
there was another group which fought independently -- the Jewish Military
Organization (Z.Z.W.) -- whose members had begun to prepare for this
battle years before Anelewicz and his group.
In October 1938, the Third World Congress of Betar convened in
Warsaw, where two decisions were reached to have its members take the
Jewish fate into their own hands. On the Land of Israel front, it was
decided to increase illegal immigration in order to strengthen the forces
fighting the British and the Arabs. On the Polish front, it was decided
to increase military training at Polish army bases. The plan was to
train an army of 100,000 fighters who at the proper time would conquer
the Land of Israel from the British.
After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Peretz Lasker,
an officer of the Betar Executive Committee in Poland who had served in
the Polish army, returned from the war to take over Betar leadership
after the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. In the summer of 1940, after the
announcement of the German plan to gather all the Jews of Warsaw in a
ghetto, the Betar leadership decided to create a fighting unit, train its
members in the use of weapons, and work to acquire and store such
weapons.
It must be stated that Anelewicz's group, the Z.O.B., began to
organize only two years later, in August 1942, after the major German
"Action" in which 300,000 Jews, young and old, women and children, were
deported to the death camps. After the Action, there remained in the
ghetto some 35,000 Jews working in factories and another 25,000 who had
succeeded in hiding. The remaining Jews realized that they faced only
two options: either to go like sheep to the slaughter or to die a hero's
death.
The Jewish Military Organization at this time comprised two armed
companies. Its structure included a central command; a propaganda and
information division that listened to foreign radio broadcasts and
reported to the public; an organization division that recruited people
and prepared stores of supplies; a supply division that smuggled weapons
and equipment into the ghetto; a finance division that made possible the
purchase of weapons, building supplies, and other equipment; a liaison
division that dealt with the Polish resistance forces outside the ghetto;
a medical division that organized the supply of medicine and treated the
sick and wounded; a legal division that judged turncoats and traitors,
with a special unit that carried out sentences; and a rescue division
that worked to smuggle children out of the ghetto to safety in adoptive
homes or Christian monasteries. Above all these units was the military
division which trained soldiers and prepared for the hour of judgement.
Most of the details of the Z.Z.W.'s fight are lost to us since none
of its leaders survived the war, but we do have some accounts by others.
Captain Vladislav of the Polish underground writes of the battle of April
27, 1943, at the height of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: "The Jews inside
the walls of the ghetto took revenge for the years of abuse, for the
blood of their brothers spilled by the murderous S.S. All the units of
the Jewish Fighting Organization went into action. The losses were
nearly total."
Captain Vladislav came through the secret tunnel into the ghetto
with 18 men of the Polish resistance to help the Jewish Military
Organization. "At the exit, Haim Lufata was waiting for us with some of
his men. Their beards and clothes were caked with mud. We hugged them.
Their faces were swollen from the fire of the battle, but their eyes
sparkled with joy. The fire that burned from the nightmare of battle
burned within them. From somewhere out of the destruction came David
Appelbaum, the commander of the area. These people know the area well and
how to move around. They appear once on this side and then move to the
other side, confusing the enemy. They surprise them from the rear with
shooting and grenades, weakening the Germans' will to advance."
After Appelbaum was seriously wounded, Captain Vladislav asked to
take him out of the ghetto. He answered: "Listen, my friend, I'm wounded
but my mind is still working. I have to stay here. I know my people. I
can't leave them. I was privileged to live until this moment -- the most
beautiful in my life, the moment I have worked for -- to see my people in
battle, a battle that despite everything will end in our victory. I want
to remain in this battle until the end."
(From Zev Sharon, _Makor Rishon_ Magazine, 9 Apr 99, pp. 12+)
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IRVING MOSKOWITZ: RESTORING JEWISH LIFE IN EASTERN JERUSALEM
Elli Wohlgelernter
Irving Moskowitz was in Israel recently to check up on his $20
million worth of property in eastern Jersualem, including the Ateret
Cohanim Yeshiva complex in the Old City's Moslem Quarter; the Beit Orot
Yeshiva on Mount Scopus; the Shepherd Hotel in the Sheikh Jarrah
neighborhood (once the residence of Mohammed Amin Husseini, the mufti of
Jerusalem in the 1920s and 1930s who incited Arabs against Jews); a piece
of land in Abu Dis; and the 14-dunam plot of land on the southwest slope
of the Mount of Olives known as Ras al-Amud.
The 70-year-old Orthodox Jew from Miami Beach isn't buying in
eastern Jerusalem just for the money; he's really doing it for the cause.
"Actions speak louder than words," he says. "Too many people talk and
don't do; that's one of the problems in Israel. I am doing what the
Zionist movement set out to do, what Herzl in 1897 set out to do. Every
Jew should try to emulate what Herzl did, in the love of, and the
dedication for, and the urge of Jews to develop Israel....Zionism means
the return to our homeland, and building up our homeland, and that's what
every Jew, in my opinion, should be doing."
Moskowitz is another in a long line of Jewish philanthropists who
used their fortunes to help restore Jews to their biblical homeland. "My
dedication to the bulding of Israel and Jerusalem is in the best
tradition of the Rothschilds, the Montefiores and countless other Jews
throughout the world," he wrote to one newspaper. "It is an investment
of love, faith, and a personal reaffirmation of the vision imparted to
the Jewish people at Mount Sinai."
Moskowitz vigorously defended his right to buy, build and live on
the Mount of Olives, writing in a letter to the _Washington Post_: "To
rule out the construction of a 50-unit Jewish apartment project on the
Mount of Olives because of its proximity to Arab residences is to
enfranchise Yasser Arafat's thesis that Palestinians are incapable of
living on common ground with Isralis in Jerusalem. That would be defined
as racism anywhere outside the Middle East."
"It's a mystery to me why anybody should be opposed to developing
property in Jerusalem, and living in Jersualem....Why can't we live
anywhere in Jerusalem that we want to? In America, blacks and ethnic
people, orientals, South Americans, live wherever they want to live.
America is a democracy; Israel is a democracy. Land that I buy is done
legally, totally properly. Why not develop it if I want to? And I do
want to." "Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish nation, so it's a
logical thing for a Jew to want to do."
"We are finally able to determine our own future, in our own
country, our own fate, and protect the Jewish people, without asking
foreign powers to take care of us and protect us. Here we are in our own
state, our own country. It boggles the mind that we're even having this
discussion [about whether we should be doing this]."
(_Jerusalem Post_ Magazine, 8 Jan 99, p. 12+)
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PEACE REQUIRES AN ARAB CHANGE OF HEART
Senator Connie Mack (R-FL)
(U.S. Senate -- March 3, 1999)
I very recently traveled to Israel and I rise today to share a few
simple thoughts regarding what I saw and what went through my mind as the
week in Israel unfolded.
Let me begin with the question that is on my mind today: How is it
possible to engage in peace negotiations with people who maintain the
right to obliterate you, who are filled with hatred toward you, and who
harbor the dream of one day destroying your homeland? Peace is a matter
of the heart. I believe in the depths of every person's heart is a
desire to live in peace. But what I saw, which was the outcome of the
Palestinian Authority rule, convinced me that their hearts and minds are
set on other goals. The Palestinian leadership does not want peace.
They want, first, their own state which they can control with total
power. Then they want to use that state to eliminate the State of
Israel.
The peace process, to be meaningful, must be about more than rules
and laws and lines on a map. We can reach a short-term agreement on
these points, but if the Palestinian leadership fails to abandon
incitement of hatred, persecution, and terrorism, then we are all only
dreaming, and our President's behavior must be labeled foolish
appeasement. There will not be peace until hearts and minds are changed.
Many of my colleagues in the Senate and in the House are aware of
the promotion of hatred contained in the Palestinian media, and more
significantly in the Palestinian schoolbooks. Let me provide some
examples. This is a picture from Palestinian Authority-controlled
television. A young girl, 6 or 7 years old, is singing into a microphone
on a Mickey Mouse Club-type of television show for children. She is
singing: "When I wander into the entrance of Jerusalem, I'll turn into a
suicide warrior in battledress, in battledress, in battledress."
There is no way I can convey to you the emotion of actually seeing
that scene on television. After her song, she got an ovation from her
classmates and from her teacher.
This focuses us on the fundamental difference in approach between
the Palestinians and the Israelis. I have a grandson about the age of
that little girl. How would I feel if he were being taught hatred in
school? How would you feel if your government was teaching your children
to hate? Could you conclude that they were serious about long-term peace
with their neighbors?
One would expect, rather than focus on hatred, if they were serious
about peace, they would focus on how the two peoples are working to live
side by side. How can peace be obtained when the children are being
taught hatred?
During this week I also met privately -- secretly-- with 10
Palestinian Christian Arabs who were being persecuted for their Christian
faith. I met one energetic man, in his early 40s, who had a great smile
and displayed a wonderful sense of humor. He told me that he had many
children and very little money, and that he converted to Christianity in
1993. In 1997, the Palestinian Authority asked him to come to the police
station for questioning. When he arrived, he was immediately arrested
and detained on charges of selling land to Jews. He denied this charge,
since he was very poor and owned no land. He was beaten. He was hung
from the ceiling by his hands for many hours.
After 2 weeks, he was transferred to a larger prison where he was
held for 8 months without trial. He was released in February 1998, after
his family borrowed thousands of dollars to pay off the local
authorities. And even though he is free, they are keeping his father in
prison. He feels his father is being held hostage to prevent him from
talking with people about his faith.
These Christians who met with me at considerable risk conveyed a
message of fear and desperation. But their mere presence in the room
with me demonstrated their hope, and it also caused me to ask, how can
the people of Israel find peace with the Palestinian Authority while the
Palestinian Authority engages in coercion and torture based upon
religious beliefs?
How is it possible to engage in peace negotiations with people who
want to teach their children to die in a holy war against you? How is it
possible to engage in peace negotiations with people who persecute those
of other faiths? How is it possible to engage in peace negotiations with
people who keep terrorists on the loose to wreak havoc and evil against
you and praise them for heroism?
The only way to truly attain peace is to support freedom, democracy
and justice, and oppose the cycle of hatred. We must face tyranny and
oppression where it exists, condemn it, and stand up for peace -- real
peace based upon security, freedom, and a change of heart.
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DERIVING MEANING FROM DEATH
Gail Lichtman
Elana Goldberg has been working as coordinator of assistance to
terror victims at the Jerusalem branch of the National Insurance
Institute for the past 10 years. "Unfortunately, we have accumulated a
lot of experience in dealing with terror victims," says Goldberg, who
helped deal with the victims of last summer's terrorist bombings in the
Mahane Yehuda open-air market and the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall in
Jerusalem.
"People derive meaning out of life through contact with death,"
Goldberg claims. "I will never forget one bereaved mother who, following
the death of her son, wanted to die too. Then, she had a vision of
herself traveling on a train where, at the last stop, she would meet her
son. She thought -- If I am already on the train, then I might as well
sit down. If I am going to sit, I might as well do it in first class.
If I am already in first class, then why not eat and drink something?
Why not look out the window and enjoy the scenery? -- Little by little,
she came to see life as this train journey. In the end, she would meet
her son, but along the way, she was entitled to enjoy the ride. And this
was how she coped."
(From _Jerusalem Post_, In Jerusalem, 4 Sep 98, p. 6)
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