The Israeli Government Plan to Expel the Owners of the House of Peace - Abraham's Descendants Trample on His Heritage

בס''ד

Copyright © 2008, R. Kossover
First published at Blogcritics Magazine

19 November 2008

Background - Four Thousand Years Ago

The tall man stood before the council of the city. The elders of the Children of Heth listened patiently as the man who had lived for decades among them stood, grief stricken but dignified, as he explained his request.

The man standing before the Hittite council had grown up in Ur, where his father had been a high priest to the Sumerian king. He had gone with his father and family to Paran after the king died. There TeraH, his father, carved idols. His son tried to explain to his father that idols of wood and stone were mere vanity, that they could accomplish nothing, even if they looked like the powerful magicians who had held Sumer in their thrall for centuries. It was only after the son destroyed all the idols but one, placing a hammer in the hand of the biggest, then claiming that the big idol had destroyed the others, that his father began to understand his son's claims.

For a time, his father stopped worshipping the images of the powerful magicians who had helped build Sumer's civilization, magicians he had beheld occasionally in person. However, he returned to his idol worship; the habits of a lifetime were too strong to break.

His son had left Paran with his wife and nephew for a land in the west, following a Voice that came to him, a Voice that promised him children, a Voice that tested him harshly in Its commands. In this land in the west, he had had to rescue his nephew from marauding kings, using talents only a nobleman in Sumer would know, commanding light cavalry traveling from the south of his adopted home to the north. He negotiated with the pharaoh of Egypt and with the king of the Philistines. He had watched as powerful magicians (called angels in the Torah) went to destroy his nephew's home city in the lush areas to the east of where he had settled; he negotiated even with the Voice that had commanded him, seeking to save the righteous from the wrath of an angry Entity.

His nephew's home was destroyed, but the nephew and his two daughters were rescued. His own home country, Sumer, was also destroyed. He and his family, both in Canaan and Paran, were all who remained of the "black haired people" who had been his countrymen.

The Voice that had guided him west to Canaan promised this man that he would be a father of nations, and he had two sons, one by a servant of his deceased wife, and one by the strangely beautiful woman who bore the name "Princess", Sarah.

It was on behalf of this woman Sarah that Abraham stood before the Children of Heth who ruled Hebron. He sought a burial place for her, and ultimately for himself as well. After all, he was 137 years old. He could not expect to live forever, as the powerful magicians of Sumer had seemed to.

The members of the council had high respect for Abraham. They said, "You are a prince of G-d in our midst; in the choicest of our burial places bury your dead, any of us will not withhold his burial place from you, from burying your dead"

Abraham singled out one man for his attention, Ephron, the son of Zohar. Ephron owned the MaHpela Cave at the edge of a field. He bowed to the members of the council, saying, "…let him grant it to me for its full price in your midst, as an estate for a burial site."

Ephron stood up before the council saying, "I have given you the land, bury your dead". Ephron had included in this offer not only the cave, but also the field immediately adjacent, which was also his. Abraham rejected Ephron's generous offer, insisting on paying full price for the land – four hundred silver shekels of negotiable currency – as huge sum of money. Abraham weighed out the four hundred shekels in front of the council, and it was confirmed in front of the council of the Children of Heth, who ruled Hebron, that the land belonged to Abraham and his descendants.

One would assume that if the Children of Heth were civilized enough to respect a real estate transaction that had been legitimately made, that four thousand years later the descendants of Abraham, Israelis sitting on a High Court of Justice could do the same.

Fast Forward Four Thousand Years

The stately honor shown in the Torah to a man of G-d is not replicated in the "Zionist Entity" created by his G-d-hating descendants. We move from the dignity of the Council of Elders of Heth to the indignity and injustice of the so-called High Court of Justice of the State of Israel in today's hardscrabble world.

The modern city of Hebron is largely inhabited by Arabs who moved there during the days of the British Mandate over this country. There had been a Jewish community in Hebron for centuries, but Arab rioting in the 1920's (encouraged by the British) and a 1929 massacre resulted in the evacuation of Jews from the city. In the 1948-49 war that resulted after the British left the Mandate and turned over all of their fortifications and non-movable armament to the Arabs, the brand new IDF defeated all the Arab invaders except one - the British trained and led Arab Legion of Transjordan. The territory that the Arab Legion managed to hold on to west of the Jordan River, land properly known as Judea and Samaria, was annexed to the renamed Kingdom of Jordan. But virtually nobody recognized that annexation.

In 1967, the Jordanians bombarded West Jerusalem, their part of a tripartite pact between Egypt, Syria and Jordan; the Israel Defense Force liberated Jerusalem and rapidly drove Jordanian forces from the towns of the three administrative districts the Jordanians had set up. Even though an Israeli judge, Meir Shamgar, erroneously decided that the territory liberated in 1967 was "occupied territory", and the government of Israel erroneously refused to assert its right to all of the Mandate for Palestine that had arisen under international law and to annex it to the State; in spite of all this, almost immediately Jews went to resettle the city of Hebron, and Gush Etzion, the bloc of villages north of Bethlehem whose residents were massacred after surrendering to Arab forces on 14 May, 1948.

The government of Israel, unable or unwilling to understand that the entire territory west of the Jordan River that it had liberated from Arab rule belonged by right to Israel, kept trying to unload it on Jordan. The Jordanian king Hussein remembered the fate of his grandfather Abdallah, who had been assassinated on the Temple Mount in 1951, allegedly for negotiating with the Jews. Possessed of the natural desire to stay alive, he eschewed any claim over the territory west of the Jordan River. The Israeli government found itself torn over what to do with the land that was theirs, the cradle of Hebrew civilization they kept trying to escape. In the mean-time the Jewish settlement in and around Hebron grew, even though it was constantly hampered by the policies of the Israeli government.

There is said to be a list of 20,000 Jews who would move to Hebron if allowed to. If it exists, this list is ignored by the government entirely. Based on the number of Jews who visit Hebron for religious reasons, there is good reason to believe that tens of thousands of Jews would happily move to Hebron. But they are not allowed to. Instead, only 400 to 600 Jews live there. Not far from Hebron is another Jewish village, Qiryat 'Arba which has a population of about 5,000. There is a road, called "the worshipers route" that leads from Qiryat 'Arba to the Cave of MaHpela, which today serves as both a mosque and synagogue. During the days of Arab rule, Jews were barred from this cave, which is believed to hold the remains of Abraham, Sarah, Rebecca, Isaac, Jacob, Leah, and the headless skeleton of Esau.

This "worshipers route" route is often under fire and attack of one kind or another by Arabs, and a patrol exists to guard it, a patrol whose work is often hampered by the IDF, which is supposed to be guarding Israelis. Along this "worshipers route" is a huge structure, bought last year from an Arab. This building is Bet haShalom, the Peace House, and it is the subject of so much dispute. According to the Arutz Sheva report referenced here, when this house was first occupied last year, MK Chaim Oron (Meretz) said that the issue is not whether or not the property was legally bought, but the separation of populations. He called upon the government "to throw them out of there fast."

That appears to have been the reason for the government's opposition to Jews occupying the building. It is opposed to Jews worshiping in Hebron except under the most restrictive circumstances. This house would help secure the "worshipers' route". The government is opposed to Jews living in Hebron at all, even though it was the home of Abraham, the man who is our ancestor.

In spite of a video presented to the court by the buyers of the home attesting to its purchase, as well as all the other documentation normally presented in a real estate transaction in this country, the court refused to accept the sale as legitimate. Instead, they have ordered the goons of the so-called government of Israel, the "Yassam" to evict the residents from their own legitimately bought home. They gave all sorts of technical excuses for ordering the expulsion, but the bottom line is that the court ignored the legal documents upon which all buyers of property in Israel rely, and in doing so, have thrown into question the rule of law that supports the court's own existence.

According to an e-mail I received on 18 November 2008, "The Israeli Supreme Court ruled Sunday (16 November 2008) that the residents of Bet HaShalom (the Peace House) in Hebron have three days to evacuate their legally purchased homes."

According to the story released on 17 November by Arutz Sheva, "leaders called on backers to protect the Peace House in Hebron 'with their own bodies' to prevent the government from carrying out a High Court ruling Sunday ordering the expulsion of more than 20 families. The court rejected evidence that Jews bought the building and said all residents must leave until the issue is settled in a civil court." There was to be an emergency assembly held Tuesday evening to attempt to deal with the issue of this illegal expulsion, an assembly that was to include the notable citizens of the Jewish towns and villages in Judea and Samaria.

But this dispute has opened all sorts of old wounds in the ongoing Kulturkampf in Israel, with leftist commentators from the government controlled Voice of Israel launching a campaign of incitement against nationalists, a campaign it has waged unceasingly since before the Oslo Accords were signed in 1994. This campaign started when the government of Israel made a basic decision to drive Jewish residents out of the land it intended to give (illegally) to the Arabs under the aëgis of the "Palestinian Authority". Since then, no effort has beern spared to demonize the Jewish residents of Gaza, Judea and Samaria and to overlook the barbaric terrorism perpetrated by the Arabs living there, fueled by both el-FataH and Hamas.

The determination of Hebron's Jewish residents to resist illegal expulsions by the so-called "government of Israel" stems from what they saw happen to those expelled from their homes in Gush Qatif in 2005. According to the above referenced report by Arutz Sheva, "initial reports by the Israeli media indicated a campaign against nationalists would continue, and Voice of Israel government radio said that statements against the High Court, calling it a 'High Brothel' and 'High Court of Sodom,' are incitement. Media commentators also recalled the murder of Prime Minister YitzHak Rabin, who was assassinated by Herzliya resident Yigal Amir."

At the meeting Tuesday night, a packed hall heard preparations for confronting police when they are expected to arrive. According to Arutz Sheva, they heard "calls issued for people to be on standby 24 hours a day to rush to the area if forces approach the building, which Jews say was paid for in cash last year. One supporter from Givatayim demonstrated for the crowd how to use a gas mask in case of a chemical attack. 'I am not kidding,' he said. 'These people [police] hate us and I believe they want to kill [us].' Kiryat Arba-Hebron Rabbi Dov Lior told the crowd, 'This house, which was redeemed with blood, belongs to the people of Israel. We have not stolen it from anyone; we bought it. It should be seen as a symbol for how to stand up for the rights of the Israeli people.'"

This is not the only travesty of justice worked upon the citizens of Judea and Samaria by this régime of goons and thugs. Yesterday, homes near Kokhav Ya' acov, north of Jerusalem, and a mobile home near Shilo, just a few kilometers from where I live, were destroyed by the army, police and Arab workers. In addition, former residents of Gush Qatif, now internal refugees in their own country by their own government's order were again cheated of an opportunity to settle down in permanent homes by the very government that has made them refugees in their own land.

Investigator and independent reporter, David Bedein, stated the obvious in a video interview – that the "leaders" in Israel do not understand democracy.

According to this article in Haaretz, Security Minister Barak has 30 days to attempt to cause Jews in the Peace House to leave, after which it will be forcibly evacuated. Also according to this article, Aryeh Eldad of the National Union Party warned, "Anyone who tries to raise a hand at the peace house in Hebron will long for Amona, and will find that Amona was nothing," referring to the violent riots that accompanied the government's evacuation and destruction of 'Amona in Samaria.

It appears that a season of violent confrontations await the police and the "government" of Israel which is demonstrating to one and all that the rule of law is worthless in the Zionist Entity, and that the Hebrew saying "this is not a state of law, it’s a joke of a state" is all too true.