Dear Sara Netanyahu,

 

This Rosh Hashana, not all of us got to sit with our families as we celebrated the coming of the New Year. An hour’s drive from the prime minister’s residence, in the Mount Hebron community of Beit Hagai, the children of the Aimes family had a tough time celebrating. Only recently they ended the mourning period and visited their parents’ grave at Mount Olives, and suddenly here is the Jewish New Year – without their mother’s cooking and their father’s blessings. The honey-dipped apple must have been salty of tears by the time it reached their mouths; they may have very well chocked up on the New Year’s blessings.

 

This is why I decided to turn to you, Sara. Recently you wrote a letter to the interior minister, saying that “as a mother to two sons and as a child psychologist, I view the profession I chose as a daily mission to help children.” Perhaps just like you helped the children of foreign workers, Sara, you can also help the Aimes children?

 

A year of cruel decrees has drawn to an end in Beit Hagai and in other Judea and Samaria communities; insulting decrees that turned Eretz Yisrael into the only place in the world where a Jew is not allowed to build a home just because he’s Jewish. May it be your will, God, that our ministers will not impose further such decrees on us.

 

May it be your will that the prime minister hold his head up high rather than walk with his tail between his legs – so that he won’t capitulate and cave in to the pressure. Let him deliver on his word, not evacuate even one community, and revive the construction effort. The Aimes children are too young to remember where the previous “peace” talks managed by the prime minister led to, but you remember, Sara.

 

“May it be your will to terminate our enemies and haters,” the Aimes children asked on Rosh Hashana, also referring to the “partners” starring in the new Geneva Initiative campaign meant to confuse us all. As a child psychologist, Sara, you know how to warn people against sweet-talking swindlers. So please warn the prime minister too. “Bibi, be a partner,” they urge him in giant, US-funded ads. Yet we know them, remind him of that. They’re responsible for the Oslo failure and its thousands of casualties, so don’t go with them, Bibi.

 

Tough year of terror ahead

Look at the Aimes children – they’re not confused. They understand that behind the neckties, fancy suits, and academic degrees such as “PhD in peace studies,” the campaign stars are in fact the trusted home front of the Aimes killers: The minister for “prisoner” affairs (that is, terrorist affairs) Sufian Abu-Zaida will handle the affairs of the murderers with great dedication should they be apprehended. “President” Abbas and “Prime Minister” Fayyad will grant them great honor and name squares after them should they be killed.

 

Indeed, all of Israel’s children can expect a tough year of terror. This is the immediate, cruel and possibly only result of the talks. “The attacks were meant to torpedo the talks,“ the prime minister said and announced that he and Abbas shall be meeting once every two weeks – so that at least once every two weeks, the terrorists will attempt to carry out another attack. These are the rules of the Middle East: When we have talks, we have attacks; when there are no talks, we have security.

 

The last time the “peace” talks collapsed, we saw about 2,000 terror attacks within a year on both sides of the Green Line, about 450 dead, and more than 1,500 wounded. Now, this nightmare is returning. So how can we hope for a good, sweet year, Sara?

 

What kind of good year can the Aimes children pray for? After all, while they were mourning, the prime minister prayed that by the end of the year he’ll be signing an agreement that would prompt these children’s expulsion. Should his prayers (which he said nothing about on the eve of the last elections, by the way) materialize, the Aimes children would lose the little they have left: The home where they lived in with their parents and supportive community.

 

Their murdered parents may also lose their final resting place, heaven forbid, should their graves be removed from the Mount of Olives – after all, the prime minister did not pledge to safeguard this site and Jerusalem as a whole. So where will the children move to at the end of such year? It doesn’t really matter. After all, in his election campaign Netanyahu told us that should we withdraw from Judea and Samaria, the missiles will reach every site in the tiny Israel.

 

Yet the Aimes children may actually help the prime minister, Sara. They do not have the budget for a campaign or makeup artists, but they do have sad eyes that ask without words: How terribly can you hurt your brethren just to make peace with your enemies?

 

Take their photograph and place it on his desk, so that they’re always before the prime minister's eyes. These are his first peace victims, in this term in office. If he does everything that needs to be done to ensure they’re the last ones too, and if he promises himself not to hurt them more than he already did, perhaps he would be able to stand strong and not trip. And then, we may see a good, sweet year for the people of Israel after all. Amen.

 

Orit Struck is the director of the legal department in Hebron’s Jewish community and manages the Judea and Samaria human rights organization

 

Central Selichot in Hebron at Machpela

Download poster here

Tuesday nite - 6 Tishrei - 14.9.10
22:00 - Memorial for Rav Mordechai Eliyahu zt"l
23:00 - Selichot
Participating:
The Chief Rabbis: Rav Shlomo Amar and Rav Yona Metzger
Rav Dov Lior
Rav Chaim Druckman
Rav Shmuel Eliyahu
Rav Yaakov Yosef
Rav Rachmim Nisimi
Rabbi Shmuel Zafran
Minister Rabbi Professor Daniel Hershovitz

The Isaac Hall will be open all day

Ma'arat HaMachpela will be open 24 hours a day during Aseret Yomi Tshuva (from Rosh HaShana thru Yom Kippur)

Annual Succot Festival
Sunday and Monday of Chol HaMoed Succot
Musical Events outside Machpela 
on Monday
Details forthcoming

 

 

 

It’s been a while since I photographed dead bodies. The last time I remember clearly was the murder of Yossi Shok from Beit Haggai who was shot and killed similarly on a Friday afternoon a few years ago. That attack entailed a few miracles. I recall that there were others in the car, teenage girls, who miraculously weren’t hurt.

But tonight, no miracles.

This morning, speaking with a friend, talking about the renewed ‘piece talks’, I told him that more than likely today or tomorrow terrorists would strike. It was just a question of where – around here, the Shomron, or Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. Tonight we received our answer.
You know what it's like to inform six kids that their parents aren't coming home anymore

Leaving Ma’arat HaMachpela after evening prayers, the beeper beeped. A car had been shot at. A quick phone call, confirming that Jews had been hit, four critically, and I sped off. I had been at the scene of the shooting only a few hours ago, examining how Arabs were stealing water from Jews in the area.

By the time I arrived, the description had changed. No longer four critically wounded. Four dead. Four killed, shot by terrorists, on their way home. The terrorists’ lives have been made much easier in the past year or so, with various roadblocks being removed in Judea and Samaria. Now it’s fairly simple to access roads used by Jewish civilians, shoot, and then escape.

The scene was reminiscent of others I’ve witnessed in the past. Ambulances, jeeps, police, medics, soldiers, officers, red lights flashing….and bodies.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen four bodies on the street, murdered by Arabs only because they are Jews, living in Israel.

I sit here, half numb, almost not believing, but knowing that, yes, it’s real. And what to do?

The first thing that must be done: Netanyahu has to return immediately, cancelling tomorrow’s ‘festive ceremony’ renewing the so-called negotiations with Obama and Abu Mazen.  Israel must make it as clear as possible: we refuse to accept, under any circumstances, and at any price, murder of innocent people on our roads, in our homes, anywhere.  No excuses, no looking the other way, no ‘ifs ands or buts.’ More than the Arabs, Obama must understand in no uncertain terms that our people are not cattle-feed.

Two: Netanyahu must unfreeze the freeze now. Not on September 26, not leaving everyone wondering ‘what’s he going to do?’ Tomorrow, as these four pure souls are being buried, building must again begin throughout Judea and Samaria. Here again, the Arabs and the Americans must understand that we will not turn the other cheek; there is a price for murdering Jews in Israel.

Three: Here in Israel we must comprehend that our own people are continuing to incite; making Jewish blood cheap. Two examples: The continued ‘cherem’ – boycott of Israeli actors and performing artists, refusing to perform in Ariel in the Shomron, is incitement. Our Arab neighbors, seeing and hearing Israelis spout revulsion against their supposed brethren is, in the Arab’s eyes, a green light, opening the door to murderous attacks as we witnessed tonight.

So too with such organizations as Breaking the Silence and others, who continue to spew hate against Jews living in Hebron and the Hebron area, while identifying effusively with our Arab neighbors. This is also incitement; there is no other word for it. Actually there is: treason. A person or individual abetting the enemy is treason.  These people walk the streets of Hebron freely, regurgitating lies about Hebron’s Jewish citizen’s, while showering praises on the ‘poor palestinians’ whose suffer at the hands of the evil Jews.  These ‘poor people’ are planning on taking our land, destroying our country, and continuing to kill Jews. Such ‘tours’ must be stopped.

Four: Israel has been ‘returning’ security control to armed, uniformed Arabs in cities throughout Judea and Samaria. This too, must be ended. It won’t be any surprise if we eventually discover that the terrorists who murdered four Jews tonight are actually ‘palestinian police,’ trained and armed by General Keith Dayton of the US army, and set free to roam the streets with the permission of the state of Israel.

According to the latest reports, a number of terrorists participated in the attack. After the car was shot at and stopped, its passengers were shot dozens of times, ensuring their deaths.  It’s been reported that one of the women was pregnant. The couple killed leaves some six children orphans and a grandchild. You know what it's like to inform six kids that their parents aren't coming home anymore, that they were killed by terrorists an hour ago? And she was pregnant. That's another Jew who won't come into this world.

This is pure, unadulterated barbarity, brutality characteristic of our ‘piece partners.’  This may very well only be the beginning.