Arutz-7 has learned that our forces in Shechem (Nablus) are very close to the holy site of Joseph\'s Tomb - but are not entering it because the Arabs booby-trapped it with large amounts of explosives, ready at any moment to be detonated by remote-control. It will be recalled that the IDF withdrew from Joseph\'s Tomb at the beginning of the Oslo War in what was later to become shamefully remembered as the \"abandonment\" of IDF soldier Madhat Yusuf, who was wounded and bled to death at the holy site; army troops did not storm the area, but instead negotiated, in vain, with Jibril Rajoub over the wounded soldier\'s evacuation.
Although the army does not attribute great military importance to the holy site, students of the Joseph\'s Tomb Yeshiva - \"Od Yosef Chai\" [Joseph Still Lives] - are launching a public struggle to change this situation. Yehuda Libman of Yitzhar, one of the heads of the yeshiva and a long-time student there, spoke with Arutz-7 today:
\"I know that in these last 24 hours, our hearts and those of many others are turned towards this holy site, feeling that G-d is again giving us a chance, a gift, and a test - and the question is what we will do with it... We know that Joseph\'s Tomb is not one of the army\'s operational objectives, as unfortunately the people in charge don\'t realize just how important the site is to the national morale and spirit. The Western Wall, for instance, *was* an operational objective [during the Six-Day War]... The hundreds of calls that we have received about Joseph\'s Tomb, even from soldiers, are a clear indication of the great importance many people attribute to it. Capturing the site would certainly give great strength to the soldiers, showing them that this war does not just have temporary objectives to solve a specific immediate problem, but that there are long-term goals of national and historic significance... We are trying in various ways to get this message across…\"
Libman said that no soldier should have to be endangered for this purpose, \"and it could be that the best approach would be for the army to blow up the building itself; after all, the Arabs have already destroyed the yeshiva inside, and whatever reconstruction they have done on the outside is only for appearances\' sake. What is important to us is the site itself, not the walls around it. We would then be able to start anew...\"
Although the army does not attribute great military importance to the holy site, students of the Joseph\'s Tomb Yeshiva - \"Od Yosef Chai\" [Joseph Still Lives] - are launching a public struggle to change this situation. Yehuda Libman of Yitzhar, one of the heads of the yeshiva and a long-time student there, spoke with Arutz-7 today:
\"I know that in these last 24 hours, our hearts and those of many others are turned towards this holy site, feeling that G-d is again giving us a chance, a gift, and a test - and the question is what we will do with it... We know that Joseph\'s Tomb is not one of the army\'s operational objectives, as unfortunately the people in charge don\'t realize just how important the site is to the national morale and spirit. The Western Wall, for instance, *was* an operational objective [during the Six-Day War]... The hundreds of calls that we have received about Joseph\'s Tomb, even from soldiers, are a clear indication of the great importance many people attribute to it. Capturing the site would certainly give great strength to the soldiers, showing them that this war does not just have temporary objectives to solve a specific immediate problem, but that there are long-term goals of national and historic significance... We are trying in various ways to get this message across…\"
Libman said that no soldier should have to be endangered for this purpose, \"and it could be that the best approach would be for the army to blow up the building itself; after all, the Arabs have already destroyed the yeshiva inside, and whatever reconstruction they have done on the outside is only for appearances\' sake. What is important to us is the site itself, not the walls around it. We would then be able to start anew...\"