The newest government minister, National Religious Party leader Brig.-Gen. (res.) Effie Eitam, spoke yesterday at the double funeral of Noa Alon and her granddaughter Gal Eisenman in Ofrah. The two were among the seven victims of Wednesday\'s Palestinian terrorist attack at Jerusalem\'s French Hill junction. Addressing the hundreds of mourners, Eitam said:
\"...I look up at you [Arabs] on the hilltop, and I see your large houses, and your closed shutters... We know that behind those shutters, you are now happy - [but it is] the happiness of Philistines, the joy of the uncircumcised, the merriment of little people. You are happy at our sadness - but your joy is too soon. For we know who you are. You are the sons of Balaam, the sons of \'bela\' (destruction and deceit), the sons of \'bli-am\' (no people), the sons of \'bliyaal\' (wickedness, worthlessness), and the sons of \'bli eretz\' (no land). You are experts of impurity, cursedness, and evil...
\"But - even if you stand on every hilltop around, and even if you enlist all your powers of cursedness and evil [in terrorizing Israel], you know - and we know that you know - that we are the blessed. You know that we have returned home for our rendezvous with the Lion of the World and the Lioness that is our Nation.
\"You know that your ancient and evil father, Balaam, took up his discourse and said [in this week\'s Torah portion, Numbers 24], \'Alas, who shall live when He does these things.\' Rav Yochanan taught that this means, Woe unto whichever nation is around when G-d comes to redeem His children - for who would ever try to put his cloak between a lion and a lioness?\"
\"Woe unto you! You will not be able to live here when you place a barrier between us and our Land, between us and our Torah, between us and our Father in Heaven!
\"There are moments when this lioness appears to you to be weak, torn, bent - but within this crouch, this bent-over position, is being formed our jumping-off position; our muscles are being flexed and our spirit is being strengthened. And when we pounce on you - and it will happen - when we come with vengeance against your terrible evil, woe will be unto you.
\"You perhaps don\'t know who we are, and why we are here. Sometimes, it\'s not even sufficiently clear even to us, and it is your evil that helps us to filter out the light from our darkness. But, the hidden roar is already starting to be heard - the roar of pain of the Lion of the World, the roar of terrible vengeance against those who stand in the way of this great process of \'perfecting the world\' and \'perfecting mankind\' that we are now in the midst of.
\"In the middle of this, are people - a grandmother and granddaughter, a young man, young women, a pregnant mother - who die \'al kiddush HaShem\' (for the sanctification of G-d\'s Name), on this long and very difficult road home, on which we see many graves on the hillside.
\"We here, and all of Yesha, and the entire Nation of Israel, we are all flexing our muscles, and our spirit - and we will pounce. We will make a reckoning with you. And this terrible loss of life will become a call for life, for the strength of eternity.
\"And you, Gal and Noa, who are joining this row of graves - you are the roots of a great tree, a strong nation, and we will continue along this way that leads to G-d\'s House, and we will not tire, stop, or weaken. We\'ll wipe our tears, we will strengthen each other, we will be friends united, and we will merit a great victory and great life of faith. We promise you that with our great faith, we will win.\"
\"...I look up at you [Arabs] on the hilltop, and I see your large houses, and your closed shutters... We know that behind those shutters, you are now happy - [but it is] the happiness of Philistines, the joy of the uncircumcised, the merriment of little people. You are happy at our sadness - but your joy is too soon. For we know who you are. You are the sons of Balaam, the sons of \'bela\' (destruction and deceit), the sons of \'bli-am\' (no people), the sons of \'bliyaal\' (wickedness, worthlessness), and the sons of \'bli eretz\' (no land). You are experts of impurity, cursedness, and evil...
\"But - even if you stand on every hilltop around, and even if you enlist all your powers of cursedness and evil [in terrorizing Israel], you know - and we know that you know - that we are the blessed. You know that we have returned home for our rendezvous with the Lion of the World and the Lioness that is our Nation.
\"You know that your ancient and evil father, Balaam, took up his discourse and said [in this week\'s Torah portion, Numbers 24], \'Alas, who shall live when He does these things.\' Rav Yochanan taught that this means, Woe unto whichever nation is around when G-d comes to redeem His children - for who would ever try to put his cloak between a lion and a lioness?\"
\"Woe unto you! You will not be able to live here when you place a barrier between us and our Land, between us and our Torah, between us and our Father in Heaven!
\"There are moments when this lioness appears to you to be weak, torn, bent - but within this crouch, this bent-over position, is being formed our jumping-off position; our muscles are being flexed and our spirit is being strengthened. And when we pounce on you - and it will happen - when we come with vengeance against your terrible evil, woe will be unto you.
\"You perhaps don\'t know who we are, and why we are here. Sometimes, it\'s not even sufficiently clear even to us, and it is your evil that helps us to filter out the light from our darkness. But, the hidden roar is already starting to be heard - the roar of pain of the Lion of the World, the roar of terrible vengeance against those who stand in the way of this great process of \'perfecting the world\' and \'perfecting mankind\' that we are now in the midst of.
\"In the middle of this, are people - a grandmother and granddaughter, a young man, young women, a pregnant mother - who die \'al kiddush HaShem\' (for the sanctification of G-d\'s Name), on this long and very difficult road home, on which we see many graves on the hillside.
\"We here, and all of Yesha, and the entire Nation of Israel, we are all flexing our muscles, and our spirit - and we will pounce. We will make a reckoning with you. And this terrible loss of life will become a call for life, for the strength of eternity.
\"And you, Gal and Noa, who are joining this row of graves - you are the roots of a great tree, a strong nation, and we will continue along this way that leads to G-d\'s House, and we will not tire, stop, or weaken. We\'ll wipe our tears, we will strengthen each other, we will be friends united, and we will merit a great victory and great life of faith. We promise you that with our great faith, we will win.\"