History is replete with indignities forced upon the Jewish people. Europe is filled with the rotting remnants of concentration camps and ghettoes, burned ashes of age-old synagogues and broken stones from the desecrated cemeteries of our loved ones.
From this shattered past came a nation determined never to return to the ghetto, never to let another nation push it down, keep it back. Suddenly, we were freed from the persecution of the past. We became the glorious fighters of the Hagana, defenders of our homeland and of our right to self-determination. In our haste to redefine the meaning of a Jew, we rebelled against the world demanding of us anything which we did not want to give. Masada became a monument to our past and to our future. It stands tall for we have vowed never to let it fall again. The divided and once forbidden Jerusalem stands united and we have promised it will not be divided.
In Hebron, the City of the Patriarchs, another, although perhaps lesser known injustice, has also been righted. When the Mamelukes conquered the Land of Israel in the 13th century, they forbade Jews from entering the Cave of Machpelah, the resting place of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rivka, Jacob and Leah. Instead, Jews were allowed to advance only to the seventh step along the staircase that lead to the eastern entrance of the building. The seventh step, like the Mamelukes and the Romans, the Greeks and the Ancient Egyptians, Haman and Amalek and Hitler, has faded into non-existence.
Yet, recently, as I stood outside the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, as I saw the ancient alleyways twisting around Abraham's final resting place, I realized that we are returning to the ghettoes from which we were freed. The ghetto mentality, the need to please others, even to the point of indignity and destruction, is returning. Guns that we gave to the Palestinians are used to attack us. In our cities, in our settlements, and beside the holy resting place of our forefathers, we are murdered, targeted, ambushed. Barely a night goes by in which communities in Gaza are not attacked with mortars. Daily our soldiers are tested. Find the suicide bomber before he gets through. Will they target a bus or a caf? today?
The notion that giving in to Arafat's demands will bring peace is based on the same misguided notion of appeasement as that of Neville Chamberlain conceding to Adolph Hitler. The notion that we even have a partner to talk to clearly no longer stands in the harsh light of more than 600 Israelis murdered in the last few years. And yet, there are still those who believe that just one more step, just one more withdrawal, just one more promise, will appease the endless appetites of a man and a people who have sworn on our blood that they will have our heart, Jerusalem, our soul, Hebron, and our bodies, all of Israel.
And through each day and night, as I hear about explosions in Jerusalem, ambushes in Hebron, suicide attacks in the north, and Arafat's calls for violence until "Jerusalem is returned to the Palestinians," I wonder, will the day come when we are once again forced back to the seventh step?
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Paula R. Stern is the Founder and Documentation Manager of WritePoint, a technical writing company.
From this shattered past came a nation determined never to return to the ghetto, never to let another nation push it down, keep it back. Suddenly, we were freed from the persecution of the past. We became the glorious fighters of the Hagana, defenders of our homeland and of our right to self-determination. In our haste to redefine the meaning of a Jew, we rebelled against the world demanding of us anything which we did not want to give. Masada became a monument to our past and to our future. It stands tall for we have vowed never to let it fall again. The divided and once forbidden Jerusalem stands united and we have promised it will not be divided.
In Hebron, the City of the Patriarchs, another, although perhaps lesser known injustice, has also been righted. When the Mamelukes conquered the Land of Israel in the 13th century, they forbade Jews from entering the Cave of Machpelah, the resting place of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rivka, Jacob and Leah. Instead, Jews were allowed to advance only to the seventh step along the staircase that lead to the eastern entrance of the building. The seventh step, like the Mamelukes and the Romans, the Greeks and the Ancient Egyptians, Haman and Amalek and Hitler, has faded into non-existence.
Yet, recently, as I stood outside the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, as I saw the ancient alleyways twisting around Abraham's final resting place, I realized that we are returning to the ghettoes from which we were freed. The ghetto mentality, the need to please others, even to the point of indignity and destruction, is returning. Guns that we gave to the Palestinians are used to attack us. In our cities, in our settlements, and beside the holy resting place of our forefathers, we are murdered, targeted, ambushed. Barely a night goes by in which communities in Gaza are not attacked with mortars. Daily our soldiers are tested. Find the suicide bomber before he gets through. Will they target a bus or a caf? today?
The notion that giving in to Arafat's demands will bring peace is based on the same misguided notion of appeasement as that of Neville Chamberlain conceding to Adolph Hitler. The notion that we even have a partner to talk to clearly no longer stands in the harsh light of more than 600 Israelis murdered in the last few years. And yet, there are still those who believe that just one more step, just one more withdrawal, just one more promise, will appease the endless appetites of a man and a people who have sworn on our blood that they will have our heart, Jerusalem, our soul, Hebron, and our bodies, all of Israel.
And through each day and night, as I hear about explosions in Jerusalem, ambushes in Hebron, suicide attacks in the north, and Arafat's calls for violence until "Jerusalem is returned to the Palestinians," I wonder, will the day come when we are once again forced back to the seventh step?
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Paula R. Stern is the Founder and Documentation Manager of WritePoint, a technical writing company.