Every time they drive down their roads, their hearts must pound with fear. Ordinary Jews feeling like targets at a shooting range. That’s why they are all Danny Gonen and Malachi Rosenfeld, two young Israelis killed by Palestinian terrorists in the last few days.
But despite it all, they don’t and won’t live in fear in their own land. They will build, they will plant, they will grow, they will thrive. They are not scared that they will be forced to leave, but that it could be made so uncomfortable for Jews that it will be impossible to stay.
That is why I support the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria and you all should do the same. I haven’t met anyone in Israel who doesn’t want “peace”. But not with killers and certainly not before they have laid down their weapons. The greatest “sin” of the Jews of Judea and Samaria is not their home address, but their refusal to surrender. That is why the world hates them and has convinced Western public opinion that the “West Bank" is "Palestine" and the Jews living there are “squatters on land stolen with the blood of Arabs.”
They will build, they will plant, they will grow, they will thrive.
A couple of months ago, I lost a wonderful Israeli friend, Adriana Katz. She was the chief psychiatrist at the Sderot Clinic and took care for years of the Israeli victims of the bombings. Her deadly cancer was the result of years under siege. The last time we met she told me she didn’t believe in Israel's future any more, that a Jewish State couldn’t survive in that ocean of hatred and rejection, that Israeli life was an illusion. Adriana was a fantastic human being, a true Israeli. But I know that if all Israelis would be like her, the state would dissolve in a minute.
Israel needs the heroes living in Judea and Samaria.
These Jews are committed to Zionism and have the support of world Jewry, even of those who would never say it openly. Those who are now struggling to establish new Jewish communities in Israel are committed fighters, and support is vital to their success.
Jewish communities all over the world and the Gentiles who love Jews should make a concerted effort, both morally and materially, to help in the fight for the future of Eretz Israel. Those who have taken it upon themselves to defend the Jewish homeland need and deserve support.
If Western civilization’s fate depends on Israel and the fate of Israel lies on Judea and Samaria’s shoulders, the world’s freedom depends on this tiny entity, the brave “Jewish settlers”. Support them.