                   Doesn't Anyone Understand?
           Another look at What happened at Machpelah
                         June 27, 1994
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg

     It has been over four months since Dr. Baruch Goldstein, z"tl, H"yd, walked into the
Cave of Machpelah and shot down as many Arabs as he could before he, himself, was
slaughtered by the frenzied mob.  Much has been written about this event which shook the
entire world.  While no one can be certain exactly what Dr. Goldstein intended to accomplish
by this act, rarely do we find any effort to consider the possibility that there was justification in
what has been described as "an act of madness".  
     Those of us who knew Dr. Goldstein personally were more shaken than those who
didn't.  He was a beautiful soul, a kind, soft-spoken, gentle young man who freely gave of
himself to any Jew who was in need.  He was a deeply religious Jew who felt the pain of his
brothers.  His home was always filled with guests on the Shabbat.  Once a week he would visit
Jewish prisoners whom few, if any, had time to even think about.  He ran for mayor of Kiryat
Arba and served on its town council.  And, of course, he was the best doctor any of us ever
knew and he treated nearly all of us.   
     From the many "upright moralists" who jump to condemn Dr. Goldstein in the harshest
terms they can muster, rarely does one encounter an intellectual who has the courage to ask a
simple question.  If this fellow was truly a very sound of mind doctor and community leader
who never cracked under the most difficult of crises, then why would he commit such a violent
act which, he must have realized, might cause his own violent death?
     It is my belief that he did this deed just so that people would ask that very question of
themselves.  Why would a gentle, intelligent young man with a young wife and family, a
brilliant successful career as community doctor, a deeply religious man who genuinely cared
about his fellow Jew and reached out to so many, just wake up one morning and finish his life
in such a harsh and violent manner?
     The problem with most of us is that we are living in outrageous times and, because we
just don't know what to do, we do nothing and watch things get even worse.  It is bad enough
when you see our leaders make terrible mistakes.  But when a sensitive man, like Dr.
Goldstein, was forced to witness the results of those mistakes in terms of the murder so many
Jews whom he personally knew and watched die, he went beyond what can be expected of any
human being and did something to stop it.  It was a desperate act, not only designed to wake
up a complacent people, but to physically prevent an imminent large scale Arab massacre of
Jews.
     Is it reasonable to expect individual Jews to stand up and risk their lives to fight our
enemies when we have an army to protect us?  Of course not.  But neither are the conditions
under which every Jew in Israel is presently forced to live.  Is it rational, or reasonable, to
expect citizens to travel on roads where they can depend upon being stoned, or shot at?  
     Our government, even under the alleged right wing Likud, rather than take steps to
prevent the throwing of rocks, chose to pay for plastic windows on civilian cars!!!  It was our
own governments who taught the Arab insurgents that it is acceptable to throw rocks at Jews. 
Is this reasonable or rational?   
     And when the Arabs who seek to liberate Israel from the Jewish people discovered that
we don't mind if they throw rocks at us, they decided to start shooting us.  Rabin, who is more
progressive and thrifty than was Shamir, is not about to waste government money on bullet
proof windows.  Instead he came up with a novel new approach to save the Jewish people
from rocks and bullets.  He realized that the Arabs are trying to provoke Israel into a full war
which would embarrass the Jewish state before our American patrons.  Thus, he decided to
outsmart our enemies by doing something never before dreamed of in the annals of history. 
He decided to surrender to Arafat with the hope of making limited territorial concessions in
return for a cease fire.  What he didn't consider was the fact that victors of war are not
accustomed to accepting limitations from losers.
     The Pandora's box opened on the White House lawn has yet to reveal its full
ramifications.  The Palestinian Liberation Army, for all intents and purposes, was seen the
world over as having liberated Jericho and the Gaza Strip from the Jewish State.  Rabin gave
full credence, not only to the bellicose cries for jihad, holy war, against the zionist entity,
rather to the legitimacy of the fraudulent "Palestinian" entity along with its goal to destroy the
Jewish State. 
     Ideologically, Arafat has already conquered Israel.  If the government of Israel
recognizes the legitimacy of "palestine", especially in the form of the PLO, then it, defacto,
admits its own illegitimacy.  All that is left to negotiate now is our method and time table for
self destruction.
     In view of this situation which has actually made life in Israel far more dangerous than
ever, perhaps one can begin to understand the reason which motivated Dr. Goldstein to give
his own life in a violent expression of desperation, frustration and outrage in order to wake up
a sleeping people who are sitting on the brink of self destruction. 
     No one can be pleased with violence.  We in Kiryat Arba could certainly not afford to
lose such a precious individual and outstanding doctor.  Despite the image we evoke of wild,
trigger happy gun slingers, in the twenty four years of Kiryat Arba's existence this is but the
second time a Jew took the law into his hands and killed Arabs.  More than this, both times
such an act was perpetrated it was by gentle, caring, and highly moral individuals... certainly
not nut cases.
     It is very easy for a Jew living elsewhere to condemn someone he has never met for
committing an act he has no way of coming close to understanding.  For most of us violence is
out of our sphere of understanding and just something not to be tolerated by Jews.
     Hateful though it may be, there are times when violence is necessary.  While
simpletons, such as Peres and Rabin would tell you that war is bad and peace is good,
therefore we must avoid war at all cost, only a child or a fool could accept that kind of
reasoning.  If one avoids war by surrendering to tyranny he invites chaos and bloodshed. 
Imagine how many wars we could have avoided if we hadn't declared a Jewish State?  Shall
we condemn Ben Gurion for so doing?  
     Rabin and Peres have not found peace... not even its illusion.  What they have done is
make an already precarious situation even more so.  They have created the conditions under
which the United States will appear to be doing us a favor by pressuring us to concede more
and more to all of our Arab enemies.  More than this, they have illustrated to the enemy in our
midst that if he is patient and continues to attack civilians, his terror campaign will reap reward
in the form of further Israeli concessions and self weakening.  Thus it has become government
policy to encourage Arab terror.  When soldiers are given direct orders not to shoot stone
throwers, they might just as well call upon the Arab population to stone Jews.
     And when terrorists are freed from our prisons as an act of tribute to the victorious
PLO army, not only do they show no remorse for their crimes, they consider themselves heros
who acted bravely in service of their country.  What then shall we expect them to do when we
give them the guns with which to murder more Jews?
     Knowing all this, how is it possible to condemn an individual Jew who gave his very
life in order to express his outrage on the largest scale possible in the desperate hope to end
the madness which threatens every Jew in the world?  
     Condemn him?  There is no praise high enough for such a Jew.  Hateful as taking a
human life is, it is far more hateful to stand by and do nothing to save human lives.  Baruch
Goldstein did not wake up one morning and kill Arabs just so that there will be fewer Arabs in
the world.  He carefully planned this act of counter terror in order to teach two lessons:  1. If
Arabs murder Jews they can expect to have to pay in kind for their acts of terror; and 2. Jews
have an obligation fight for their lives and their homeland.     Those who whine that he killed innocent Moslems at prayer in a mosque know nothing
at all about what happened here.  First of all, the so called mosque happens to be the tombs of
the Jewish patriarchs.  Secondly, it was from this very "mosque" that Arabs were incited to
murder Jews.  We are not discussing a Sunday school choir here.  The same cry we hear from
the mosques, "Allah hu achbar", is always chanted as part of the ritual slaying of Jewish
victims of Arab terror.
     This was not an act of spite or personal vengeance.  It was an act of self-sacrifice and
desperation designed to save Jewish lives in imminent danger, and more, to save the Jewish
State from self destruction.  If we cannot feel the pain which Dr. Goldstein felt for the
needless suffering of the Jewish People and understand that his self sacrificing act was not one
of hate, rather of the highest form of love, then we are not worthy of the gift of life which he
gave to us at the expense of his own. 
 