

                Who are the Real Enemies of Peace?
  April 1994                                         Iyar 5754
                      by Gary M. Cooperberg

     Kiryat Arba is nestled in the Hebron Hills where the air is crisp and clean.  It is a small
town, very reminiscent of New England, where nearly everyone knows one another.  It is
comprised of an incredibly variated blend of Jews from all over the world: Israel; France;
Russia; America; Morocco; Tunis; Ethiopia; Kurdistan; Syria; Egypt and just about every
other country in the world.  
     What might surprise you is the fact that less than half of the population in Kiryat Arba
is religious.  While most show respect for the Sabbath by not overtly desecrating it in public,
there are those who unabashedly drive their cars in the streets here on the Sabbath.  Despite
this there are no conflicts at all between the religious and non religious, and Jews from all
different cultural, religious, and geographical backgrounds live together harmoniously.
     When it comes to politics, it may surprise you to know that, this town is as diverse as
any other.  While the overwhelming majority goes with Likud, we have the entire range of
parties gleaning support here.  The now "terrorist" Kach party, to which many attributed
Kiryat Arba as its stronghold, never received more than twenty percent of the vote.
     My children are growing up as proud Jews here.  Among their friends are both
religious and non religious Jews.  As my wife and I converse in English, our children are all bi-lingual.  I do not consider myself "radical", "militant" or ultra anything.  Yet, because I live in
Kiryat Arba, my government considers me and my neighbors different from and less deserving
than those who live in pre 1967 Israel.  
     The main difference between Jews who live in places like Kiryat Arba, and those who
live inside the pre-67 borders is the fact that when we travel the roads in these areas we face
rocks, fire bombs and bullets.
     Were you ever to have had the misfortune of being under attack, even by "mere
stones", I daresay you would have a better understanding as to why the people here feel the
need to carry weapons for self defense.  Despite the wild west image, painted by a prejudiced
media, of trigger-happy settlers shooting the place up, I can assure you that the greater
majority of us never use our weapons and would be delighted at the prospect of not needing to
carry guns.  It is we who are under attack by a hostile enemy, not the other way around.  
     Jews came home to Hebron to simply live here in peace.  We had no qualms with the
Arabs living here and were content to live in peace with them.  Indeed, many of us shopped in
Arab stores, did business in Arab banks, patronized Arab taxis and buses etc.  It was the
hostile Arab population who detested the concept of living together with Jews.  It was this
"un-neighborly" attitude which saw, and still sees, continuous acts of terror and murder aimed
at ridding Hebron of its Jewish population.
     Are we to conclude that by rewarding Arab terror we will arrive at genuine peace?  If
Rabin honestly believes that peace will result by giving Arabs autonomy or even statehood in
Gaza, then why is it that the Arabs, even now, insist upon the removal of Jews from these
areas?  What kind of peace is that?
     Arabs do not seek equality in a Jewish State.  The best they are willing to tolerate is a
submissive Jewish minority in an Arab state.  We have welcomed Arabs into our country and
made them citizens of the Jewish State.  We even have Arab members of Knesset.  Is there one
Jew in the government of any Arab state?  
The truth is that we have given peace a chance for forty seven years.  Instead of achieving
peace we have lived with Arab terror for all these years.  The policy, of every Israeli
government, has always been, "It is better to live with Arab terror than to remove the
terrorists from our midst."  or "It is better to allow terrorism to continue than to have the
world accuse us of 'racism' by removing those who come to murder us."
     If it is racism to deplore the folly of taking murderous terrorists out of prison, arming
them and expecting them to protect us from other Arabs then it is suicidal not to be a racist. 
Rabin wouldn't buy a used car from Arafat, yet he is willing to compromise the security of the
Jewish State by making him King of Palestine as he willingly emasculates his own country.
     I live in Kiryat Arba.  I am a Jew who has come home from the exile to build a Jewish
life here for my family.  I do not have political aspirations nor do I care who is prime minister
as long as whoever it is he makes Jewish interests government priority.  Anyone can preach
sermons about how wonderful peace is.  But, first and foremost, peace means being able to
live in security.  There is no one in the Jewish State today who can say that he is not worried
about being attacked by terrorists on a public bus or in a crowded market.  That is not peace.  
Yet, without as much as addressing this very real fact which affects every Israeli, Rabin has
recently announced his intention of dismantling Jewish towns and cities in the Golan Heights
as well as in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, for peace.  What peace?
     How does one assume that peace will result by rewarding terror?  Rabin and Peres
keep telling us that we must hurry to sign away parts of our country in order to achieve peace. 
At the same time our population is being murdered by our partners in this insane "peace
process".  How is it conceivable that things will get better when we surrender to those who
come to destroy us and make their job so much easier to accomplish?
     At the very same time we are negotiating our existence with our enemies, our military
leaders tell us that it is, and will continue to be, impossible to prevent future acts of Arab
terror.
     Our so called leaders are either liars or fools.  It is not the Golan Heights or the Gaza
Strip which prevent us from living in peace with our Arab neighbors.  It is the existence of a
Jewish State of any dimension which prevents the Arabs from living in peace with us.  This is a
religious ideological position which is not open for negotiation, unless it is believed that the
negotiation process itself is likely to result in the dismantling of the Jewish State.
     Peres knows this and so does Rabin.  But what choice do they have?  Either they
pursue their deceitful policy of national suicide and continue to try to appease our enemies in
the absurd hope that they will eventually love us, or they risk being labeled "racists" by ridding
our country of those who seek our destruction.
     It is they who have taken from themselves the only method of achieving genuine peace. 
Peace can never result from bribery and chicanery.  By refusing to face basic truths and by
engineering a foreign policy which not only endangers the safety of the entire Israeli
population, but which is unequivocally destined to fail, Rabin and Peres will be judged by
history as the authentic enemies of real peace.