                       Back to Machpelah
                 Paradoxical Security for Jews 
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg
                       November 13, 1994

     For eight months my regular place of prayer has been taken from me by my
government.  Now, they have permitted us to return to half of the building.  I am still denied
entrance to the Hall of Isaac, where my son entered into the covenant of Abraham and where I
prayed every morning for nearly thirteen years.  I could be bitter about this, but I am not.  
     I was among the first Jewish worshipers to return in the early morning hours.  I
decided not to bring my gun to Hebron with me and thus avoid the nonsense of checking
weapons.  The fact is that, for the first time I can remember since I have lived in Hebron, there
really was no need to carry a gun.  The entire route from Kiryat Arba to the Cave of
Machpelah was meticulously guarded by police and army.  The Machpelah building itself has
reverted to its ancient function as an impregnable military fortress.  But the nicest part about
the entire experience was the fact that I never as much as saw one single Arab.
     This entire business was designed to prove to the world that Rabin will guarantee that
Jews will never again kill Arabs.  The Arabs are not impressed and one can hardly blame them. 
They never swallowed Rabin's attempted deception.  The Arabs may hate Jewish residents
simply because we live here, but they know who fired all those bullets last Purim.  They
remember, they saw, and they know that it was a high ranking military officer who killed their
relatives.  Is it rational then for them to feel safer now when they see a far larger number of
armed high ranking military officers patrolling in this holy place?
     Just because Dr. Goldstein happened to live in Kiryat Arba cannot justify Rabin's
labeling him a "settler dressed like a soldier".  That was an out and out lie which made the
world believe that Jewish citizens committed this act when it was really one of Rabin's officers
who did so.  Ultimately then, it is Rabin, as Defense minister, who bears the responsibility for
an act he wants to blame on Jewish civilians.  
     Never in the history of our return to Machpelah has a Jewish armed civilian ever shot
at an Arab in this building.  Clearly security arrangements in the past were quite efficient in
that area.  It was not a civilian, rather an IDF officer, whom the soldiers knew and trusted,
who shot down the Arabs.  What then has Rabin done to prevent another officer from doing
such a thing in the future?  The precautions he has taken have not even begun to address the
problem they are alleged to be solving.  If tomorrow some high ranking officer assigned to
Machpelah decides that he wants to gun down Arabs, certainly he would be caught, but how
could he be stopped?  No, I certainly cannot blame the Arabs for being worried.
     In spite of Rabin's deceitful shifting of blame from his army to the Jewish civilian
population, there are actually some paradoxical benefits from his new obsession with security. 
For the first time since we have returned to our holy city, there is a massive deployment of
soldiers and border police which, while ostensibly here to prevent attacks on Arabs, actually
are protecting Jews! 
     I personally have never felt so safe in Machpelah.  There were many times in the past
when large numbers of Arabs were in close proximity to far smaller numbers of Jewish
worshipers to the point that, simply owing to the numbers, it would have been impossible to
prevent violent attacks.  No effort had ever been made to safeguard Jews against this very real
danger.
     Until we rid our homeland of our enemies, and until we rid our holy sites of foreign
occupiers who seek to destroy us, it is better that we be separated from our enemies than
forced to subject ourselves to danger.   At least now I can go to and from Hebron, as well as
enter into the Machpelah building without having that nagging fear that someone might kill me
for my efforts.  And all this is not a reaction to the many murders of innocent Jewish civilians
by Arab terrorists over the years.  It was in reaction to the strange new concept of Arab
victims of Jewish vengeance which Rabin could not tolerate.  So, as bizarre as it may be,
clearly the act committed by Dr. Baruch Goldstein, z"tl, H"yd, was the only way to get a
Jewish government to find a way to protect Jewish lives in Hebron!