                                                               
                      A Voice from Hebron
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg
                         August 6, 1996
   The Puzzle isn't "Complicated"; the Pieces just don't Fit
                                
     The new Prime Minister of Israel continues his impossible juggling act designed to please
everyone.  After announcing at his cabinet meeting that he is lifting the freeze on building in existing
Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, he went to Jordan to tell the King that any new
"settlements" will require prior approval of his cabinet.  Thus Jews are assured that Zionist
development will continue, at the very same time that Arabs and others are assured that Zionist
development will be restricted.   
     At home he told his supporters that Hebron is an ancient and holy Jewish city which will be
forever under our control.  In Washington he told the President of the United States that Israel is
committed to honoring all signed agreements and that, while redeployment of the IDF in Hebron is
a very "complicated" issue, once he has become satisfied that Arafat is living up to his agreements,
and that Jewish lives will be protected, he will honor Peres' commitment to redeploy.
     Uzi Landau, the head of the Knesset Foreign Relations and Defense Committee, made a harsh
statement questioning how the government which was elected as a protest to the Oslo accords can
justify continuing to accept them.  Orient House is still in operation; Arafat and Feisal Husseini are
still treated as legitimate diplomats; and acts of terror continue.  
     The Prime Minister is correct in observing that the situation is complicated.  But the reason
that it is so complicated is because we are trying to put together a puzzle with pieces which don't fit. 
If we throw away the incompatible pieces we will be accused of being unfair and wasteful.  If we
insist upon including them in the picture, we will never be able to put the puzzle together.  So Bibi
is  moving the pieces around for as long as possible, attempting to accomplish what is clearly
impossible.  But at least, for the present, it looks like something positive is going on.   The problem
will come later,  after he has made every effort to put the puzzle together and discovers that it cannot
be done he will have to make a choice, the Arab puzzle or the Jewish one.  
     Arafat has no such complicated problem.  He knows very well that there are two different
puzzles, only one of which can fit in the Land of Israel.  One he chooses to call, "Palestine;"and the
other is called Israel.  He knows  that the Jewish People have most of the pieces, but that they are
determined to allow him to try and fit his in as well. He thus feels confident that, eventually, he will
succeed in replacing the Jewish pieces with Arab ones and thus eliminate the Jewish State once and
for all.  For the first time he can really feel confident that time is on his side.  As long as the Jews feel
that he has the right to be in the Land of Israel, he will build on their errors and use them to destroy
the Jewish State. If he has already succeeded in getting the "right wing" Likud government to accept
his legitimacy, then it is only a matter of  time before he erodes the Jewish State out of existence.  He
can now afford to be patient.  Bibi's game of putting off problems suits him just fine.
     Why is the Hebron issue so "complicated?"  It was easy to give away Gaza, Jericho,
Tulkarem; Jenin; Bethlehem; and Ramallah to Arafat.  So what's the big problem with Hebron?  It
really is not so complicated.  With all of the other Jewish cities, myopic leaders could justify their acts
of treason by pointing to the fact that these cities were occupied exclusively by Arabs anyway thus
no obvious loss was incurred.   With Hebron, aside from the fact that it is one of Israel's four holy
cities, Jews actually live here.  To remove the Jews would be too obvious a symbol of surrender to
our enemies; while to permit Arafat control here would place Jews in even greater danger than they
already face in this nest of Arab fanaticism and terror.
     Hebron is the red line.  If we back down here, we clear the way to our self-destruction.  If we
stand up and refuse to yield, we invite an uproar from our enemies.  Thus the only safe decision is not
to decide.  But how long can you "study" a situation and not decide?  
     It really doesn't make a difference where the red line is.  The fact is that somewhere, some
time  the red line appears.  It could have been in Jericho, or it could end up as the Prime Minister's
residence.  The point is that, unless we decide to give up on Zionism and dismantle the Jewish State,
we have no choice but to fight for her.  We can talk about peace from now until doomsday, but the
fact remains that our enemies seek our destruction and will not cease until either they succeed, or we
do.  Any honest observer cannot help but see that by surrendering in stages, from a position of
strength,  will only postpone the inevitable battle for survival to a later date, and from a position of
weakness.  This process can only be described as one of cowardice and madness.  If war is inevitable,
and it is, how dare we arm and train our enemies, set them up with bases inside our borders, give
them financial aid, and continue to retreat before them?
     No, Mr. Netanyahu.  Hebron is not a "complicated" issue.  It is a microcosm of the entire
problem.  It is  the symbol of  the Jewish homeland which no Jewish leader, not even the true
Messiah, has the right to take away from the Jewish people.  Open your eyes and stop trying to put
the square peg into the round hole.  It will never fit.