                                                               
                      A Voice from Hebron
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg
                        October 22, 1996
                    Sleeping with the Enemy
                     A Recipe for Disaster

     Hebron is in the news nearly every day.  We are told that it is a "complicated" issue which
will take time to resolve.  But why is it so complicated?  What are the real problems?  What is the
prospective for achieving real peace?
     There is really only one problem.  It is the lack of honesty on the part of Jewish leaders
who refuse to face reality.  What we refuse to admit is the fact that ever since the Jewish State
was declared we have been in a state of war with all of the Arab nations.  While we like to talk
about "peace" and a "peace process" these terms merely express an indulgence in wishful
thinking.  There is no peace and there is no peace process.  
     Egypt lost the Sinai when it fought with Israel.  It lost the Abu Rodeis oil fields as well. 
We destroyed its air force and wrecked its economy.  By signing a piece of paper and declaring a
meaningless "peace," it got back the Sinai and the oil fields as well as a large amount of American
financial and military aid to rebuild its air force.  Despite the expressions of elevated thoughts and
ideology, the State of Egypt is still at war with the State of Israel.  Sadat was the first Arab with
the cunning and courage to use the word "peace" as a tool to weaken Israel.  
     Jordan would still be in possession of Judea and Samaria as well as East Jerusalem, had
she not decided to join in with her Arab partners in the effort to destroy Israel.  King Hussein has
never repented for trying to destroy us, only for failing to do so.  His gesture of peace also was
merely a tool to get support from the United States, and concessions from Israel.  He has already
used his position as "peacemaker" to threaten Prime Minister Netanyahu into abandoning Hebron.
     And what about Arafat?  Can any rational person truly convince himself that Arafat loves
us and wants to live in peace with an Israel of any dimension?  How is it possible for us to allow
our desire for real peace to blind us to reality?  He doesn't even mask his intentions as, time and
time again, he declares his intention to build his new Arab state upon the Jewish one.
     Foolish Jews rush forth blindly to curry favor with those who would crush us in an instant
if they could.  Deceitful and self-destructive comparisons are made which demean the Jewish
people and justify and elevate our sadistic enemies.  I have heard pompous Jews declare, "We
don't want to be like Nazis," referring to our "oppression" of Arabs.  Such a Jew is either
stupendously ignorant, or just self-hating.  How dare any Jew compare the Arab enemy of Israel,
who murders at random and with religious zeal in order to destroy the Jewish State and build an
Arab one upon it, with the Jews of Germany who were murdered at random simply because they
were Jews?   The Jewish victims of the Nazis were, first and foremost, loyal citizens of their
country.  Who ever heard of such a Jew rising up and declaring his intention to turn Germany into
a Jewish State and drive the Germans into the sea?  The Arabs of Israel, on both sides of the so
called "green line" are not loyal citizens . . .  they are the enemy who seeks to destroy us!
     And, in the same vein, I recently heard a reporter demand to know the difference between
the Arab massacre of Jews in Hebron in 1929, and the killing of Arabs in Hebron by a lone Jew in
1994.  This self-righteous Jewish reporter saw no difference.  Yet the difference is legion.  







     In 1929, the moment when the Arabs felt certain that the British would not intervene, the
Arab community as a whole, with few exceptions, murdered and maimed Jewish men, women and
children simply because they were Jews.
     In 1994, Dr. Baruch Goldstein, z"tl, who as a high ranking officer in the IDF, was privy to
information that a large scale attack was about to take place in which large numbers of Jews
would become casualties, made a desperate attempt to prevent those casualties.  He knew, from
experience, that the source of murderous hatred came from the mosques; particularly the mosque
in the Cave of  Machpela.  Time was short and the army made it clear that they would not take
any preemptive action.  Only after Jews were attacked would the IDF respond.  Dr. Goldstein, as
chief physician in the Hebron region was witness to the results of scores of terrorist acts.  He
watched too many Jews die in his arms to accept such a strategy.  Thus he risked, and ultimately
gave, his very life to save his fellow Jews . . . not merely to "massacre" Arabs.  His desperate act
did, indeed, preempt the Arab attack and saved countless lives, both Arab and Jewish, by
preventing far greater carnage had the planned Arab attack been carried out.    No other Jew ever
rose up to avenge the murder of Jews whose only crime was to be driving on the road at the
wrong time, or walking alone in an alley.  No serious government action was taken to prevent
such murders.  And, even now, the best our government can think to do, in preparation for peace,
is to build detour roads around our peace partners!
     To compare an act of courage and self sacrifice with fiendish butchery is unforgivable. 
What did the Hebron Arab from 1929, when there was no Jewish State,  accomplish by slicing
open a pregnant Jewish woman with his knife?  Did he bring honor to Allah or save Arab lives by
so doing?
     What is the matter with us?  Jews are condemned for choosing to live in Hebron, while
Arabs are rewarded for murdering us.  It was an act of self-deprecating lunacy to have elevated
Arafat to the position of statesman and enter into agreements with this murderer.  How we love to
delude ourselves.  The PLO is now "good" and it is Hamas and the Islamic Jihad which are
causing all of our problems. Does anyone really believe that?  
     Let us, once and for all, open our eyes to reality.  Only when we accept the truth will there
be hope for us to live in peace.  The reality is that the Islamic Arab world cannot and will not
accept the concept of a Jewish State, of any size,  in the Middle East.  This matter is not open to
negotiation.  What is open for negotiation is how Israel can be convinced to disappear in stages. 
If it won't completely disappear on its own, the Arabs will wait until we are sufficiently weakened
for them to finish the job.  That is the reality.  It isn't pleasant, but nothing can change it, not even
our wishful thinking.  There is no question but that the Arab states will attack us, as they have so
many times before, the minute that they feel they can destroy us.  What then is to be gained by
entering into negotiations whose only result is a weaker Jewish State?  Is it our obligation to
make their job easier for them?
     The only rational path for any state to take is one of self preservation.  One does not
protect himself by arming his enemies and inviting them inside his home.  That is nothing short of
lunacy.  On the contrary.  A normal country seeks to distance itself from its enemies; makes
secure borders with buffer zones; and, if possible, disarms its enemy as well.  Until our leadership
comes to realize that it has no alternative but to remove our enemies from Jewish soil, we will
continue upon a path which can only lead to tragedy.