                                                               
                      A Voice from Hebron
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg
                       December 13, 1996
                      A Gift for Netanyahu
                                
     It was a vile remark, but also an embarrassing commentary on the degeneration of Jewish
pride and self respect in our homeland.  The Arab spokesman declared that the murder of Ephraim
and Ita Tzur was a "gift" to Netanyahu.  Now he has an excuse to build new settlements and to
further delay redeployment in Hebron.
     It is true that the murder of Jews is an effort to attack the Jewish right to our homeland.  It
is also true that the knee jerk reaction to such murders is to build new settlements to offset that
goal and show the murderers that they accomplish just the opposite of what they seek.  As such,
there is a perverted justification in the obscene suggestion that the murderers gave our prime
minister a "gift" by taking the lives of a young mother and her son.
     The problem here is that we are sending mixed signals to our enemies.  Are we implying
that, should terrorism stop and our Arab neighbors truly love us, in reaction, we will stop settling
and developing our homeland?  What kind of policy do we have?  Why need we rely on terrorism
to justify our right to build and live in our homeland?   Is our government afraid to acknowledge
its support of the continuation of the Zionist process regardless of what our enemies and others
think?  
     The remark may have been crude and vulgar, but it brought home a point.  The Jewish
government has failed to enunciate, clearly and unequivocally, that all of Eretz Yisrael belongs
exclusively to the Jewish people and that under no circumstances will we ever agree to part with
one inch of our sacred homeland.   
     The fact that such a policy has never been enunciated is the only reason why we have a
"peace process" today.  The Arabs are convinced that we will concede on our basic rights to our
homeland.  And the longer we continue this process, the more convinced they become of our
readiness to concede more and more.  The fact is that they are right.  For a meaningless piece of
paper and a Nobel Peace Prize, we have already given up our sovereignty in Jericho, Gaza,
Bethlehem, Shechem; Jenin; Tulkarem; Kalkilya; Ramallah and now we are begging to give away
most of the holy city of Hebron.  And for what?  So that Arabs can continue to give our prime
minister such "gifts"?






     It is high time to change policy.  Enough with the "gifts".  We don't want any more.  We
still have a country and we still have an army.  We nearly destroyed the PLO in Lebanon, but
purposely refrained from finishing the job.  It is not too late.  Arafat and the PLO are not our
"peace partners".  They are our enemies.  One doesn't negotiate with those who come to destroy
you.  It was bad enough that Peres designed a program to give away our homeland to Arafat. 
That is no reason for Netanyahu to continue the program.  He knows better.  He was elected
primarily as a protest to Peres.  Let our Prime Minister concern himself with the interests of the
Jewish nation in priority to those of other nations.
     No one is talking about going back to Gaza.  Why not?  It is not Gaza that we wanted to
be rid of, rather the Arabs living there and attacking our rights with knives and bullets.  No one
can tell us that we did not try every possible way to live together in peace with our Arab
neighbors.  We tried and failed.  Now we have two choices.  We can disappear . . . or they can. 
This is not a political agenda.  This is simply the fact.  If we do not vanquish our Arab enemies
then they will vanquish us.  There is no possibility for Jews and Arabs to find a way to
compromise on our rights to our homeland.
     We can give away Hebron.  We can then give away Jerusalem.  But we still will not
achieve the peace we seek.  We are only deluding ourselves.  All we accomplish is to retreat
before our enemies and strengthen them both physically and spiritually, while simultaneously
weakening ourselves.  We can deny the truth for just so long.  Eventually we will reach a point
where there simply is nothing left to give away to our enemies.  At that point they will forcibly
take the rest . . . or try to.
     I have no doubts that we will never lose our homeland again.  The problem is that we can
lose many lives needlessly.  The time will come when we will have no choice but to fight for our
existence.  I would prefer to fight when we have a choice as to when, where, and how.  And,
most important, when we still have the upper hand.  That is a gift we dare not give away.