                                                               
                      A Voice from Hebron
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg
               We will Never Retreat from Hebron
                       Listen to Mustapha
                       November 14, 1996


     For months now we have all been sitting at the edge of our chairs waiting for
"redeployment" to signal the beginning of the end of Jewish Hebron.  To this very minute all the
commentators are declaring the imminence of the apparently "inevitable" event.  
     Tuesday morning it was announced on Israel Radio that former defense minister, Moshe
Arens, offered a new suggestion.  In order to be "realistic", the former Likud minister suggested
that the Jewish community at Tel Romeida be removed, and, in return, Jews should be permitted
to build in the marketplace adjacent to the Avraham Avinu complex.  The "right wing, extremist"
mayor of Kiryat Arba, Zvi Katzover, stated that the idea may have merit and should be
considered!  Only Rabbi Levinger unhesitatingly declared that both Tel Remeida and the area of
the marketplace belong to the Jewish community and both areas should be developed.
     When the PLO mayor of Hebron, Mustapha Natshe, was asked how he viewed such a
"compromise", he made no effort at diplomacy.  He stated clearly and unequivocally that Jews
should move out of all of the "West Bank".  He doesn't want to see Kiryat Arba or Efrat, much
less a Jewish community in Hebron.
     While Jews are busy arguing how it will be possible to defend themselves after the coming
IDF retreat from most of Hebron, nobody seems to be listening to Mustapha.  Clearly the Israeli
government has been and is presently ready to sign an agreement and retreat.  What no one seems
to consider is the cold hard fact that Arafat is not prepared to sign an agreement which backtracks
from the one which he already signed with Peres.  This has consistently been his stand and I do
not see him budging from it.
     We Jews with our short memories so quickly forget how we got our country in the first
place, and how we came to possess Judea and Samaria.  Did we wake up one morning and decide
to liberate our homeland?  Never.  The League of Nations carved up Mandated Palestine and
offered us a tiny piece to call our own.  We were so delighted that we eagerly accepted the tiny
indefensible piece of property.  It was only because our enemies couldn't bear to see even a tiny
emaciated Israel that they attacked us with intent to wipe us out, which caused us to come into
possession of a more defensible piece of property.
     And, in 1967, we begged King Hussein, (you remember, that cute little fellow with the
bashful smile who made peace with us), not to get into the war.  He had Hebron, East Jerusalem
including the kotel, and all of Judea and Samaria at that time.  All he had to do to keep it was
nothing.  Instead he interpreted our request as evidence of our weakness and joined with our
enemies in the war to destroy Israel.  Had he but listened to us I would not be living in Hebron
today.
     The G-d of Israel has given us the ability to return to all of the Land of Israel and to
rebuild a truly Jewish State here.  It is only our fear and blindness which prevents us from bringing
instant redemption.  We grovel in fear before our enemies and we still succeed in returning to
more and more of our homeland.  The situation today in Hebron is no different.  Our present
leaders, once again, are trying to appease our would-be murderers in a futile effort to please them. 
Netanyahu is willing and prepared to hand most of Hebron over to Arafat, in spite of the fact that
it is a virtual impossibility to protect the Jews in Hebron should he do so.   However there is one
fly in the ointment which everyone seems to be overlooking.  Yassir Arafat understands the
Jewish mentality.  He saw Sadat take the Sinai and Yamit from Begin without a shot being fired.
He knows that Jews like to hear Arabs say the word "peace" so badly that they will pay any price
for it.  There simply is no reason, in his mind, for him to settle for less than he already got from
Peres.  All he needs to do is be firm and wait for Netanyahu to back down as all Jewish leaders
have done in the past.
     What Arafat, and most Jews for that matter, have failed to understand is that Netanyahu,
while having made serious errors in his position, is no patsy and no weakling.  His bottom line is  
far down the page, but he does have one.  It is this fact which makes him different from Peres
who had no bottom line.  Our Prime Minister may be prepared to give away most of Hebron . . .
but not all of it.  And Arafat will accept only everything.  I could be wrong.  Everyone I speak to
tells me that I am wrong.  But I really believe that the Hebron agreement will never be reached. 
As close as we have allegedly come in the negotiations, there are issues which are simply
unreconcilable.  Netanyahu is willing to take irresponsible risks, but he will not permit the PLO to
control the hills overlooking the Jewish Community, nor will he shackle the IDF from hot pursuit
of those who attack Jews.  Arafat will not give up his right to those hills, nor will he permit the
IDF to enter his territory.  If either one gives up on these issues it will be a blow to their
credibility with their own people.  It will not happen.
     The Oslo process was never a peace process.  It was a process of Jewish surrender to the
PLO in the hope that only a partial surrender would be enough.  Clearly the only place this is
leading is to a full scale war.  This war will take place no matter who is Prime Minister.  The only
question is when and where it will break out, and what will be the condition of Israel's ability to
defend herself at that time.  With every new concession, our ability to defend ourselves becomes
further weakened.  The day will come when even the most naive pacifist will recognize the danger
and say, "enough".  But the longer it takes to reach that discovery, the more difficult it will be to
defend ourselves.
     Hebron can, and hopefully will, be the red line which we dare not cross.  It could be that
the war will break out over Hebron.  But to delude ourselves into thinking we will achieve peace
by surrendering the veritable symbol of our Divine inheritance is an exercise in futility which will
only result in tragedy.