                                                  "A Voice From Hebron
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg
                       November 20, 1995
                The Demagoguery of Demographics
                                
     
     Rabin is already trying to set the stage for the removal of Jews from Hebron.   In his
typical smooth demagoguery he announced that the yeshiva in Hebron houses 150 students
who are merely temporary residents.  Thus the total Jewish population in Hebron is a mere 300
compared to the tens of thousands of Arabs who live here.  "How would we feel,"  he asks
rhetorically, "were the situation reversed and a mere 300 Arabs prevented the freedom of
thousands of Jews?" 
     The image is thus established that a handful of "extremists" are living in Hebron for
political motives, and preventing the greater majority of Arabs from living a normal life, not to
mention obstructing the peace process.   If left at face value this scenario certainly does seem
unfair and unreasonable.  
     The picture changes radically when a few minor facts are brought into play.
For example, why is it that Arabs so outnumber Jews in Hebron?  Is it because Arabs have
always lived here and Jews don't even want to?  Back in 1967, when the Jewish army liberated
our holy city of the Jewish Patriarchs, the Arabs knew full well what they had coming to them. 
They fully expected the retribution they deserved and most fled the city in fear for their lives.  
Those who remained surrendered unconditionally and threw themselves upon the mercy of the
Jewish Army.
     Had we had a normal government we would have expelled those Arabs who remained
and repopulated Hebron with its rightful Jewish inhabitants.  Instead our cowardly government
invited the fleeing enemy to return, and forbid Jews from taking up residence in our holy city!  
Now our own government has the chutzpa to imply blame upon us for being the minority in
our own city!
     More than even this we must realize that those Jews who were, eventually, permitted to
return to live in our city only got that permission as a result of the murder of Jews at Beit
Hadassah in 1980!  And even in spite of this obnoxious fact, these Jews were prepared to live
peacefully with the Arabs.   It was only the Arabs who, time and time again, declared their
unwillingness to have Jews living among them, and who expressed this unwillingness with
rocks, bombs, knives and bullets.   
     Is it a sane course of action to accept acts of murder and carnage from a vanquished
people and suggest that the survivors of the war against the Jews, who also happen to be the
victors, abandon their city to their enemies?  



     "We are on a course toward Peace," intones our foreign minister.  "What is the
alternative?" is his question which begs for an answer.   Well, to give an answer as simplistic as
his question, "The alternative to losing, is winning."   Any idiot can bring "peace" by
surrendering to his enemies.   But, never in the annals of human history, has a superior power
surrendered to its enemies, until now.
     Clearly Oslo was an act of unprecedented treason by a government against its own
people.   It was an act of surrender to an enemy whose goal to destroy us remains intact and
even stronger than ever.  Terror has only increased and Gaza and Jericho have become safe
havens for terrorist murderers.   In spite of the very real facts which continue to cause the
murder of Jews all over Israel, our government continues to press to free more murderers from
our prisons; to return more terrorists from outside of Israel back into our borders; and to yield
more of our sacred homeland to our ever more implacable enemies.
     By calling treasonous surrender to our murderous enemies "peace," our government has
legitimized any and every method to stifle democratic expression of opposition to its policy of
self destruction.  It has openly justified every act of terror committed at least since 1967 against
innocent Jewish men, women and children.   And it has labeled loyal Jews as "right wing
extremists" merely for trying to express the normal goals of Zionism!
     Today Hebron is the greatest "obstacle" to the "Peace" of Peres.   Rabin is trying to
create an image of extremists, in the place of normal, patriotic Jewish families who are
prepared to risk their very lives for their homeland.  And Beilin has already suggested the
creation of a Palestinian State on Jewish soil!
     Why all the fuss?   Weren't many more people moved out of Yamit then there are in
Hebron?   Why not just throw them out?   The answer is simple.  Even Rabin knows that
Hebron represents the very reason for being of the Jewish State.  If we give up on Hebron, it is
all over.   There are good Jews, all over Israel, religious and non religious, who instinctively
understand that this red line dare not be crossed.   
     No matter how hard he tries, Rabin will never succeed in isolating the heroes of Hebron
from the mainstream of the Jewish People.   The People of Israel know that Hebron represents
our only legitimate connection to the Land of Israel.   To relinquish that connection is to sever
our right to a Jewish homeland of any size . . . and most Jews will not stand idley by any effort
to sever that tie.