                                                               
                      A Voice from Hebron
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg
                          July 9, 1996
                        Premature Burial
                                
     In a recent editorial in the Jerusalem Post, former Minister to the United Nations and
Israeli Foreign Minister, Abba Eban,  suggested that the establishment of a Palestinian State on
Jewish soil is inevitable.   He cited historical examples, such as the United States and even Israel
itself, as proof that all who seek independence and fight greater powers to get it, eventually
achieve their goal.  Such a premise, while given the assumed legitimacy of a geometric axiom, if
examined more carefully can be shown to be a perversion of logic.
     The American Colonies, while indeed a possession of the British Empire, were truly a long
distance, remote control asset of that kingdom.  It was a new country whose population was
already quite independent and unattached to England.  It was absurd that a new fledgling country
which was struggling to provide for its own needs should have to pay taxes to an empire on the
other side of the ocean, and not surprising that it rebelled and gained its independence.
     The Jewish State too, was even less a subject to Great Britain than were the American
Colonies.  The Balfour Declaration promised the Jewish People fulfillment of their two thousand
year old dream to rebuild their ancient homeland.  Both natural justice and Biblical Destiny made
the establishment of the Jewish State inevitable.
     And what of the PLO?   Upon what basis stands the premise of their right to a homeland
on Jewish soil?  From whence sprouted this new nation which chooses to call itself "Palestine"? 
Its history and proclaimed destiny are comprised of perversions of history and distortions of truth. 
One simply does not build nations on such foundations.  
     One hundred years ago if one spoke of a Palestinian, it would be clearly understood that
he was referring to a Jew living in the holy land.  Palestine was the vernacular for the Land of
Israel and the term was used to refer to the Jewish homeland.  The few Arabs who may have lived
in the Land, were migrants from surrounding Arab nations who found temporary homes in the
barren wasteland which was then Palestine.
     The Moslems knew then that the Jewish People would eventually come home.  But they
believed that it was their duty to Islam to put that day off as long as possible.  Why is it that
Moslems go to such extremes to prevent Jews from praying on our own Temple Mount, the
holiest site in the world to the Jewish People?  What causes an arrogant Hebron Arab mayor,
from his precarious position under the thumb of the Israeli military, to flagrantly declare that,
should he assume control, he would not permit Jews to pray at their second most holy site, the
Tomb of our Patriarchs?  The Moslem fears the Jewish G-d.  He knows that when the Jew comes
home to his homeland; fulfills the commandments of the Torah; and offers his prayers to the
Living G-d of Israel, that there is no power on Earth that can thwart Jewish destiny.  It is only
when a Jew denies his G-d, his Torah, or his homeland that he may suffer setbacks and tragedy. 
This is why the Moslem seeks to prevent us from praying at our holy sites and from returning to
all of our Divine inheritance.
     It is understandable why the Moslem seeks to hold back the Jewish People.  What is
beyond explanation is how any Jew would lend his hand to the effort to destroy himself.  The
PLO and the whole perverted concept of an Arab "palestinian" nation was contrived for the sole
purpose of delegitimizing the Zionist process of the ingathering of the Jewish exiles from all four
corners of the world to their everlasting homeland in Israel.   Any Jew who lends credence to this
concept is participating in an act of purposeful attempted self destruction.
     Noble and appealing words and phrases like: "Peace"; "Just and lasting peace in the
region"; legitimate rights of the palestinian people", are uttered to lend an aura of legitimacy to a
process which is designed to bring the Jewish State to an end.  That Jews, especially Jewish
leaders in Israel, fail to see through the ruse is a phenomenon which historians may never be able
to explain.
     What the multilingual former Israeli statesman, Abba Eban, cannot seem to fathom is the
Biblical, historical and legally valid fact that the Land of Israel was established for the purpose of
being the homeland of the Jewish People.  That the rights and needs of minorities need to be
respected is one thing, but to permit concern for those rights and needs to threaten the primary
function of the Jewish State as the homeland of the Jewish people is outrageous.  No normal
people voluntarily assists its enemies in its efforts to destroy it.  Even if Eban believes that his
enemies will eventually destroy him one would expect him to at least try to fight back rather than
just quit.  His pseudo intellectualism is merely a mask for cowardice.  Even a loser, if he has an
ounce of courage, will fight for what he believes in.  
     Our Pereses and Ebans have introduced an entirely new brand of cowardice to world
history.  For the very first time we see a strong, powerful nation, willingly deny its own legitimacy
before a puny impostor which seeks its destruction.  Peres went so far as to apologize to Arafat
for oppressing his people and causing them to murder Jews!  Now Eban openly espouses assisting
these murderers in building yet another enemy state on Jewish soil, not because he wants it, rather
because it will happen anyway and it would be nicer if we participated in the inevitable rather than
work against it.  Perhaps now we can begin to understand the motivations of Jews who walked
willingly into the gas chambers rather than fight the inevitable.
     Cowards are people who succumb to their fears.  It never occurs to them to fight, if
necessary, even against impossible odds, for ideals in which they believe.  These people meditate
on the premise of losing without giving a thought to justice or principle.  It is a tragedy that the
Jewish People have been cursed with leaders who view themselves as losers. . . much as the spies
in the desert viewed themselves as grasshoppers.  
     Arafat, Assad, Quadaffi, Mubarak, and yes, even the cute little king Hussein, are all
smacking their lips in anticipation of the "inevitable" destruction of the Jewish State.  That the
likes of an Abba Eban can so eloquently accept the "inevitable" and coldly shovel more dirt on the
would be grave of the Jewish State only underlines the depth of depravity to which so many of
our would be leaders have sunk.
     May the Almighty grant strength and wisdom to our new prime minister to distance
himself from such purveyors of self contemp, and face his own people, as well as our enemies,
with authentic Jewish pride and self respect.