                                                  "

                      A Voice From Hebron
                     by Gary M. Cooperberg
                         August 9, 1995
                    Democracy, Israeli Style
                                
     And the lies go on.   Just a few days before the arrival of Tisha b'Av the Israeli High
Court of Justice ruled that Jewish worshipers may go up to the Temple Mount to offer their
prayers.   Of course, the usual stipulation was that the police had the right to prevent Jews from
going on the Temple Mount in the event that it became impossible for them to provide adequate
security.  Arafat was listening and he ordered thousands of Arabs to alight on our holy mountain
to prevent Jewish prayer.  The police, in an unusual change of posture, actually attempted to
escort a few Jews onto the mountain.  Every time they tried they were faced by a mob of angry
Arab thugs with rocks in their hands and howling, "Itbach el Yehud" (murder the Jews), and the
police backed down time after time.
     Rather than remove the Arab hordes, which would have been a difficult task for
Jerusalem's finest, the police decided to "reason" with them.   Even Feisal Husseini was called to
intervene.  Supreme Court or no, Feisal could not permit Jewish prayer on this Arab holy place. 
So the police took the easy way out.   They closed the mountain altogether (although hundreds of
Arabs were left on the mountain.
     The Jerusalem Chief of Police, on an Israeli television interview, "corrected" the
interviewer by explaining that Jews have the right to visit the Temple Mount, not to pray there. 
Now only a few days ago the entire country heard the results of the High Court ruling.  Can it be
that Jerusalem's Chief of Police wasn't listening to the radio that day?   The fact is, even in a
former ruling, the court agreed that Jews do have the right to pray there.  The police were given
the right to prevent Jews from praying only in as far as it created a danger to security.  I don't
know why it never occurred to anyone that the police find a way to remove the danger.  After all,
one would assume that the police have a job to remove danger, not merely avoid it.  But this is
Israel and it is much easier to stop Jews from exercising their right to pray than it is to stop
Moslem fanatics from trying to murder them.  So the Temple Mount is in Feisal's hands, certainly
not in ours.  
     It is also interesting to note that the presence of about six former Kach members on their
way to pray at the ancient synagogue in Jericho was reason enough for the police to arrest them
and request their incarceration.  The judge who heard the request denied it on the grounds that
the men could be questioned without being jailed.  (Coincidentally the judge's name was Kahane!)
     And if this outright slap in the face to freedom of religion isn't enough to turn your
stomach, wasn't it a treat to watch Communications Minister, Shulamit Aloni, enforce the law. 
While the law which permits Jews to pray in our holy places is not very important to Mrs. Aloni,
the right of Jews to express opinions which differ from hers is simply not to be tolerated.  When
she got wind of the Arutz Sheva off shore radio broadcast boat anchored in Ashdod, she hurried
to protect the rights of the Israeli public not to listen to such terrible things as Dr. Goldstein was a
tzaddik and Shulamit Aloni isn't.   She ordered the police to impound the transmitters and thus
put Arutz Sheva out of business . . . or so she thought.   It seems that a great many people do not
consider it very democratic to quash the voice of dissent.  And so, about two days later, Arutz
Sheva was back in business, much to the chagrin of the heroine of democracy.



     The Yesha council met last week with the prime minister.   It was announced by the press
that one of the demands made by them was that "palestinian" police not be given automatic
weapons, rather clubs and pistols!   Now I am no great fan of the Yesha council, but I could not
believe my ears when I heard this.  I checked it out with official sources and discovered that this
report was an outright lie!   It would seem that the media is being used to turn Jews against one
another.
     All of this is but the frosting on the cake compared to the determination exhibited by
Israeli citizens from all over the country in Efrat.   The decision to continue to possess the hilltops
of Judea and Samaria despite police strong arm tactics to discourage such demonstrations has our
Prime Minister in a tither.  Peres is rushing to get Arafat to sign an agreement to take our country
from us before the People of Israel take it from him.   Rabin declares that demonstrations are
permitted by democracy, but only within the framework of the law.  What he doesn't mention is
that his law makes it illegal to demonstrate!   
     Sources close to the Prime Minister have indicated that Rabin is very worried about the
growing political unrest among even the most moderate elements of Israeli society.  He is said to
be considering creating conditions which would enable him to declare marshal law and thus
muzzle all forms of dissent without having to be encumbered by the restraints of even this pseudo
democracy.
     The fact is that we have no democracy in Israel.  If the American Revolution began with
the slogan "Taxation without representation is unjust", what will future generations say about the
concept of surrendering one's homeland to our enemies without as much as consulting the
people?  Is that in some way more just?  Our lives are being placed in greater danger every time
Peres and Rabin shake hands with Arafat.  Treason is too kind a word for those who would
destroy a two thousand year old dream for a ridiculous vision of a New Middle East which would
see the dissolution of the Jewish State.
     We have no leaders.   We have no democracy.   What we do have is the Living G-d of
Israel; the Promise He made to our Father, Abraham; and the strength of the faith of hundreds of
thousands of good Jews, all over Israel and beyond, who are not as stupid as Rabin and his
cohorts thinks they are.   We have survived the crematoria of Auschwitz and the bombs of the
Warsaw Ghetto.  Dare they think we will not survive the batons of their Jewish gestapo?  
     "Ve are just folloving orders", is a disgusting phrase which must be washed out of the
mouths of Jews who should know better.  The only orders which may never be violated are the
Laws of our Torah.  When we see every faction leader in our Knesset deplore the halacha as given
by our sages as subservient to their law, then it is clear that the basis for this form of government
to rule in Israel is an invalid one.  It is not new elections which will rescue us from ourselves,
rather the replacement of the "let's make a deal" form of government by a genuine Jewish one.   If
we don't have the kind of leaders who can lead us to this new kind of government, G-d Himself
will create events which will force it upon us.  It won't be much longer.