CBN News Terrorism Analyst ^ |
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 | Erick Stakelbeck
Understanding the Threat to Israel's Biblical
Heartland
By Erick Stakelbeck CBN News Terrorism Analyst
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
JUDEA AND SAMARIA -- The world calls it the West
Bank. But the 350,000-plus Israelis living here use the
region's biblical name: Judea and Samaria.
According to a recent United Nations report,
international law calls for Israel to evacuate all
existing settlements and dismantle Jewish communities in
the eastern half of Jerusalem.
The U.N. considers all the neighborhoods in
Judea and Samaria "illegal" settlements that will one
day be included in a Palestinian state.
Global pressure to hand this territory over to
the Palestinians is mounting against Israel by the day,
including tough words from the Obama administration.
A Thriving Community
Yet on a recent tour of Judea and Samaria, CBN
News found a much different picture than what is often
portrayed in the media and world forums.
"The Jewish communities here in the Shomron are
thriving, are building, are growing," David Ha'ivri,
spokesman for the Shomron Regional Council in Samaria,
told CBN News.
"The population is growing. We're growing at
four times greater, five times greater, than the
national average in Israel," he said.
Haivri said a growing number of Israelis are
relocating to the area for the same reasons Americans
move from the city to the suburbs: family friendly
communities, fresh air, and land at affordable prices.
"Young families who wish to establish themselves
and raise children look around and say, 'Where are we
going to get a good standard of living?'" Ha'ivri said.
"It's beautiful scenery. We're out here on the
mountains. It's great weather. It's cool in the summer."
"But aside from that, and even more important,
there's a godly process of fulfilling prophecy that's
beyond explanation," Ha'ivri told CBN News. "The
prophets promised that the children of Israel would
return to these mountains and rebuild these Jewish
cities and Jewish towns. And that's what happening."
While Ha'ivri, like many here, is an observant
Jew, 60 percent of those living in Samaria are secular.
Ariel University is the region's educational hub
and its 16,000 students come from all backgrounds. Arab
students here are free to wear Muslim religious attire
and they study alongside Jews.
CBN News found a similar story at the nearby
Barkan Industrial Park, home to some 150 businesses
where Israelis work side-by-side with their Palestinian
neighbors.
An Arab working in these businesses makes double
or three times as much, in some cases, as he would make
working for the Palestinian Authority in the Palestinian
areas.
Palestinian workers at Barkan also receive full
benefits, full vacation time and the ability to move up
the ladder into a supervisory or management position.
Targets for Terror
Life here is not without its challenges. The
Jewish communities of Samaria are frequent targets for
Palestinian terror attacks.
The 2011 massacre of Udi and Ruth Fogel and
three of their small children in the Samarian town of
Itamar was one horrific example. They were murdered in
their sleep by two local Palestinians.
Further south, in the Judean city of Hebron, the
situation is also difficult.
"There are security threats, security problems
we have to deal with here," David Wilder, spokesman for
Hebron's small Jewish community, told CBN News.
"During the second intifada [armed Palestinian
uprising], we were shot at for two and half years here.
There are still terrorist attacks here," he said.
Hebron, which is mostly Palestinian Arab, is
home to Judaism's second holiest site: the Cave of the
Patriarchs, also known as the Cave of Machpela. Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Rebecca, Sarah, and Leah -- the patriarchs
and matriarchs of the Land of Israel and of the Bible --
are all buried in Hebron.
It was also the city where King David ruled for
seven years before moving his kingdom to Jerusalem.
"You cannot let terrorism determine how you live
and where you live if you know that this is your home
and this is where you are supposed to be. What can be
more normal for a Jew than living in the city of
Hebron?" Wilder said.
In withdrawing from Judea and Samaria, Israel
would not only be giving up a huge part of its past, it
could be harming its future.
"God forbid, Palestinian terrorists, Hamas
terrorists, would be standing here," Yuli Edelstein,
Israel's minister of Public Diplomacy, said. "They would
basically be in total control. And they won't need
long-range missiles. They could reach basically to every
town and city in this area."
Edelstein, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu's cabinet, lives not far from Jerusalem in the
Judean town of Gush Etzion, another area the U.N. wants
cleared of Jews.
"I know that strategically, many things have
changed in modern war," Edelstein told CBN News. "But on
the other hand, without our total control here in these
areas, I don't think we'd be able even to run a normal
country."
A Warning for the US
Edelstein told CBN News some of the same forces
that oppose Israel's presence in these areas are also
hostile to the United States.
"If the bad guys can do it to Israel as a
democracy and turn us into demons and apartheid and
fascists, you name it -- basically, they can do it to
every democracy, United States included," Edelstein
said.
President Obama will make his first presidential
visit to Israel in March. Discussions over the future of
Judea and Samaria are sure to be on his agenda with
Israel's prime minister.