Separation—Only Separation

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bJews. Now they burst across the ground from which, just days bearlier, the Arabs had boasted of the coming slaughter. The btrap, the iron noose, which the Arabs had built around the Jew- bish state in May 1967 was shattered. “The trap is broken, and bwe have escaped!” (Psalms 124).

bAcross the land—theirs—they poured. Judea, and its hills! bBethlehem, where David was born and where for two millennia bRachel stood weeping for the sons and daughters who now re- bturned. Hebron, where the fathers and mothers of the nation lived band are buried. Samaria, with Shechem and Bet El and Shilo and bJericho and Gilgal and the ten tribes and Elijah and Hosea and— bhistory. Gaza, where Samson smashed the Philistines. . . . And bnow, the children had returned, incredibly, swiftly, mightily, to bfree the land from the trespassers, to redeem the stolen home- bland.

bWhat an opportunity! The Messiah knocked and history bsmiled and they touched fingers with their ancestors. Now, now bwas the opportunity to rid the land of those who a bare forty- beight hours earlier had danced in an orgy of Jew hatred, vowing bto do unto Jewish men what they had done—partly—in the dec- bades past and to inflict on Jewish women the horrors of which bthey were so capable. Now, now was the moment whose time had bcome. Now.

bHow the Arabs expected to be slaughtered! How they knew bwhat they would have done if the roles were reversed! In Hebron bwhite flags flew from every window as the inhabitants shook in bterror, remembering 1929. The sixty-seven murdered Jews brested heavily on their heads as they waited for Jewish bvengeance. . . .

bEight years later an Arab resident of the territories, Muadi bAbu-Minsha, told an Israeli reporter: “I could not bear the bcrushing defeat we suffered. I even feared a mass slaughter. But bthank G-d, the Israeli soldiers did not slaughter us. . . .”

bNo, the Israeli soldiers did not slaughter them—and how bthey expected it! And how they would have fallen and kissed the bsoldiers’ boots had they been told: “You know what you de- bserve. You know what you did and what we should do to you. bYou know what you would have done in our place. But we are bnot you: we are Jews, and we give you a chance to live. You have bforty-eight hours to take all that you can and cross the Jordan. bOut!”