As I sat at lunch last Wednesday, I heard the words that I dread most. “Did you hear about the terrorist attack?” I felt my heart speed up in fear. “A tractor (the Hebrew word for bulldozer) flipped over a bus.” I rushed to the computer and was horrified by what I saw. An Arab Israeli resident of East Jerusalem, Hussam Duwiyat, went on a killing spree in a bulldozer on the busiest street in Jerusalem. The terrorist flipped over a city bus and crushed several cars. Bat-Sheva Unterman, 33, a Jerusalem nursery school teacher, was going about her daily life, driving her baby Efrat in her car. When she saw the bulldozer coming toward her she managed to hand her baby to someone outside of the car, but did not have time to save herself. She was crushed in her car. Lili Goren-Friedman, 54, a school teacher and former vice president of the Jewish Institute, was the second of the slain. Lastly, Jean Relevy, 68, was murdered by the Arab terrorist. Jean was born in Iran and made Aliyah (moved to Israel) from India in 1949.
Various policemen climbed on top of the bulldozer attempting to stop the driver, unsuccessfully. One man saw what needed to be done and stood up to the task. He was more a boy then a man really, an 18-year-old Yeshiva graduate on leave from the army, named Moshe F (his identity is being kept secret for his safety). He was riding his bicycle and saw the attack happening. Moshe ran to the scene, climbed onto the tractor and shouted at a policeman already on it to shoot the terrorist. When the policeman hesitated, he grabbed a pistol from a security guard behind him and shot the terrorist himself, three times to the head. Only then did a Yassam policeman get up on the bulldozer and shoot the terrorist again, to “confirm the kill.” The Yassam policemen are the infamous Israeli “supercops” or “men in black.” Men with no identity, and most likely no soul. So effective, so brutal when it comes to beating their fellow Jews. Yet when it comes to actually doing what they are trained to do, stop terrorists, they froze this past Wednesday. It took an 18-year-old Yeshiva boy to have the courage to stop the murderer. Incidentally (or not so incidentally), Moshe was the brother-in-law of David Shapira, the soldier on leave who stopped the terrorist at the Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva High School a few months ago.
Let me make one thing clear. This was not an oppressed “Palestinian” acting out of desperation. This was a man with full rights, with Israeli citizenship, given work by Israelis. Yet he still decided to murder and wound innocent civilians. The terrorist who murdered eight innocent boys at Mercaz HaRav a few months ago was from the same East Jerusalem neighborhood. Let this dispel the myth once and for all that East Jerusalem Arabs are docile, peace-loving, law abiding citizens. There is absolutely no difference between the Arabs in East Jerusalem and those in Gaza, at least in regards to their support of terrorism against Israel.
The attack itself was not as much of a surprise as the fact that it hasn’t happened sooner. When we surround ourselves with a violent people dedicated to our destruction, what do you expect? How many more mothers, sisters, brothers and fathers will have to die before a permanent solution is made? These victims were innocent, going about their daily lives, and they were crushed to death in their cars by a cold blooded Arab terrorist. What did two teachers and an old man do to deserve such an awful death? Bat-Sheva sacrificed her life to save that of her baby’s. Do I need to fear every bulldozer I walk by, every crane, every tractor and every truck operated by Arab workers? Israel brought this upon herself by ignoring the inherent risks of hiring a massive Arab work force in return for cheap labor. There are plenty of Jewish immigrants who would be more than glad to take these jobs and then we can avoid having to live in fear.
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Later that night I went to a beautiful wedding just outside the Old City walls. The Chuppah was held on the balcony of the David’s Citadel hotel, with the background of the sun setting over David’s tower. I thought there about the pattern of Jewish life. The day may have started with the darkness of terror, but it ended with the light of a young Jewish wedding. This is the Jewish order of life, first there is dark and then there is light. First there is evening and then there is morning. No matter how hard our enemies may try, they will never succeed in extinguishing the light in us.
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The Torah portion this past week was Chukat. Though Chukat is my Bar Mitzvah Parsha, I never learned it in depth, as it always falls out in the summer. I decided to study it properly this year, with the latest Arab terrorist attack fresh in my mind. I noticed that it contains several clear instructions for how the Jewish nation is to conduct itself.
When the Jews approach the nations living around the borders of Israel, they send messengers asking for passage to the Holy Land. They say, “We will go up on the highway…, I will pay their price, nothing will happen. I will pass through on foot (Numbers 20:19).” Rav Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal, who was murdered by the Nazis, writes in his masterpiece Eim Habanim Semeichah that this verse indicates how the Jews had to return to Israel to make a state. We had to go up with the permission of the kings. Twice, once in the League of Nations in 1922 and again in the U.N. in 1947, the nations of the world gave the Jews permission to return to their land. Thus, it was possible for the Jews to make a state after two thousand years of exile. Then, “Israel will dwell in safety, alone, in the likeness of Jacob (Deuteronomy 33:28)”
Later on in their travels, the Jews were attacked. “The Canaanite, king of Arad, who lived in the south, heard that Israel had come by the route of the spies, and he warred against Israel and captured a captive from it (Numbers 21:1).” The great Torah commentator Rashi explains the seemingly superfluous terminology of “captured a captive” to mean that the captive was a slavewoman. Nevertheless, Israel retaliates. First, they pray. Then, they attack. “G-d heard the voice of Israel, and He delivered the Canaanite, and destroyed them and their cities (Numbers 21:3).” Today, there are three captives being held from the Jewish nation: Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev in Lebanon, and Gilad Schalit in Gaza. These were not slavewomen, they were soldiers protecting their people. Yet, for the past two years the Israeli government has done next to nothing to free them. The Torah gives clear instruction how to respond to captors: not to negotiate with the terrorists and reward them for their treachery, as Israel is currently doing with Hamas and Hizbullah. Rather we should pray and put our trust in G-d, then destroy them and their cities.
Lastly, the Torah portion teaches us how to handle land captured in defensive war. Israel sent messengers to Sichon, the Emorite king, asking for peaceful passage through their land. “But Sichon did not permit Israel to pass through his border, and Sichon assembled his entire people and went out against Israel to the desert. He arrived at Yatzah and waged war against Israel. Israel struck him with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land (Numbers 21:23-24).” Israel was attacked, unprovoked. They fought a defensive war, won, and kept the land they conquered. The term used here for “took possession of” in Hebrew is Vayirash, which literally means “and they inherited.” The Torah is telling us here that when the Jewish people capture land in a defensive war, they are so entitled to it it’s as if they inherited it from their parents. In June 1967, Israel was attacked, unprovoked, by Syria and Jordan (and Egypt). In the six days of defensive war that ensued, Israel captured what is known as the “West Bank” and the Golan Heights. Aside from the fact that never has there been a historical precedent of a country returning land won in a defensive war, the Torah clearly tells us that our entitlement to that land is so strong it is as if we inherited it. Therefore, their should be no discussion of “occupation” or returning these lands; they are ours forever, as an inheritance.
For those of you have read this far and are under the impression that I am an insane religious fanatic, I assure you that every point I have made here has practical backing as well as historical precedent. I welcome you to take up any issue you have with what I have said and I will explain it in further detail. I have attached a video of Moshe stopping the terrorist as well as a link to his full account of what happened.
http://www.cbc.ca/clips/mov/rampage-080702.mov
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126707
With Love from the Holy Land,
Elisha
