Satan’s Last Stand

There was something in the air. There were soldiers where soldiers usually aren’t posted, there were buses of miltary and border police stationed across from the enterance to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood and in other parts of Hebron. The officers were out in full force.

The Devil himself was coming to visit.

You know, it’s almost funny. I was standing outside, watching all the “action,” and others, seeing me, asked me what’s going on. I told them that Satan was coming to visit in Hebron. Almost everyone then queried, “Yossi Sarid”? - “No”, I answered, “not Sarid ... the Devil”.

The Jewish Community of Hebron wasn’t notified that the Prime Minister was going to be in the city. The Mayor of Kiryat Arba, Zvi Katzover, received unofficial notification at 6:00 this morning that Rabin would be in the area. There was no official reception, meeting, or any recognition on Rabin’s part of any Jews in the area. His car didn’t stop, he didn’t talk to anyone. He just drove through. As if we didn’t exist.

What was he doing here? You don’t have to be a genious to figure it out. One of the only unsolved predicaments, one of the final “obstacles” to true and lasting “piece” is Hebron. Arafat is demanding full withdrawl of Israeli forces from the city. No Hebron - no “Peace”. The compromise offered is supposed to leave the army on the road from Kiryat Arba through “ Jewish Hebron” - from Ma’arat HaMachpela to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood, to Beit Hadassah and Beit Romano, to Tel Rumeida. The rest of Hebron is to be Judenrein - no Jews and no Israeli police or soldiers. But this plan is opposed by major security officials and ranking officers. Major General Ilan Biran, the Commander of the Central region, and not known as “Hebron’s best friend” is adamanently against having two armed forces in one city. In the past he has threatened to resign if his views were overruled.

So the devil came to visit, to see with his own eyes, once again, perhaps for the “last time” according to his plans. The vender always has to see the merchandise before handing it over to the buyer. He had to see what he wants to get rid of. But to stop, talk to the residents, see where they live, enter the Memorial room in Beit Hadassah, sanctifying the memories of 67 Jews slaughtered by the “now-changed - peace-loving” Arabs in 1929, to say a brief prayerat the Caves of the Jewish Patriarchs and Matriarchs - heaven (or hell) forbid!

He was here, not to long ago - at Hanukkah last year. That time he found a few moments to examine the security changes that had be implemented at Ma’arat HaMachpela. When one of the Jewish women from Hebron asked him, “How can you possibly consider giving the Tombs of the Patriarchs to the Arabs”, the Devil replied, Began gave them Mt. Sinai - why can’t I give them this?”

The truth is that I have debated with myself - maybe it’s better that he not stop to talk to us - what is there to talk about? Possibly he knows that, and thereby refrains from any pretensions. He knows that he is not our Prime Minister - we are the fringe elemnent, extremists on the far right of the political spectrum, equivilant to the Arab terrorist groups - Hamas and Islamic Jihad - for we all wish to prevent successful completion of the “piece plan”. Rabin knows that here he has no one to talk with, and nothing to talk about. He has already made up his mind - our opinions or thoughts are irrelevant -actually as far as he is concerned we are nonexistant.

Rabin is, along with his Foreign Minister, and get me right, they are not representative, but rather they are, evil incarnate.

I say this, not in order to relieve myself of built-up frustrations, but rather to make it very clear - because we have to know who we are dealing with. “Know your enemy”! It is imperative to understand what we are up against in order to know how to act and react accordingly. We are dealing with the manifestation of pure evil, in human form. These “leaders” are capable of ignoring the security of tens and hundreds of thousands of their own people, are endangering the existence of the Jewish State, are evicting Jews from their homeland and turning it over to murdering terrorists, and are making decisions dependant upon the votes and support of Arabs who publicly proclaim their opposition to the existence of the State of Israel. They are also totally disregarding the handful of people who are committed to continuing the legacy of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, five hundred and fifty Jews in the city of Hebron and another 6,000 in Kiryat Arba. This is the personification of evil - Satan dressed up as a human being.

But Satan is on his last stand. How do I know? Because in the end, inevitably, evil loses out. Fifty years ago, a different version of evil attempted to wipe us out - the entire Jewish People. It did succeed in causing a Holocaust - but three years later the State of Israel came into existence. Five hundred years ago the Spaniards expelled thousands of Jews from their empire. Where are the Spaniards today and where are the Jews? The Romans threw us out of Israel two thousand years ago - where are the Romans and where are we?

What is the major difference between the past and the present? In the past, evil almost always took the form of a non-Jew - attacking from outside. This time, evil has dressed up as one of us, attempting to attack us from within - a spy - eating at us as one of our own. But it won’t work. It won’t work, not because of the number of people involved, (even though we really are a majority)- it cannot succeed because of the the inner faith, the inner strength, the inner belief, the deep determination, the true manifestion of the opposite of pure evil, that this is OUR HOME - that Hebron, and Shechem, and Jerusalem, are an integral part of the existence of the Jewish People, and very simply, because we will not leave. Rabin’s and Peres’s come and go - we will be here forever. But this time, when Rabin and Peres and all their helpers, the Devil’s advocates, finish, it’s all over. For our victory is the victory of good over evil, virtues over corruption. Then, with the help of G-d, we will help to establish a true peace - peace for Israel and for all peoples of the world, just and lasting - based on morals and ethics - values that are eternal.

This is Satan’s last stand. He is on his way out.