Goell's Nerve

A reaction to the column in the Jerusalem Post, July 2, 1996
Natshe's Nerve by Yosef Goell

by David Wilder
The Jewish Community of Hebron

Goell's Nerve

Yosef Goell, in his column `Natshe's nerve' (July 2)
makes several major inexcusable errors.
1.  Goell writes of `worship of stones, holy edifices'
etc. and calls this a `throwback to ancient idol
worship.'   On this point he is correct.  However, his
comparison of idol worship to the rights of the Jewish
People to pray at Ma'arat HaMachpela or at Temple Mount
is a disgrace.
     Perhaps Goell should explain his willingness to
serve in the Israeli army, and/or his desire to live here
in the Land of Israel?!  Perhaps he should explain why
Jews should live anywhere in Israel?!  If there is no
sanctity connected to particular sites, why should we
`bother' the Arabs in the Middle East?  Perhaps he should
reaffirm Hertzel's original plan and live in Uganda?  But
then he would `bother' the Africans. Perhaps he would
like to return to the assimilation of European Jewry and
live in Germany?  But we know the results of such
assimilation.  Where then, would Yosef Goell like to
live?
     The same importance  that Goell will undoubtedly
relate to Israel, Jews (religious and secular)
acknowledge towards such sites as Ma'arat HaMachpela and
Temple Mount.  We do not worship these sites - we worship
G-d at these sites.   Their spiritual significance is an
integral part of Jewish existence in Eretz Yisrael.  If
we are not allowed to be present as such sites, why
should we be present in Israel at all?

2.  Goell continues by attacking the Jewish Community of
Hebron. He claims that we have a "history of racist anti-
Arab provocation" and compares us to the Ku Klux Klan.
His libelous accusations, repeated constantly by the
Israeli left, are insidiously false.  The Jewish
Community of Hebron and the Jews living in Hebron are a
continuation of a Jewish community that  existed in
Hebron for hundreds and thousands of years until its
forces expulsion by the British in 1929, following a
massacre which left 67 dead.  We have never demanded the
removal of all Arabs from Hebron.  To the contrary, we
are willing to live peacefully with them.  They must,
however, accept our rights to continue to live here, in
age-old City of the Patriarchs.  The racism Goell writes
about can only be attributed to the Israeli left, which
incites against its own people, in favor of terrorists
who would prefer to see us, all of us, Goell included,
dead.  Hebron's residents are the pioneers of modern
Israel, fulfilling an ideal originating thousands of
years ago and relived one hundred years ago with the
advent of the Zionist movement.  Our presence is Hebron
is no more a provocation than the very existence of the
State of Israel:  The Jewish Community of Hebron is a
microcosm of Israel in the midst of a sea of Arab states.

3.   Goell concludes by suggesting `forced evacuation' of
Jews from Hebron.  This is an example of racism at its
worst.  If I were to suggest forced evacuation of  Arabs
from Hebron, or from any other location of Israel, I
would be defined as a fanatic and extremist.  Who then,
is the real fanatic racist?! Goell should face the
reality that even Hebron's Arab population already
accepts: Jews will never again leave Hebron.

     In conclusion, Goell's allegations against the
Jewish Community of Hebron and his comparison of us with
the Ku Klux Klan is, as we say in Hebrew `Goell nefesh' -
disgusting.