Heroes from the North
May 28, 2000
On Wednesday night, as we
were discussing plans for the upcoming Shabbat, the phone rang. The voice on the other end of the line asked
if we would like to spend the week-end in Kiryat Shemona, on the northern
border of Israel.
My wife lived and worked in
Kiryat Shemona almost 25 years ago. In spite of the fact that we have good
friends there, we hadn't visited Kiryat Shemona is almost 20 years. They always
came down here to see us, but we never managed to find a way to make the trip
north. Being familiar with the pressures
of a city under siege, we decided to take the plunge. We didn't take the whole
family with us - some of the kids stayed in the Hebron area with friends. But
three of them made the trip with us, from Hebron to Kiryat Shemona.
We weren't alone. Two full
buses, including close to 100 students from the Kiryat Arba Yeshiva high
school, led by Hebron resident Rabbi Avinoam Horowitz, and several other Hebron
families came along. We boarded the buses at 11:00 and arrived at our
destination at 4:30 in the afternoon.
Don't think it was a boring
ride. It wasn't. The view, through the Judean Desert, through the date-studded
tree streets of Jericho, climaxes after about two and a half hours. All of a
sudden the lush green view is almost swept aside by the magnificence of the
Golan Heights, from the right-hand windows of the bus. This stark-looking
mountain range, stretching for kilometer after kilometer, is the security line
bordering Israel with Syria. It is unimaginable that such a strategic land area
should be transferred to our archenemy, Syria. Last week, I spoke to one of
former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's top aides about PR work in the US. He
said to me, in these words, "The problem isn't with the United States. I
was there, in Congress. When I started speaking to Congressmen and women from
the western United States about the Golan Heights they stopped me in
mid-sentence. 'You don't have to tell us - we were there. And anyone who has
ever been there understands why the Golan must remain under Israeli control.'
The problem isn't there - it's here with us, in Israel."
And on the other side of
the bus, beneath the Golan Heights, is
the Kinneret - the Sea of Galilee. What a breathtaking site - on one side the
Golan, and on the other side, the Kinneret.
The ride continues, and the
road signs show that Kiryat Shemona is getting closer and closer. To the west,
the Hills of Naftali. To the East, the Hula Valley. Green, and green, and more
green. What makes the scenery more
amazing is the fact that less than 100 years ago the entire area was
swampland. Only after the sacrifices of
hundreds of people who perished due to malaria and other diseases, were the
swamps dried and the land made arable.
Hebron-Kiryat Arba were not
the only visitors in Kiryat Shemona. According to the organizers, over 2,000
people arrived from different parts of Israel to give encouragement to this
border city. On Shabbat evening visitors scattered around, praying in one of
the 30 or so synagogues in the city. Saturday afternoon, after lunch, the
Kiryat Arba Yeshiva high school students, together with their dean, Rav Avinoam
Horowitz, visited hundreds of Kiryat Shemona residents, bringing with them a
special gift of Hebron wine produced in Kiryat Arba, and proclaimed together with
them a special "l'chaim" - "to life" blessing.
On Saturday night the
visitors, together with Kiryat Shemona residents, celebrated at a large outdoor
gathering in "Kikar Tzahal" - the "Army Square." A festive atmosphere quickly developed, with
yeshiva students dancing side by side with Kiryat Shemona's heroic population.
Musical entertainment was supplemented with short speeches by Kiryat Shemona
Mayor Haim Barbevai, the city's Chief Rabbi Rav Tzefania Drori, and special
guest Rabbi Nir ben Artzi. It was a wonderful couple of hours, leaving everyone
feeling the unity of various segments of the Israeli populace, joining
together, giving support one to the other.
Many times in the past few
years we have organized special Hebron events, bringing hundreds of thousands
of people into the city of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs. Countless times I've
overheard guests speaking amongst themselves saying, "I came here to give
them support, but feel that I am being strengthened more than I am giving them
strength." That is exactly the way
I felt after a day in Kiryat Shemona.
These people have lived with, and still live with the threat of an
instantaneous missile attack, with Ketusha flying into their homes from
Lebanon, only a few miles away. Every time you hear a booming sound, (something
we live with constantly in Hebron), everyone looks at each other, asking,
"what was that?" A Ketusha attack is translated into the reality of
living in tiny bomb shelters, men, women and children of different families,
cramped together, perhaps even for a few days. Leaving the bomb shelter may
seem the "brave thing to do" but it also means putting your life in
jeopardy. Stories of Kiryat Shemona residents wounded or killed in Ketusha
attacks are far from being pleasant.
Following the withdrawal of
Israeli troops from South Lebanon, there is no longer a 'buffer zone' between
Israel and the Lebanese-Hizbullah terrorists. Now Kiryat Shemona is the buffer
zone between the terrorists and the rest of the country. It is not an easy fact
to live with.
But, live with it they do, and it was a pleasure to
watch all the children running and playing as do children all over the world.
But these children are definitely special because they are living the kind of
existence most of us cannot even imagine, no less try to duplicate. When the Israeli media describes of residents
of northern Israel, the residents of Kibbutz Manara and Misgav Am, Moshav
Margaliot, the cities of Metullah and Kiryat Shemona, as the heros of Israel
they are not exaggerating. May they be
an example to us all.