Monkey in the Cloud

Monkey in the Cloud
April 29, 2002

Shalom and welcome to this evening’s UN version of  News Tonight, brought to you by the internationally known conglomerate, “My Monkey in the Cloud”.

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 And now to the UN’s version of news tonight.

 UN secretary general, My monkey in the cloud, oh, ah, excuse me, coffee in the cloud, oh no, excuse me, Kofee Anan, held a press conference earlier today, in which he presented the UN position concerning latest events in the Middle East. We now switch to our Mideast correspondent S.H. Muk Pheres for the report. S.H. Muk Pheres, take it away.

 Earlier today, the secretary general spoke very humpity dumpity about picking up the pieces in the Middle East. Here is a summary of his speech.

 As you know, several weeks ago the UN General Assembly Council for Arab Security (in short, GAC-AS)  sent a special task force to Student Terrorist’s University in Jenin (in short, STUJ), to study the effects of mixed explosive chemicals on the human body. The expedition was led by Professor Asser Abu Amar, who holds the chair of anatomy at the University of Gazza. Other appointees included internationally known explosive experts, Drs. Rujub and Dahalan. Dr. M. Bar Ghuti was scheduled to attend also, but was inconveniently tied up.  The final member of the panel will remain unnamed for obvious reasons, but will be known as “The Engineer, Junior.”

 The group enjoyed an uneventful flight to STUJ, while reviewing the latest rendition of the powerful movie, “Bombs Away.”  Due to the fact that the university grounds were cordoned off, the elusive panel crawled through a secret underground tunnel, reaching their destination bloody and muddy, ready for work.

 Following consultation with STUJ’s student body it was quickly decided to forgo theoretical study, preferring to examine the results of authentic fieldwork. Once the concoction was quickly prepared, a debate ensued as to how and where it should be tested. Asserting his authority, Professor Asser Abu Amar’s opinion was decisive, belting it out to his fellow compatriots. Respecting the sensitivity for their neighbor’s religious preferences, it was decided not to use Guinea Pigs, rather real people.

 The results were dynamite. Professor Asser Abu Amar was able to report back to the UN GAC-AS that the experiments were a resounding success. During the experiments, of course, there were unfortunate but necessary casualties amongst the native population. Also, the walls of a number of buildings collapsed, burying alive a number of the GAC-AS consultants and assistants. This was considered to be the price to be paid for the explosive success. However, being that the experiment victim’s did not fully cooperate with the task force, it was decided to blame them for the accidental deaths, thereby relieving Professor Asser Abu Amar and his co-workers from any blame.

 The special STUJ task force studying the effects of mixed explosive chemicals on the human body reached the following conclusions:

1.      Uncooperative victims can cause inefficiency.

2.      Uncooperative victims must be blamed for all casualties.

3.      The victim is always to blame.

 These conclusions were immediately accepted by the UN Secretary General and it was decided to pass a GAC-AS resolution denouncing the victims.

 Following his statement, the GAC-AS Secretary General allowed questions:

First Question:  Mr. GAC-AS Secretary General, how do you condon the killing of innocent victims?

Answer: The victim is never innocent. To the contrary, he is always guilty. That is why he is to blame. If he wasn’t guilty, he would not be a victim.

 Second Question: Mr. GAC-AS Secretary General, it was reported that some of the above-noted experiments were carried out on people sleeping in their beds, including women and children. How do you define their blame?

Answer: That is a very stupid question. The answer is simply that they are at fault for having been asleep. If they had not been asleep you would not have been able to ask such a question. Had they been awake, they would have been just as responsible for their fate as are others. It makes no difference if they were women or children. It is their fault.

 Third Question: But Mr. GAC-AS Secretary General, if the women and children are considered to be the legitimate participants in the STUJ task force experiments for  effects of mixed explosive chemicals on the human body, bringing about their deaths, how are they to blame for the walls falling down on the task force members?

 Answer: That is a ridiculous question. Everyone knows the answer. Because they are the provocateurs. Need more be said?

 Fourth and last question: Mr. GAC-AS Secretary General, what must be done to prevent catastrophes such as this in the future?

 Answer: This a question is a real dud. We must do away with the victims. If there are no more victims then, obviously, the victim will no longer be at fault. If the victim is not at fault then, obviously, there can be no wrong-doing. Doing away with victims will make the world a safer place. This is the solution to bringing peace to the world. If there are no more victims there will be no more aggressors. The victims are to blame. This is the major conclusion reached by Professor Asser Abu Amar’s task force. We hope to immediately implement the conclusions.

 This is S.H. Muk Pheres, reporting for the UN version of News Tonight.

 With blessings from Hebron.

This is David Wilder

Get Out of Bed

Get Out of Bed
April 24, 2002

A few weeks ago we received notification that the army had orders to close Ma?arat HaMachpela. Yes, closeMa?arat HaMachpela. We were told that this site would be off-limits from April 21, for a period of two weeks. The reason for the closing, we were told, was renovations. The security isn?t good enough. The metal-detectors must be replaced, as well as the closed-circuit television system, at a cost of millions of shekels. During discussions with some of the people involved in the so-called renovations, it became clear that the intended work would continue well over the two weeks we have been told of. 

Ma?arat HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, is the second-holiest site to the Jewish people in the entire world, second only to Temple Mount in Jerusalem. There are, literally, no archeologists who disagree with the fact that this is the authentic site of the caves purchased by Abraham almost 4,000 years ago, in order to inter his beloved wife, Sarah. He too was buried here, as were Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah.

The building atop the caves was constructed over 2,000 years ago by Herod, when he was King of Judea. Herod was a blood-thirsty murderer, but he was also a builder, and build he did. Some of his more notable projects, besides Ma?arat HaMachpela, were Herodian, the palace located south-east of Jerusalem, not far from the Dead Sea, and the renovation of the Temple in Jerusalem.

Ma?arat HaMachpela was always one of the most revered sites in Judaism. When the Rambam, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, known as Maimonides, visited Hebron and Ma?arat HaMachpela, he declared the day a festivity to be celebrated by his family and offspring forever. For seven hundred years Ma?arat HaMachpela was off-limits to anyone not Muslim. From the year 1267, following the conquest of the city by the Mameluks during the Crusader Wars, until Hebron?s liberation in the 1967 Six-Day War, Jews (and I might add, Christians) could not enter the building. We were told that this holy site was a mosque, without any importance or significance to Jews, and that we could not pray inside. For many years Jews were allowed to pray outside, at an area remembered infamously as the ?7th step.? That was as far as we could go. Jews who attempted to climb any further were kicked, spat at, and threatened with death. Some were arrested. Until 1967.

Today, we are again told by our Arab neighbors that Ma?arat HaMachpela is insignificant to Jews. Hebron?s Deputy Arab Mayor, Kamal Dweck, told an interviewer that, should the Arabs again control the Ma?ara (which they call Misgad Ibrahimi ? the Abraham Mosque), Jews will be forbidden from entering because, ?it is a mosque, not a synagogue.? He said, ?Jews can go back and pray outside, but they cannot pray inside.?

We believe him. After all, look at Joseph?s Tomb in Shechem. According to Arafat?s signature on the Oslo Accords, Joseph?s Tomb was to be left under Israeli control, thereby allowing Jewish access to this sacred site. We all know what happened to Joseph?s Tomb. The problem is, though, not the Arabs. Their actions are to be expected. After all, they are the enemy. But what about the Jews? Why should Israelis ignore the importance of such spiritually important places? After having returned to Shechem during the present war, why was it necessary to again abandon this site to the terrorists? Why didn?t Israel assert its legitimate rights to stay at Joseph?s Tomb? Even according to those who favored again abandoning and withdrawing from these cities, why again abandon Joseph to the Arab terrorists?

Now, during these days of combat, when prayer is so vital, Ma?arat HaMachpela is being closed to Jewish visitors. Thousands of people, from Israel and around the world, have signed petitions, demanding that Ma?arat HaMachpela not be closed. With little success. A few days ago we were promised that the Ma?ara would be open from four o?clock until seven o?clock in the morning, and then for a half hour for afternoon and evening prayers, just before sunset. For the rest of the day, no one is allowed inside.

The reasons given for the closing are ludicrous. First of all, there is no reason in the world to waste so much money replacing the two sets of metal-detectors that we walk through while entering the building. It is a waste of tens of thousands of dollars. Even if they did have to be replaced, so what. That means that the building must be closed to Jews, as it was for 700 hundred years? Work can be accomplished and security maintained with the site remaining open. Can you imagine closing the Kotel - the Western Wall - to Jews? What would happen if Israel tried to close the Temple Mount to the Arabs? Yet in Hebron, closing Ma?arat HaMachpela is okay.

However, the real point is not the closing of the Ma?ara or the abandonment of Joseph?s Tomb. The real point is that too many people in Am Yisrael have lost sight of what we are and where we are. I participated in an Australian television talk show last week, and when addressing the so-called Jerusalem question, one of the Israeli women spoke of the ?idea? of Jerusalem, which did not necessarily include earth and rocks. Another woman, a school teacher, ready to relinquish all of eastern Jerusalem and the Temple Mount to the terrorists said, ?How many people are you ready to sacrifice for a holy place?? When I responded, ?So let?s live in a virtual Israel; we?ll leave the state,? she replied, ?this is not a virtual Israel, it is a place where people can live and see some hope in their real life.?

I didn?t get a chance to answer her, but I would have asked, ?What exactly is a real life? Can you live a real life without your essence, without your soul?? Israel has a soul, an inner presence that kept us alive, as a people in exile, for 2,000 years. That presence, ?next year in Jerusalem,? fueled our spirits for two millennia. Hebron, Shechem, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, - Rachel?s Tomb, Joseph?s Tomb, Ma?arat HaMachpela, Temple Mount - this is our culture, our history and our future. For a people without a past have no future.

The alarm clock is ringing, but sometimes, when you are in a deep, deep sleep, you don?t hear it. Sometimes, when you try to turn it off, a few minutes later it surprises you and rings again, and again, and again, until you get out of bed. Only a people fast asleep can abandon Joseph?s Tomb, close Ma?arat HaMachpela, and leave the Temple Mount in the hands of the terrorists.

Let?s all of us wake up and get out of bed.

Bowls of Blood and Tears

Bowls of Blood and Tears
Erev Pesach, 2002

The archangel stood, approached the holy throne, and bowed before the L-rd. Receiving permission to speak, the angel lowered his eyes to the ground, unable and unwilling to look G-d in the eye.

“My L-rd, today is the second day of the week. In two days time we must be ready to accept the annual Passover offering. My L-rd, it is known before You, that since the destruction of the Second Temple, almost two thousand years ago, our People have yearned to bring their offerings, yet have been unable to do so. During the centuries of our dispersion, Passover was only a ceremony, with memories, reading from our holy books, going through the motions. Now, Now, Blessed be Your Name, with the return of our People to the holy city of Jerusalem, those yearnings have increased a thousand fold, yet your People still are prevented from giving their offering.”

“My L-rd, on Passover eve, it is customary to recite the four questions, which ask, ‘why is this night different from other nights.’ My L-rd, this year your humble and lowly servant stands before You, proclaiming that not only is this night unlike other nights. My L-rd, this year is unlike other years.”

My all-knowing L-rd, in the past fifteen months, since the eve of Rosh HaShana 5761, three hundred and sixty five Israelis have been slaughtered before you. Over two hundred and fifty of them were civilians. Over three thousand three hundred and fifty people have been wounded, over two thirds of them civilians. Men, women and children, killed and maimed, their blood spilt, for the sake of your Holy Name.”

My L-rd, only yesterday two more holy Jews were sacrificed on the alter of peace. Such good and beautiful people, a woman and a man. Esther, only 23 years old, not yet married, caring for children, young children, disabled children with Down’s syndrome and other disabilities. Esther so loved her land and her people, coming to Israel from afar, leaving the comforts of America, for the soil of Eretz Yisrael.

My L-rd, Esther was on her way to her children, the children that needed her and loved her. She was riding in an armored bus, yet the terrorist’s bullet found its into the bus, striking her down, another sacrificial lamb, pure and innocent.

And again My L-rd, last night, Avi, a twenty four year old man, married only six months, who too, worked with children, a medic in the army, a person who cared for his fellow man, living in the holy community of Otniel, so near the founders of your People in the holy city of Hebron. He too was shot down by an enemy of your People. He too tried to protect himself, clad with a bullet-proof vest and an army helmet. Yet they could not help him in his hour of need. He leaves a heartbroken widow, Daphna, his wife of only half a year.

Woe to us, woe to us, for our sacrifices are so abundant, so much blood is spilled. Three hundred and sixty five people – one for each day of the last year, from last Passover to today.

My L-rd, Your holy place is still in the hands of the defiled, corrupting sanctity with profanity. There are those amongst your own People who still do not understand the holiness of this site, the center of the universe, the heart of your Land, your People, your teaching.

My L-rd, here in one hand, a bowl, filled to the brim with a drop of blood from each of the sacrifices – please accept this as atonement, grant forgiveness, let no more blood be spilled. Let the blood of this year’s Passover offering be of a sacrificial lamb, and not of sacrificial people, sacrificial Jews.

And here, my L-rd, in my other hand, another bowl, also filled to the brim, with tears, one tear from each of the orphans, widows, widowers, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, the loved ones who have lost their loved ones. Please My L-rd, let these tears be a symbol of compassion, a sign of mercy, and let them be the last tears shed in pain, let next year’s tears be tears of joy and happiness.

My L-rd, here lined up behind me, are the souls of the children who were to be born to Esther and Avi. Look how many there are – their children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, a whole room of souls, who will not now be brought into your world, for they lost their parents, even before they were born.

My L-rd, how will Nachum Klieman, Esther’s father, celebrate this year’s Passover? My L-rd, how will Daphna Tzabag, Avi’s widow, celebrate this year’s Passover? How will they say, as your People recite, every Passover night, those famous words, B’damaich Chai’e, B’damaich Chai’e – and you will live in your blood, you will live in your blood. My L-rd, these people have lived, but also died, in their blood. How will they repeat these words, with a smile, or with tears in their eyes?

My L-rd, every Passover night your People participate in a Seder – in the order of the night, reading the Hagada, the story of the redemption, thousands of years ago, from Egypt. This is the story of liberation, preceding the receiving of the Torah, preceding the entrance into the Homeland, Eretz Yisrael. My L-rd, they received Your Torah and they are in the Land, but where is the freedom, where is the liberation? Why must your People ride in armored buses, with bulletproof vests and helmets, which don’t even protect them? Is this the sign of a free, liberated People?

My L-rd, this Passover night, when You recite Your own Hagada, when You make Your own Seder, please, my L-rd, place these two bowls of blood and tears on Your table, before you, and sit with all these souls, the lost souls of Avi and Esther, and promise them that next year, there will be no more lost souls, that there will be no more blood, that there will be no more tears, that next year’s Seder will celebrate the true and final liberation, redemption of the Jewish people, in their Land.

Thank you, my L-rd.

With blessings from Hebron,

This is David Wilder

Courage and Spirit

Courage and Spirit
April 14, 2002

Last week was a very difficult week. I found myself twice in two days at Har Hertzel in Jerusalem. Har Hertzel is Jerusalem’s military cemetery. Attending funerals is never pleasant, but when the victims are young men, 19 and 21 years old, it is almost unbearable. Both soldiers fell in Jenin, first Shmuel Weiss from Kiryat Arba, and later, Gedalia Malik, who grew up in Kiryat Arba.  Buried next to Shmuel Weiss is Amir Mantzuri, also from Kiryat Arba, who was killed by a terrorist in Gazza about two months ago. In the row directly behind them is the still fresh grave of Rechavam Ze’evi, Ghandi, hy”d.

Yesterday I paid a condolence call at the Weiss home in Kiryat Arba. For much of the week entrance into their apartment has been standing room only. Thousands have visited the Weiss family, Rabbi Aryeh, his wife Tzipporah and their other 8 children including President Moshe Katzav, ministers, and many friends and comrades-in-arms of Shmuel.

Shmuel’s father told how his son had been killed: “Shmuel was a medic. He would have preferred to participate in a section commander’s course, but when his commanding officer requested that he do the medic course, he agreed, and he did it well.”

During the battle (in Jenin) Shmuel saw that another soldier had been hit by gunfire and was lying wounded. The IDF doesn’t abandon wounded soldiers. Shmuel ran to him in an attempt to help. Before reaching his injured companion, he too was hit by enemy gunfire.”

Looking somewhat stunned, he declared, “the courage needed to make such a decision.”

He added,  “An officer visiting here told us, weapons will not win a war. What’s needed is courage and spirit.”

At Shmuel’s funeral, the final speaker was his mother, Tzipporah. I would like to read you a translation of what she said, standing next to her son’s fresh grave:

“Essentially, everyone has already said what I wanted to say. In any case, a little.

At this time I want to express a few thoughts that I thought about since we were informed about what happened. First of all, Shmuel’s personality. Everyone already spoke about it, and he really was very special. One point that I thought. He knew his value but was very much not arrogant. A while ago, before he finished the medic’s course, he told me about a conversation he had with the ‘Magad” [battalion commander]. He was very happy about the meeting. I asked him, “what happened at the meeting?”

Then he told me, “The Magad asked me to tell him about myself.”

I asked him, “Nu, so what did you tell him?”

He said, “Look, I don’t have anything special to tell. I don’t have anything.”

I responded, “Shmuel, why not? Tell him what you studied, what you think about things, that you live here…”

“Emma, that’s not interesting. The Magad asked me if I want to join the unit composed of Yeshiva students and I told him no. He asked why and I told him, ‘my soldiers are waiting for me.’”

He added that they have a chart and every day since the medic’s course they mark down when Weiss is returning. I was very happy about that conversation. It was simply a nice story, befitting of him.

Our sages have said, A person should always be soft, like a reed and should not be hard like a ceder. Shmuel had the ability to bend when being criticized and not be offended, and later stand tall with a smile and continue.

For example, at the beginning of his basic training, I remember that he told me that one officer was bothering him. Well, I heard that and broiled: Why? Why should this officer bother you, …. And Shmuel answered, “Emma, why get excited. That’s his job.”  In other words, he wasn’t particularly concerned about it, and that was very nice.

It is told that [in the Talmud] Rav Baroka was found regularly in the marketplace in BiLeft and Elijah the prophet would visit with him. He asked Elijah, is there anyone here in the market deserving of the next world? Elijah said no. In the mean time, two people entered the market and Elijah said, “these people are deserving of the next world. Rav Baroka went to them and asked them to tell him of their deeds. They told him, ‘We are happy people and we make sad people happy. When we see people arguing with each other, we make efforts to make peace between them.’

Really, this is the way he was and everyone spoke about it. I don’t need to repeat it, we must only learn from this.

When Shmuel came home from the army, each time I would ask him, “What can I give you, what do you need?” And he would answer, “Emma, don’t worry, Emma, don’t worry.”

At some point at the beginning I asked, “What, I won’t prepare you him anything?” And afterwards I understood that if I really want to help my child and my other children, I must stop worrying, making efforts not to worry. Because courageous children need courageous mothers.

I turn to all the other mothers of soldiers here, and of soldiers in battle, if we really want to help our children, our soldiers, he must try not to worry. To have faith in G-d, and let them fight.

Today is Holocaust memorial day. I gave birth, thank G-d, to three girls and six boys. Six sons, that means six soldiers, and that means, and I always knew, that perhaps not all of them would return from the army.

I wanted a large family, because they killed six million of ours, and amongst them my grandfather and grandmother, 10 of their children and another 40 of my close family, and this was my answer to the holocaust, my revenge.

Also my maternal grandmother lost, in the War of Independence, in the space of two months, her husband and her son, and there is room for me to learn from her how to deal with grief.

I praise G-d that he gave Shmuel the privilege to fight honorably, fully identifying with this Land, and its borders, a privilege millions did not have.

G-d gave, G-d took, May G-d’s name be praised.

With blessings from Hebron,

This is David Wilder

Memorial Flames

Memorial Flames

April 8, 2002

Shalom.

Tonight begins the commemoration of Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day.  Most of us will participate in ceremonies throughout the country, marked by speeches, poetry, and the lighting of six flames, each flame representing one sixth of the six million, six million, which in recent years, has been estimated as being closer to seven million. The enormity of six million people is so beyond human conception that, rather than overstate we understate. One small flame symbolizing one million people.

Holocaust day, Yom HaShoah, as we refer to it in Hebrew, has a second element, for some reason less emphasized. That is, Heroes’ Day –when we honor the bravery, in Hebrew, gevura, of  tens of thousands who risked their lives, and many times, lost their lives, in the war against the Nazi beast.

Jews are no strangers to death, nor are we strangers to heroes. I’d like to relate to you briefly, a short account of modern heroism, a simple story, not unlike many others, but still, heroism, in every sense of the word. A friend of mine, let’s call him Avi, not his name, but he would never forgive me if I used his real name, is a multi-faceted person, with many interests, talents and expertise. In the army he is a rabbi, or chaplain, as they are called. In real life he is, among other things, a first-class paramedic. When the call-up started, Avi received a phone call from one of the soldiers in his unit. It was Friday afternoon, a few hours before the beginning of Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath. “Avi,” we’re all here, we’ve been called up.” Despite that fact that he had not received orders, without thinking about it, Avi packed a bag and left his family for the base, joining the rest of the troops.

One might ask, what does a combat unit need with a Rabbi, but Avi doesn’t restrict himself to spiritual tasks. Rather, he takes part in all the unit’s activities, never knowing a quiet moment.

It wasn’t long before the unit received it’s assignment: Jenin. Jenin is the northern-most Shomron city today belonging to the Palestinian authority. It is also full of terrorists. Why? Prior to the beginning of the current  “Defensive Shield” war,  whenever Israel began retaliating against the PA, in response to terror attacks, the Arab terrorists fleeing from the IDF would run north, reaching Jenin. As a result the city filled up with more than its share of ‘natural terrorists.’ The city is divided into two sections: the regular city and the refugee camp. Most of the fleeing terrorists found shelter in the refugee camp, turning it into one of the most dangerous areas in the Shomron.  Jenin’s terrorist infrastructure includes the Fatah-based Al-Aqsa Brigades, the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization and Hamas. Numerous terror attacks against Israeli civilian targets initiated in Jenin. Of the thousands of weapons confiscated since the inception of the current military operation, (including over 2,000 guns and rifles, rpgs, etc, many many were found in Jenin. In order to eliminate terror, a house-to-house battle in Jenin was imminent.

Avi, together with his unit, made their way to the city of terror. Avi’s commander’s, learning that the unit’s Rabbi was also a paramedic, asked him if he would be willing to participate in the unit’s medical team. Avi’s response was immediate, “Yes, of course.” Avi is forty years old, married with a bunch of children, the oldest in the army and the youngest in nursery school.

The battle for Jenin began. Avi was called to duty, “A soldier wounded, in the refugee camp.” Avi quickly jumped into an APC – an armored personnel carrier, built like a tank, but smaller, and without a turret. Crowded in with a few other people, Avi found himself in the middle of the battle. The APC’s front entrance slid open and Avi found himself inside the camp, gunfire all around. Jumping out, he zigzagged from building to building, before finding the wounded soldier, treating him and getting him back to the IDF encampment.

A short time later, again, an injured officer. This time Avi had to run through a field, taking cover behind rocks, ducking down to avoid terrorist gunfire. As he told me, “I kept thinking how easy it would be to die here.” When Avi and the IDF doctor reached their destination, it was too late. The officer had died of his wounds. There was nothing they could do but return the officer’s body to the camp headquarters.

Avi came home for a few days, but made it clear. “I’m going back,” he said. He doesn’t have to, he didn’t receive call-up orders. He didn’t have to participate as a paramedic during the battle – his army job is as a Rabbi. When I asked him why he had gone in the first place, Avi said, “well the whole unit was there, so I had to be there too.”

Avi isn’t the only hero of the Defensive Shield War. Avi told me of others, who in everyday life sell insurance, drive taxis, teach in school, who all showed up for duty, one minute a civilian, the next minute a soldier, running their way through ankle-high mud, in the pouring rain, eating battle rations, dodging bullets, not always successfully. No complaints, no “why me” – ordinary, people, all of whom have one thing in common. They all know and say, (as Avi told me), “we are fighting for our homes.” This isn’t Falkland or Vietnam , it is a war for our houses, our yards, our families.

Just as there were heroes sixty years ago, so today, there are heroes – regular people who really aren’t so regular, or perhaps they are.

As I write this, writing about heroes, I’ve received very bad tidings. As tonight we mark the beginning of Holocaust Remembrance Day, another family is facing a personal holocaust. This morning a young man, a young hero from Kiryat Arba, serving in the IDF, was killed in the city of terror, Jenin. A fine person, from a fine fine family, gave his life for his people, for his land, a terrible price to pay for the crimes of Peres, Beilin and the like. Tonight, as we light the memorial flames, our thoughts will not only be of the six million.

Looking forward to good news,

With blessings from Hebron,

This is David Wilder