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Eretz Israel?
Or the Land Free from Jews
Daniel Alievsky
Problem: how to catch a lion in the desert?
Solution.
- Build a big, strong and comfortable cage.
- Bring the cage into the desert.
- Enter the cage and safely lock the door.
The problem is completely resolved. Indeed, the lion is separated from us by the bars. We feel ourselves free and claim that we are in a free land. Therefore, the lion is in the cage. Moreover, the area beyond the bars is empty, not well-organized and generally not interesting for a civilized man.
Based on student answers
We repatriated from Russia less than a year ago. We live in Northern Israel, in Karmiel. The nature here is wonderful, the Arab population relatively quiet and calm, and my wife and I love walking. And we walk, almost every Sabbath. Already in the first months of walking we have made an amazing discovery, which I want to share with you.
In the Land of Israel, there are almost no Jews outside of settlements!
What have we seen in the Holy Land outside the town limits?
200 meters: the magic boundary
It's easy to leave the city. The valley of a dry stream bed runs by Karmiel. Its slopes are very convenient for descent and ascent: the rocks form natural steps. After passing the last houses you can walk down to the stream in 5 minutes.
Here we made our first discovery. At the border of the city there is an invisible line, which Jews — more precisely, the townspeople of Karmiel — almost never cross.
50 thousand people live in Karmiel, and almost all rest on Sabbath. You can see townspeople in the streets, children's areas, near synagogues, in parks, and sometimes quite a distance from home. But beyond this magic line, running along the boundary of the city, there are practically none, even on the most serene Sabbaths: at most you will find several people per kilometer along the city boundary. There are also no traces of human activity, not even stairs or paths.
My first question:
What magical power prevents Jews from passing outside the boundary of their own city?
2 kilometers: barbed wire
Leaving the city, we decided to visit our neighbors: the nearest Jewish settlements. And came across quite a material boundary. The magical line had become visible: it had turned into barbed wire.
This was our second discovery: all the Jewish settlements in our region are fenced off! And not only settlements: even some roads are fenced off, thus making a barrier for pedestrians. This occurs with even deserted tertiary roads.
However, only Jewish settlements are fenced. There are many Arab settlements in our region, and they are arranged quite differently. Roads of different quality, from asphalt roads to footpaths, converge to a village. On the outskirts of the village there are secondary buildings and vegetable gardens, near the center houses appear, sometimes very decent and obviously expensive. You can walk through a village on the main street and look at houses, yards, schools and local residents. No fences.
My second question:
Why, in the middle of the Jewish State, with the police, army, modern equipment, transport and a numerical majority of the Jewish population in the proportion five Jews to one Arab, at a distance of less than 2 km from the Jewish town, are Jews living behind barbed wire, while Arabs live openly?
10 kilometers: Arabian wilderness
Being unable to get into Jewish settlements, we started walking in the neighborhood. The nature here is truly excellent and, moreover, friendly to pedestrians. You can walk almost everywhere. And all these places are deserted. Approximately as empty as in Russia in the remote Siberian taiga, hundreds of kilometers from the nearest habitation. It is a pleasure for fans of wild places like us, but causes us bewilderment, a feeling that there is something wrong. After all, Israel is a country with very high population density. Meanwhile, outside the towns of Israel, we always see wild uninhabited nature — excepting the highways and a small number of specially equipped places for tourists and holidaymakers. 90% of the area of Israel with 7 million people — is uninhabited wilderness! How can this be?
Indeed, it cannot. Soon we made our third discovery. Places outside the towns are not quite uninhabited: these places are inhabited by Arabs.
It quickly became apparent that the Arabs, unlike the Jews, are living here as most of the nations in most countries of the world. The density of the Arab population does not drop to zero outside an Arab city or town. Besides cities or towns, there are small villages, isolated huts, vegetable gardens, shepherds herding goats on the slopes, children, idle pedestrians. They have neither magic nor real boundaries which they don't want to cross. In general, the Arabs are living in this land, in all senses of the word, as they have lived for almost two thousand years. This is normal. What is abnormal, is that today they remain the only residents in almost the whole of Eretz Israel. As a result, two steps away from our city we acutely felt as tourists, accidentally coming into foreign territory, into an alien home. Every time, when signs of human presence appear in the Holy Land, it becomes apparent that you have wandered into Arab places. They look at you with wondering eyes and sometimes ask, do you need help.
My third question:
Why in the Holy Land, conquered by the Jews and according all rights international, ethical and biblical belonging to the Jewish state, outside the boundary of a city are the main and the only residents Arabs?
Eretz Ishmael?
It is my deep belief that the true owner of a land is the one who lives in it.
To this day Jews are living, in the full sense, only in the territories of towns and Jewish settlements. Plus in a small area, that provides economic and social infrastructure. The rest of the territory is practically free of Jews.
Meanwhile, the Holy Land, in its entirety, is the gift of God to the Jewish people. And it's possible to live in it. Moreover, it is an excellent land, well suited for life.
My last question:
When, finally, will the Jews take the gift of God and inhabit Israel, as full, true owners?
Eretz Israel!
Dear compatriots! Israel is our common, large and beautiful home. Having come here to live, I've discovered that the house is practically empty. Everyone is crowding in the front hallway, while other rooms are looked after by neighbors. I believe this is only a temporary misunderstanding. Friends, come in, make yourself comfortable! We are the owners here! We are truly at home. Baruch ha-Shem!
February 2010
I appreciate the help of Shi Sherebrin with translating this article into English.
You can comment this article at my blog, the subject “Eretz Israel” (in Russian or English):