World

Understanding the Threat to Israel’s Biblical Heartland

Feb. 14, 2013 2:03pm

- CBN News

Erick Stakelbeck is a correspondent and terrorism analyst for CBN News. He covers the global war on terror, U.S. national security, the Middle East and the growth of radical Islam at home and abroad for the network’s Washington, D.C. bureau. He is also host of the Stakelbeck on Terror show on CBNNews.com.

The world calls it the West Bank. But the 350,000-plus Israelis living here use the region’s biblical name: Judea and Samaria.

According to a recent United Nations report, international law calls for Israel to evacuate all existing settlements and dismantle Jewish communities in the eastern half of Jerusalem.

The U.N. considers all the neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria “illegal” settlements that will one day be included in a Palestinian state.

Global pressure to hand this territory over to the Palestinians is mounting against Israel by the day, including tough words from the Obama administration.

A Thriving Community

Yet on a recent tour of Judea and Samaria, CBN News found a much different picture than what is often portrayed in the media and world forums.

“The Jewish communities here in the Shomron are thriving, are building, are growing,” David Ha’ivri, spokesman for the Shomron Regional Council in Samaria, told CBN News.

“The population is growing. We’re growing at four times greater, five times greater, than the national average in Israel,” he said.

Haivri said a growing number of Israelis are relocating to the area for the same reasons Americans move from the city to the suburbs: family friendly communities, fresh air, and land at affordable prices.

“Young families who wish to establish themselves and raise children look around and say, ‘Where are we going to get a good standard of living?’” Ha’ivri said. “It’s beautiful scenery. We’re out here on the mountains. It’s great weather. It’s cool in the summer.”

“But aside from that, and even more important, there’s a godly process of fulfilling prophecy that’s beyond explanation,” Ha’ivri told CBN News. “The prophets promised that the children of Israel would return to these mountains and rebuild these Jewish cities and Jewish towns. And that’s what happening.”

While Ha’ivri, like many here, is an observant Jew, 60 percent of those living in Samaria are secular.

Ariel University is the region’s educational hub and its 16,000 students come from all backgrounds. Arab students here are free to wear Muslim religious attire and they study alongside Jews.

CBN News found a similar story at the nearby Barkan Industrial Park, home to some 150 businesses where Israelis work side-by-side with their Palestinian neighbors.

An Arab working in these businesses makes double or three times as much, in some cases, as he would make working for the Palestinian Authority in the Palestinian areas.

Palestinian workers at Barkan also receive full benefits, full vacation time and the ability to move up the ladder into a supervisory or management position.

Targets for Terror

Life here is not without its challenges. The Jewish communities of Samaria are frequent targets for Palestinian terror attacks.

The 2011 massacre of Udi and Ruth Fogel and three of their small children in the Samarian town of Itamar was one horrific example. They were murdered in their sleep by two local Palestinians.

Further south, in the Judean city of Hebron, the situation is also difficult.

“There are security threats, security problems we have to deal with here,” David Wilder, spokesman for Hebron’s small Jewish community, told CBN News.

“During the second intifada [armed Palestinian uprising], we were shot at for two and half years here. There are still terrorist attacks here,” he said.

Hebron, which is mostly Palestinian Arab, is home to Judaism’s second holiest site: the Cave of the Patriarchs, also known as the Cave of Machpela. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rebecca, Sarah, and Leah — the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Land of Israel and of the Bible — are all buried in Hebron.

It was also the city where King David ruled for seven years before moving his kingdom to Jerusalem.

“You cannot let terrorism determine how you live and where you live if you know that this is your home and this is where you are supposed to be. What can be more normal for a Jew than living in the city of Hebron?” Wilder said.

In withdrawing from Judea and Samaria, Israel would not only be giving up a huge part of its past, it could be harming its future.

“God forbid, Palestinian terrorists, Hamas terrorists, would be standing here,” Yuli Edelstein, Israel’s minister of Public Diplomacy, said. “They would basically be in total control. And they won’t need long-range missiles. They could reach basically to every town and city in this area.”

Edelstein, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, lives not far from Jerusalem in the Judean town of Gush Etzion, another area the U.N. wants cleared of Jews.

“I know that strategically, many things have changed in modern war,” Edelstein told CBN News. “But on the other hand, without our total control here in these areas, I don’t think we’d be able even to run a normal country.”

A Warning for the US

Edelstein told CBN News some of the same forces that oppose Israel’s presence in these areas are also hostile to the United States.

“If the bad guys can do it to Israel as a democracy and turn us into demons and apartheid and fascists, you name it — basically, they can do it to every democracy, United States included,” Edelstein said.

President Obama will make his first presidential visit to Israel in March. Discussions over the future of Judea and Samaria are sure to be on his agenda with Israel’s prime minister.

This post originally appeared on CBN.com

Comments (5)

  • PRAY4OURUSA
    Feb. 21, 2013 at 4:26pm

    Why do we spend so much time even discussing Israel? It’s population is smaller than NYC (7.9 million vs. 8.2 million). Its land mass is about the size of Hawaii (10,000 sq.miles) It is none of our freakin business what they do. We can support them as an ally but should not give them one cent (they are the fourth richest per capita country in the world). The chose to live in a hostile region. I still don’t get the “chosen people” story. They do not believe Jesus is the messiah and til this day, many have been trying to wipe them off the face of the earth If the Jews are right Christians must be wrong. If Christians are right, than Jews cannot go to “heaven”. There surely is a creator, but who she/he/it is is not known by man. According to the bible, the creator could not prevent “evil” from entering the soul of his creations (i.e Eve ate the apple, Cain slew his own brother, Jesus and some of the prophets died horrible deaths, many dictators slaughered 100′s of millions of innocent people, and if you believe the Noah’s Ark story, the creator wiped out his/her own creations). None of this makes sense.

    Report this comment

    PRAY4OURUSA  
    • SUNTZU
      Feb. 24, 2013 at 7:27pm

      He gave Man a free will
      and this is the test
      Man with the help from Satan Has so mucked up
      the WORD That only with the help of God
      can one understand.
      Its between you and GOD
      Good Luck

      Report this comment

      SUNTZU  
  • elixelx
    Feb. 18, 2013 at 2:41am

    Like a lot of other Israelis I am saving up old discarded shoes and loud incessant boos with which we will be greeting barryboy’s motorcade.
    My aim is true!

    Report this comment

    elixelx  
  • PIGSWILLNEVERFLY
    Feb. 16, 2013 at 4:27pm

    The Legal Case for Israel: http://www.edlersofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/01/eugene-kontorovichs-talk-at-nyu-at.html

    also on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub2x5UvjUs4

    Report this comment

    PIGSWILLNEVERFLY  
  • CathyvanDyke
    Feb. 15, 2013 at 9:46pm

    LTC Allen West in support of Israel
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMp60uHAnfA

    Report this comment

    CathyvanDyke  

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