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Are We The Occupiers In Hebron?

by David Mark
written by David Mark

There is a common mantra the international leftwing and woke movement repeats over and over. – “Israel is the occupier.” While it is easy to refute such nonsense, videos and images from cities like Hebron can make it hard to assuage even veteran Israel supporters.

After all, at first glance Hebron is jarring. A little more than 1,000 Jews live among at least 150 thousand Arabs. The IDF appears to be all over the place and security barriers divide various areas. Despite the fact that the larger Jewish community of Kiryat Arba abuts Hebron, the Jewish community in Hebron can still feel isolated.

However, the images and a videos one sees from afar or the experience one has in person is not the whole picture. In fact, the heavy security presence in Hebron only exists in about 3% of the city – the area that is controlled by Israel since the Wye River Accords otherwise known as H2. The rest of the 97% of Hebron – known as H1 is officially controlled by the Palestinian Authority.

The reason for the heavy military presence in H2 is due to the pogroms, terrorism, and violence against the Jewish community in Hebron. This has gone on well before the 1967, when the Jewish people regained sovereignty in Hebron and long before 1948, when the Jewish people regained their independence.

There has been a continuous Jewish presence since Biblical times except for about 70 years during Byzantine rule, long before the current Arab presence began. Jews were massacred there in 1929 and the Jews that returned to what is known as the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, were forcibly removed in 1936 by the British.

While the international left likes to paint a distorted image of Hebron, the fact is, it is hard consider control over just 3% of a city – occupation – especially when that 3% contains residents and holy sites that have been maligned by the majority Arab population for centuries.

It is time to look at Hebron holistically and within a broader historical context instead of pigeonholing it into the same false conflict paradigm that exists within the anti-Israel leftwing.

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Gaza

Are The Gazans Being Washed Away?

by David Mark
written by David Mark 1.5 mins read

As everyone knows by now Israel moved most of the Gazans to what is known as a humanitarian zone in an area known as Muwasi. This is a small strip of land along the Gazan coast near Khan Yunis. Despite being in tents, the area is known for its beautiful beaches so how bad could it be? Up until now, the Gazan “civilians” seemed to be doing fine despite being out of permanent homes. However, things are changing.

Strange flooding is now occurring across Gaza’s beaches bringing destruction to many of the tents closest to the sea. With summer ending and colder weather coming, Gaza’s “civilians” appear to be out of solutions. With their current plight increasing one question that keeps on repeating itself: why aren’t the other Arab nations taking them in?

The answer is simple – none of the other Arabs countries wants a Hamas sympathizing populace amongst it. Wherever the Gazans go death and destruction will follow so they remain to watch their tent city begin to wash away.

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Farms

Exclusive: Jewish Shepherds Attacked Near Hebron, But Why Are They Being Targeted?

by David Mark
written by David Mark

On the afternoon of August 24th, four Jewish teenagers who work on a farm near Ma’ale Hever, a small Jewish community in the Hebron Hills, were violently assaulted by a group of Arabs while the Jewish youth were grazing sheep. The Arabs surrounded the Jewish youth and proceeded to throw rocks and cinder blocks at them. When security forces came to help they were attacked as well.

At the end of the incident, the Arab attackers were arrested (one had been shot by security forces when he attacked them) and the Jewish youth were taken to the hospital to treat their wounds. While this can be seen as an isolated incident or just a scuffle between Jews and Arabs with dueling land usage claims, this is a mistake.

The Biden Administration has been claiming that there is a scourge of violence directed from Jewish “Settlers” at Arabs in Judea and Samaria. Evidence not only suggests otherwise, but most of the violent incidents across Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank) are perpetrated by Arabs or Internationally Funded Leftists. When Jews defend themselves they are accused of being violent terrorists.

One of these incidents happened to me in the summer of 2019. My son and I and his friend went for a hike near Ma’ale Hever. An Arab shepherd who tried attacking some Jewish youth a week before spotted us. Another Arab came at us with a spiked staff and had his dogs surround us. Being armed I pulled my gun out and threatened to shoot his dogs who were trying to attack us. The Arabs called them off. A few minutes later we were surrounded by 7 Arabs that were all armed with wooden staves that had nails at the end of them. If it wasn’t for the arrival of the army, it would have gotten extremely violent very fast.

These sorts of incidents are now growing, being egged on by the Biden State Department, which paints all Jews living in Judea and Samaria as some sort of “illegal occupier.” This false narrative gives Arabs leaving in the area the feeling that all types of resistance is permitted – a similar approach as those Woke protestors siding with Hamas on US college campuses.

The fact is, like the rest of the Land of Israel, there have been Jewish communities existing in various places throughout the Land – yes even in Southern Judea – known as Har Hebron or Hebron Hills. Some of these communities existed for thousands of years only to be chased out or forcibly converted by Islamic colonizers. I will tackle this in another post.

The root cause of the violence in Har Hebron, like other areas of Judea and Samaria is that somehow the mere presence of Jews equals some sort of illegal affront to the “local” Arabs who have been deemed indigenous by today’s global DEI warriors. The Arabs in Judea and Samaria like the rest of Israel are anything but indigenous unless they are from the communities forcibly converted by Islamic colonizers 1,300 years ago.

The incident outside of Ma’ale Hever is part of a larger campaign to delegitimize the Jewish presence anywhere in our ancestral homeland. Facts are facts and not matter how hard Biden and his team wish that Jews in Judea and Samaria are the root cause for regional problem, it is the Islamic Jihadist refusal to accept the Jewish return back our ancestral, biblical, and indigenous homeland that is the real cause for regional issues.

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FrontlinesVideo

First Responder Near Gaza: “What I Saw There Will Stay With Me Forever

by David Mark
written by David Mark
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I had the opportunity to speak with Rabbi Yehuda Levi. Rabbi Levi usually spends his time teaching and guiding groups on the Temple Mount and in Jerusalem. He also volunteers for Hatzalah – an international Jewish run emergency response organization.

In the above video – he describes what he saw in the Gaza communities he went down to help.

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IsraelRedemption

Only the Creator is In Charge

by David Mark
written by David Mark
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At this moment Israel is facing a real war for its survival. Hamas and Islamic Jihad forces have literally invaded sovereign Israeli territory – holding onto many towns for nearly 24 hours.

More than 350 Israelis have been reported dead and more than 100 citizens have been taken hostage. Many people are wondering how this could have happened. Doesn’t Israel have the most sophisticated defenses in the Gaza region. From drones, to radars, walls, and early warning detection – how could this operation be so successful?

There are also real questions on why it took the army and air force so long to respond. All of these are legitimate questions and without the complete picture we may never a real answer.

And perhaps it doesn’t matter. The real lesson is that for far too long we Jews have been cocksure of ourselves, our military, and our government. We believe that we are the ones responsible for all of our success – economically, militarily, and diplomatically.

In Devarim Chapter 8 verses 11 to 17 it says the following: “Take care lest you forget Hashem your God and fail to keep His commandments, His rules, and His laws, which I enjoin upon you today. When you have eaten your fill, and have built fine houses to live in, and your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold have increased, and everything you own has prospered, beware lest* your heart grow haughty and you forget Hashem your God—who freed you from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage; who led you through the great and terrible wilderness with its seraph serpents and scorpions, a parched land with no water in it, who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock; who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers had never known, in order to test you by hardships only to benefit you in the end and you say to yourselves, ‘My own power and the might of my own hand have won this wealth for me.'”

And then it continues:

“Remember that it is Hashem your God who gives you the power to get wealth, in fulfillment of the covenant that He made on oath with your fathers, as is still the case. If you do forget Hashem your God and follow other gods to serve them or bow down to them, I warn you this day that you shall certainly perish; like the nations that Hashem will cause to perish before you, so shall you perish—because you did not heed Hashem your God.”

We can spend our time blaming the government or blaming particular leaders, but what is clear is we must forget about them and instead only trust Hashem with full emunah (simple faith) and bitachon (trust) for he “did, does, and will do” everything.

Rebbe Nachman says the following in Likutei Moharan lesson 250:

“Know! All manner of suffering and all afflictions are due only to a lack of daat. For someone who has daat, and so knows that everything is by Divine Providence, (certainly) experiences no affliction and feels no suffering, because “God has given; God has taken away” (Job 1:21).”

Rebbe Nachman continues later and adds:

“And this, in the main, is the suffering that Israel experiences in the exile, all because they have fallen from daat and attribute everything to nature, (coincidences) and fortune. Because of this they experience suffering and affliction, as explained above. This happens to them because they live among the (nations) and have learned from them; because they see fate smiling upon them, while the Jewish people are despised and lowly. They therefore learn from them and attribute everything to nature and coincidence, and because of this itself they experience affliction. For if they had the daat that everything is by Divine Providence, they would experience no affliction whatsoever, as explained above.”

“In truth, Israel is above nature. However when they sin, God forbid, they become subject to nature, like the (nations), who are subject to fate and nature. Then, they experience exile and suffering, God forbid. And in the main, their suffering and exile are due only to this itself—that they lack daat, and attribute it to nature.”

“And when the Holy One wishes to show compassion for the Jewish people and save them from their exile, and put an end to the (nation) oppressing them, He then infuses them with Providence, thus subduing and eliminating the nature and fate that obliged Israel to be under their control. Thus He (destroys the nation) that oppresses them, and the Jewish people ascend above them by means of Providence.”

In a very real way, despite coming back to the Land of Israel – we are in a state of inner exile. The more we attribute our successes to our own hands – the more our inner exile grows. We need to learn from the present war that it is Hashem running to show and although there is pain and sadness to all of this, we must understand that he alone that we need to trust and no one else.

There is pain and sadness within us. By the end of all of this there will not be one of that will not know someone who has been killed. We must convert that pain into something positive – a changed outlook – a shift in perception that what we are doing here is bigger than being some sort of bastion for the western world. We are in fact a Holy Nation – and meant to be a Nation of Priests.

Right now the army is responding and attempting to regain Israeli territory – we have only one way to truly help them and that is through prayer for “prayer is above nature,” and remains our “true weapon.” The army with all of the holy soldiers fighting in it is in fact only the physical extension of our prayers in this world.

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