The next morning he awoke only to find himself alone with his driver. Realizing that he had been left behind he ordered his driver to begin the 20-minute journey into Hebron expecting to meet the rest of the army en route.
Rabbi Goren thought it peculiar that he hadn’t encountered any Israeli soldiers on the road and assumed that they had already secured the city in record time. Driving into Hebron he was greeted by the sight of white sheets fluttering from the windows and rooftops of Arab homes. The rabbi theorized that this must be fear of retaliation for their 1929 pogrom in which 67 Jews were massacred and many more wounded.
Leaving his driver and clutching a Torah scroll Rabbi Goren quickly made his way toward the Herodian walls which now surround Machpela; the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Once inside he blew the shofar just as he had done 24 hours earlier at the Western Wall. Only afterward did he discover that when he left the Etzion base the rest of the forces were on the other side of the hill making plans for the attack on Hebron. The army was astonished to find that its chief rabbi had single-handedly conquered a city of 80 000 Arabs. Jews had finally returned to Hebron and the sacred burial place of their patriarchs!
There were fifteen in our group mainly businessmen from London and New York plus an armed guard and tour guide. Our first day was to cover Samaria to the north of Jerusalem starting out in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin.
Successive prime ministers of Israel have always been careful to locate settlements in high places. One of those strategic heights is home to the 1 500 religious settlers of Psagot which boasts an outstanding view of the Arab town of Ramallah. This is a picture of Ramallah you will never see on the BBC or CNN. On all sides there are modern apartment buildings and villas capped with red tiles. But right in the center of this colorful townscape – like a cancer embedded in healthy pink flesh – lies the dark gray smudge of the refugee camp. Managed and preserved by the oil sheikhs of Arabia this ugly trophy of the Palestinian struggle is always very carefully cut cropped and pasted into the world?s media.
Moving north into the tribal territory of Ephraim we came upon the settlement of Shilo. You can find it easily by following the directions contained in the Book of Judges (21:19). North of Bet El east of the road heading from Bet El to Shechem and south of Levona. It was here that the Tabernacle – the mishkan – stood for 369 years. It is where Hannah prayed for a child and where that child the prophet Samuel first heard the word of G-d.
While we felt reassured in our bulletproof bus there was no time during our various stops that we felt in any real danger; at least no more so than in Jerusalem. We learned however that many of the smaller settlements had been set up as acts of defiance following the murder of Jewish civilians. Rachela Druck was killed in a bus attack on the main road from Jerusalem to Shechem. After the funeral women from nearby settlements gathered together and determined that a new settlement – Rachelim – should rise at the exact site of her murder.
This was to be my first inkling of the formidable power of women in the settlement movement. Within an hour I was sitting in the office of the feisty Daniella Weiss mayor of Kedumim. This is a 4 000-strong religious settlement rooted in commanding hilltops overlooking Shechem (Nablus). Reminiscent of Golda Meir in her prime Weiss was part of the original Gush Emunim movement that succeeded after eight attempts to re-establish the Samarian capital that King Herod built as Sebastia.
