Moshe Dayan and Kalkilya and the Temple Mount

DIFFIDENT ISRAEL
by Steve Kramer (www.encounteringisrael.com)

Jews have a large number of mitzvot (commandments, obligations) to live by, 613 to be exact. Many of the mitzvot are archaic, having to do with sacrifices and other duties in the Temple which was destroyed by the Roman in 70 CE. Others are more prosaic, such as following the dietary laws or living in Israel. One more fierce commandment is taken from Deuteronomy 16/17:

“However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.

Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, … as the Lord your God has commanded you.”

When the Jews entered Canaan to fulfill their destiny in the Land of Israel, they failed to thoroughly observe this commandment, allowing a remnant of the pagans to survive.

In my opinion, modern Israel must not be afraid to destroy its enemies, or at the least to eradicate their ability to make war. After all, the Arabs and Iranians are Islam’s spearpoint aimed at Israel’s throat. More than one thousand years ago, Jews were advised: “If someone comes to murder you, anticipate him and kill him first” (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 72a). The Sanhedrin was composed of the 71 most brilliant sages in Israel. They knew what they were talking about! Let’s review recent history in light of this ancient Jewish wisdom.

Israel’s declaration of independence unleashed a concerted effort by the surrounding Arab states to destroy the Jewish state. Unlike the previous decades, when Arab mobs had often attacked Jews, in May 1948, armies from five Arab states invaded the new state. Their cry was to slaughter the Jews and throw them into the sea. Israel won the fight for its existence with difficulty. At that stage, it didn’t have the ability to destroy the Arab forces.

It was a different story in 1967. During the Six Day War, Israel captured all of the territory east of the Jordan River which Jordan had occupied and claimed for itself, and the Golan Heights. Israel had the ability to annex Judea and Samaria (which King Hussein had named the “West Bank”), but mistakenly expected the Arabs to negotiate a peaceful settlement to regain most of the area. (Israel did annex the Golan Heights in 1981.)

Two examples of naive liberalism from this period, both perpetrated by Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, stand out: “We have returned to all that is holy in our land. We have returned never to be parted from it again,” Dayan proclaimed, upon reaching the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Nevertheless, he immediately ceded internal administrative control of the Temple Mount compound to the Jordanian Waqf (Islamic trust) while maintaining Israel’s overall security control of the area.

Because the Waqf controls the Temple Mount, Israel lacks full control of the Old City of Jerusalem. The Palestinians have been able to hinder Israeli efforts to protect and maintain the ancient construction on the Temple Mount. In addition, the Waqf has destroyed untold numbers of artifacts dating back to the First and Second Temple periods. This, while continuing to proclaim that a Jewish Temple never existed in Jerusalem and that Israel is “Judaizing” the city, whose Jewish connection stretches back 3,000 years.

Kalkilya is a large Arab city close to Alfe Menashe, where I live. It is about 10 miles from the Mediterranean. During the Six Day War the inhabitants of Kalkilya fled eastward to escape the victorious Israelis. Incredibly, General Dayan “issued orders to the Israeli paratroopers to rush to the Jordan [River] and bring the Arabs of Kalkilya back.”

Kalkilya was a hotbed of terrorism after the Six Day War and was even ruled by Hamas at one time. Only the ability of IDF troops to make incursions into the city has prevented Kalkilya from being a cause of constant conflict with Israel. Regardless, it is situated adjacent to Israel’s main north-south highway, just minutes from the Mediterranean. Because Kalkilya is part of the Palestinian Authority, Israel’s width in the Metropolitan Tel Aviv area is only 10 miles!

In both cases, Dayan’s good intentions were ill-founded. Dayan believed that the Palestinian Arabs would act in good faith and live peacefully with the Jewish state – a serious miscalculation. But the PLO’s attacks on Israel began in 1964, three years before the Six Day War. What “territories” was the PLO fighting to regain? They were Haifa, Tel Aviv, Beersheba, and everything else within the Green Line, which is not a border, but merely the armistice line which was drawn during the negotiations ending the War of Independence in 1949.

The Yom Kippur War of 1973 resulted from a lapse of attention towards our enemies’ capabilities and intentions after Israel’s lightning victory in 1967. The First Lebanon War of 1982 introduced Iranian influence into the region with the birth of Hezbullah in southern Lebanon. In the Second Lebanon War of 2006 Israel again failed to destroy its enemy’s offensive abilities, after first allowing Hezbullah to arm itself to the teeth in the interim period. UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the war, was hailed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as a great accomplishment, when in effect, it was worse than useless. Its adoption marked the first time in Israeli history that Jerusalem had sought a UN resolution to end a war. Despite 1701, Hezbullah was able to increase its arsenal with impunity, so that its stock of rockets became greater than before hostilities began.

Operation Cast Lead (2008/9) was a direct result of Prime Minister Sharon’s ill-advised withdrawal of troops and expulsion of Israelis from the Gaza Strip in 2004. The Hamas terrorists copied Hezbullah and, with Iran’s help, built their own arsenal of rockets with which to pummel Israel. But Israel’s limited military operation only deterred the Palestinians for a few years. Hamas increased its arsenal and continues to shoot thousands of mortars, rockets, and missiles into Israel. The short-lived campaign against Hamas in 2012 ended with the usual ceasefire. Israel damaged the terrorists in Gaza but declined to deliver a knockout blow. With current speculation about a possible attack on Iran precipitating an avalanche of missiles into Israel from Gaza and Lebanon (and possibly Syria), military sources speak about a possible war of at least three weeks with hundreds of Israeli casualties, rather than an much quicker, no-holds-barred military onslaught against Israel’s enemies.

The Two-State Solution with the Palestinians is a non-starter. Unfortunately, there may be no solution to this conflict for generations, because it involves most of the Muslim world. A bad solution would be worse than no solution, because it will not end the jihad against the infidels (Jews and Christians). The ancient commandment upon Israel to eradicate its enemies is not archaic. It may be the only way for Jews and their Muslim neighbors to come to a modus vivendi.