HEBRON: THE ACT OF ABANDONMENT!

History From Hebron

The following information was taken from the Israel Ministry Of Foreign Affairs web site located at: http://www.israel.org/peace/hebron.html

"Hebron -- located south of Jerusalem in the Judean hills -- is home to approximately 120,000 Arabs, 500 Jews, and three Christians. An additional 6,000 Jews reside in the adjacent community of Kiryat Arba.

Hebron is the site of the oldest Jewish community in the world, which dates back to Biblical times.

The Book of Genesis relates that Abraham purchased the field where the Tomb of the Patriarchs is located as a burial place for his wife Sarah. According to Jewish tradition, the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Matriarchs Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah are buried in the Tomb.

Hebron has a long and rich Jewish history. It was one of the first places where the Patriarch Abraham resided after his arrival in Canaan. King David was anointed in Hebron, where he reigned for seven years.  One thousand years later, during the first Jewish revolt against the Romans, the city was the scene of extensive fighting. Jews lived in Hebron almost continuously throughout the Byzantine, Arab, Mameluke, and Ottoman periods. It was only in 1929 -- as a result of a murderous Arab pogrom in which 67 Jews were murdered and the remainder were forced to flee -- that the city became temporarily "free" of Jews. After the 1967 Six-Day War, the Jewish community of Hebron was re-established. It has grown to include a range of religious and educational institutions.

Hebron contains many sites of Jewish religious and historical significance, in addition to the Tomb of the Patriarchs. These include the Tombs of Othniel Ben Kenaz (the first Judge of Israel) and Avner Ben Ner (general and confidante to Kings Saul and David), and Ruth and Jesse (great- grandmother and father, respectively, of King David). Victims of the 1929 pogrom, as well as prominent rabbinical sages and community figures, are buried in Hebron's ancient Jewish cemetery."

The following information was taken from the web site at http://www.hebron.org.il/  
This is a web site dedicated to the Jewish community in Hebron: E-Mail: hebron@hebron.org.il
"News from Hebron The Hebron Press Office January 17, 1997

The Cave of Machpelah- Tomb of the Patriarchs

The Cave of Machpelah is the world's most ancient Jewish site. The cave and the adjoining field were purchased - at full market price - by the Patriarch Abraham some 3700 years ago. The double cave, a mystery of thousands of years, was uncovered several years ago beneath the massive building, revealing artifacts from the Early Israelite Period (some 30 centuries ago). The structure was built during the Second Temple Period (about two thousand years ago) by Herod, King of Judea, providing a place for gatherings and Jewish prayers at the graves of the Patriarchs. This uniquely impressive building is the only one that stands intact and still fulfills its original function after thousands of years.  Foreign conquerors and invaders used the site for their own purposes, depending on their religious orientation: the Byzantines and Crusaders transformed it into a church and the Muslims rendered it a mosque. About 700 years ago, the Muslim Mamelukes conquered Hebron, declared the structure a mosque and forbade entry to Jews, who were not allowed past the seventh step on a staircase outside the building.  Upon the liberation of Hebron in 1967, the Chief Chaplain of the Israel Defense Forces, the late Major-General Rabbi Shlomo Goren, was the first Jew to enter the Cave of Machpelah.  Since then, Jews have been struggling to regain their prayer rights at the site, still run by the Muslim Waqf (Religious Trust) that took control during the Arab conquest. Many restrictions are imposed on Jewish prayers and customs at the Tomb of the Patriarchs despite the site's significance, primacy and sanctity in Jewish heritage and history."

"The Jewish Quarter - The Avraham Avinu Synagogue
The land on which the old Jewish Quarter stands was purchased by Jewish exiles from Spain in the sixteenth century.  They built a community surrounding a broad, enclosed courtyard, at the center of which was the Avraham Avinu Synagogue, named for the Patriarch Abraham.  According to legend, one year, when a quorum, Minyan, was lacking for Yom Kippur prayers, Abraham himself appeared to complete the minyan.  A Jewish community flourished in the Jewish Quarter, including Rabbis and Torah scholars, artisans and others.  In the August 1929 riots, residents of the Jewish Quarter were tortured and murdered by their Arab neighbors, their homes looted and pillaged.  After the Jordanian conquest (1948), the Arabs destroyed the Jewish Quarter and built a wholesale market, trash dump and public toilet on the site.  On the ruins of the Avraham Avinu Synagogue stood a goat and donkey pen.  The liberation of Hebron (1967) sparked efforts to restore the Jewish Quarter.  The late Prof. Ben-Zion Tabger, joined by many other Jews, struggled steadfastly to redeem the Synagogue from its devastation.  Only in 1976 did the Government order evacuation of the animal pen, enabling the remnants of the synagogue to be uncovered. Thanks to extensive, long-term efforts, part of the Jewish Quarter was eventually restored and today houses 25 families.  The Avraham Avinu Synagogue was beautifully and elegantly rebuilt.  The offices of the Jewish Community of Hebron are also located in the Jewish Quarter, along with nursery schools and kindergartens and Beit Betar - a hostel and activity center of the Betar Zionist Movement.  Much of the Jewish Quarter is still occupied by the wholesale market, and many demand that the Jews be allowed to restore the legacy of their forefathers and rebuild the Jewish Quarter in all its splendor."

"Ancient Tel Hebron (Tel Rumeida)
This tel is the site of the Biblical city of Hebron, founded almost four millennia ago, the first dwelling place of the patriarch Abraham. Impressive artifacts discovered at the site attest to ancient city walls. At the foot of the tel is the ancient spring, known as Sarah's Well. The Bible describes the route followed by the spies that Moses dispatched from the desert to observe the land, indicating that the massive walls deterred them from the idea of conquest. Caleb son of Yefune, who prayed at the graves of the Patriarchs, was imbued with a courageous spirit and merited conquering Hebron from the giants who controlled it. Kind(g) David established his kingdom in Hebron almost three thousand years ago, where he reigned for seven years before ascending to Jerusalem. At the top of the ancient tel, the tombs of Jesse, father of David, and of Ruth the Moabite remain from that period.  Above them is a Crusader fortress.  Archaeological excavations at the tel uncovered the walls of the ancient city and artifacts from the First and Second Temple Periods. The Hebron Hills were a crucial site in the Bar-Kochba Revolt. Excavations revealed remnants of the razed city dating back to that period. To the west, an ancient cemetery was discovered, where Jews had been buried for centuries, including Sages, Rabbis and community leaders. Noted personalities interred at the site include the authors of the Reishit Hochma, Melechet Shlomo, Hesed Le'Avraham, Sdei Hemed and others. Elsewhere in this cemetery are the graves of Jews slaughtered by their Arab neighbors in the 1929 riots, as well as recent victims of Arab terror. The cemetery was destroyed by the Arabs after the Jordanian conquest (1948) and restored by the Jewish community following the liberation of Hebron. The land on which the tel is located was purchased by the Jewish community in the nineteenth century, but most of it was seized by the Arabs. In 1984, several Jewish families set up caravans on a vacant lot and moved in, calling the neighborhood Admot Yishai. To date, the Israel Government has forbidden further development and construction, but Hebron residents are confident that a new and glorious Jewish community will indeed arise in the ancient City of the Patriarchs." ("A tel is usually an area covering an ancient site or neighborhood. ‘Tel Hebron' is the site of ancient Hebron, as Tel Jerico is the area of ancient Jerico.")

God's Chosen People

The following is taken from:
Stan Goodenough, Supplement to The Middle East Digest, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, January 1997, http://www.intournet.co.il/icej/

"Bible Briefing Israel's rebirth
God's message to the world

Without a doubt, the rebirth of the Jewish homeland 49 years ago, together with the ongoing massive ingathering of the world's Jews to their land, has been the most powerful message from God to humanity in the last 2000 years.

Since late last century, when they first began arriving in large numbers in the mostly barren and neglected Ottoman backwater that had once been the land of Israel, hundreds of thousands of Jews have been brought together from over 100 nations. Much of the world rejects as a devious lie the Jewish claim that they returned to a land of malarial swampland, desert, and almost entirely denuded of trees. As Arafat told the United Nations in 1974: ‘The Jewish invasion began in 1881...Palestine then was a verdant area, inhabited mainly by an Arab people...'

But eye-witness accounts of hundreds of visitors to the land in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries describe how God kept to the letter His promise that the land of Israel would waste away and remain largely empty during the diaspora.

‘I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you; your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.' [Leviticus 26:33]

‘But I scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they had not known.  Thus the land became desolate after them, so that no one passed through or returned; for they made the pleasant land desolate.' [Zechariah 7:14]

Writing in 1835, the French poet Alphonse de Lamartine said: ‘Outside the gates of Jerusalem we saw indeed no living object, heard no living sound. We found the same void, the same silence as we should have found before the entombed gates of Pompeii or Herculaneum...a complete, eternal silence reigns in the town, in the highways, in the country...The tomb of a whole people.'

In 1867, Mark Twain described the Jezrell valley as devoid of a single village, the Galilee as ‘unpeopled deserts', Jericho as ‘a mouldering ruin', Bethlehem as ‘untenanted by any living creature', and ‘renowned Jerusalem itself...a pauper village'.

‘Palestine sits in ashes,' he lamented.  ‘It is a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land.'  And so it was, until, about 14 years later, the Jews began to return and rebuild, as God promised: ‘And I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return, and will rebuild those places as at the first.' [Jeremiah 33:7]

‘The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. So they will say, "This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the wasted, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited."' [Ezekiel 36:34-35]

Today, over 100 years after the return began, the Jews continue to pour into their land. Since December 1989, one third of all the former Soviet Union's Jews--649097 people-- have made aliya, which means that around 12 per cent of Israel's Jewish population today has arrived in the last seven years. Over 70000 more are expected in 1997.

Year after year, for hundreds and thousands of years, the Jews have faithfully obeyed God's command to remember the Passover. No matter where they have been, inside their promised land or in exile from it, and no matter under what conditions they have lived--in the brief interludes of peace and prosperity, or suffering the persecutions, crusades, pogroms, expulsions, inquisitions and Holocaust--the Jews have given thanks to the God who delivered them from Egypt and who brought them to their promised land.

And yet, the Bible says that this second and final ingathering of the Jews will overshadow that event: Therefore behold, the days are coming,' says the LORD, ‘that it shall no more be said,"The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt," but, "The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them."  For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.' [Jeremiah 16:14-15]

Yes, in bringing physical Israel back home, God has been raising up a banner which the nations are unable to ignore, confronting the world with the reality of His eternal existence, His undiminished sovereignty, and His unlimited might.

‘It shall come to pass in that day that the LORD shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left...He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.' [Isaiah 11:11-12]

‘"And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD," says the Lord GOD, "when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.  ...Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the LORD, have spoken it, and I will do it."' [Ezekiel 36:23, 36]

But among Christians, prejudices remain a cataclysmic event, the ingathering of the Jews has shaken the dust of centuries of blindness from Christian eyes, awakening them to the fact that the nation of Israel still occupies its original, extraordinarily special place in God's purposes for mankind.

Nonetheless, ingrained anti-Semitism continues to colour the lenses through which many of these same Christians are excitedly observing this incredible physical return.

For even as they recognize that the Jews have been hounded and afflicted in every land in which they sought refuge down the centuries, millions of these Christians believe that they are being returned to their ancient homeland only to face more of God's anger and judgment.

Countless more subscribe to the belief that the Church can be raptured up to Heaven at any moment while the Jews, together with the unbelieving Gentile world, will be ‘left behind' to face the outpouring of God's wrath.

The argument is that the Jews are unsaved and remain unsaved, and that therefore they have to be punished until they become saved. It's not difficult to trace the origins of this lie to the one upon which Christian anti-Semitism originated; that the Jews rejected Jesus, killed God, and therefore were cursed to wander and suffer until they converted to Christianity.

But the Bible is quite clear on the matter:
The dispersion from the land was a curse, restoration to the land is a blessing.

What does the Bible promise regathered Israel?
In Psalm 80 the ‘Shepherd of Israel' is beseeched to cause His face to shine on the scattered people of Israel (not to pour out His wrath upon them) ‘and we shall be saved!'

In Psalm 102:13: In the context of the regathering, the prophet writes: ‘You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for the time to favour her, yes, the set time, has come.'

In Jeremiah 30:10, Ezekiel 34:28, Micah 4:4 and Zephaniah 3:13, God promises the regathered Israel that ‘they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid.'

In Jeremiah 31:10, God promises to gather Israel ‘and keep him as a shepherd does his flock'.

In Isaiah 41:8-16, God tells regathered Israel ‘fear not', and ‘be not dismayed'. He promises that His ‘righteous right hand' (not Israel's righteousness) will uphold Israel, and that those who strive and war with Israel shall perish and be as nothing.

In Ezekiel 20:41, God says: ‘I will accept you as a sweet aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered.'

In Zephaniah 3:15, God promises that He will take away Israel's judgements, cast out her enemy, and that she ‘shall see disaster no more'.

And in Deuteronomy 30:9, Jeremiah 32:41, Isaiah 62:5 and Zephaniah 3:17, God promises that as He returns Israel and plants her in her land, He will rejoice over her with gladness and with singing.

UNDAUNTED BY THIS hefty weight of Scriptural promise, many Bible-believers in Israel and abroad remain convinced that the next war (which almost everyone, including this writer, believes is inevitable) is going to exact a terrible toll of Jewish lives. ‘It is only when this nation is hammered that they call out to God,' they say.

But the fact of the matter is that the wrath of God on Israel turned the Jews, and the nations among which they liven, away from Him. As God said, the dispersion profaned His Name among the nations, instead of glorifying it. [Ezekiel 36:21-22]

No, this physical regathering of Israel is not in readiness for another Holocaust, as some so glibly say. It is in readiness for the restoration of the nation to their God.

‘For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.  Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.' (Ezekiel 36:24-26)

‘And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,' says the Lord GOD.' (Ezekiel 39:29)

As we read in 2 Samuel 7:23, this is a restoration that only Israel, as a nation, is destined for.

Imagine: If the physical restoration of the Jews has caused such a mighty stirring among the peoples of the world, what will their spiritual restoration not do?

Then the nations will truly no longer say, ‘Where is their God'[Psalm 79:10; Psalm 115:2; Joel 2:17]  Looking upon Israel they will say: There is their God.

‘‘'The nations shall know that I am the LORD," says the Lord GOD, ‘when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.  For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean;"' [Ezekiel 36:23-25]

From The Bridegroom

On January 6, 1994: I hear a cry coming from the Throne of God.  I hear a cry coming from His Heart. Holy Spirit spoke: "Bring My Chosen back to Me--for I am their God, their Savior and Lord. Bring My Chosen back to Me."

On January 4, 1995 the Holy Spirit spoke to us: "My Heart is breaking.  I want so much to help them, to have them come to Me, turn to Me, and they won't.  Keep praying--praying for Jerusalem-My Holy City and for My Beloved People.  Why won't they trust Me?  Why won't they come to Me? They are frightened and are unsure of so much and still they had rather tell each other--'It will be all right this time'.  It will not be all right this time."

God's Word

"‘As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day.  And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land; I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the valleys and in all the inhabited places of the country... And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid.'" Ezekiel 34:12-15, 28
"‘Behold, I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them in My anger, in My fury, and in great wrath; I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. ...Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul.'" Jeremiah 32:37, 38, 41

"News from Hebron The Hebron Press Office January 17, 1997
At ten minutes after six this morning, the last officer left the Hebron Military Compound and handed the keys to his Arab counterpart.  Leaving the compound, this act completed abandonment of 80% of Hebron to Arafat.  Arab soldiers were deployed throughout the areas evacuated by the Israeli army. Thousands of Arabs, many of whom spent the night outside the compound, began chanting, "With blood, with fire, we will liberate palestine."

Hundreds of Arabs congregated outside the entrance to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood and on the street leading to Ma'arat HaMachpela.  Scores of police and soldiers tried to maintain order.  At about 1:00 pm Arabs began throwing bottles, rocks and fruit at the Israelis in the street. Only after several instances of rock-throwing did the army disperse the crowd.  A little while later a curfew was declared and the Arab shops were closed, but Arabs continued to loiter in the streets.

The army refused to allow automobiles to use the main road passing by Ma'arat HaMachpela, so vehicles had to use the Abu Snenah Road, parallel to the main road. This road is not well protected by Israeli soldiers.  One Hebron woman, driving down the road with her small daughter was attacked by a massive group of Arabs. When she tried to escape the police stopped her and attempted to arrest her for trying to run over Arabs in the street.

The Jewish Community of Hebron has announced that on Monday afternoon at 5:00, a special ceremony will be held outside Ma'arat HaMachpela. As a sign of mourning at the abandonment of Hebron, all those gathering will tear their clothing, as prescribed by Jewish law.

A Hebron spokesman issued the following statement:
The willing abandonment of Hebron by an Israeli government is tragic. Today, the 9th of Shvat, will be remembered throughout history as a day of national mourning.

The initial stone-throwing attacks by Arabs in Hebron, and the IDF's unwillingness to arrest the perpetrators is far from encouraging. The distance between throwing rocks, or throwing hand grenades, or shooting, is very short. The severity of the error made by the Israeli government is apparent, and will become evident to all in Israel, and to Jews throughout the world, very shortly.  We call upon the Prime Minister to stop these acts of madness, and to denounce Oslo before causing more harm. In spite of the limitation of 400 'palestinian police' allowed to be in Hebron, it is already an established fact that over 1,000 'security forces' under the auspices of Jibril Rajoub, are operating in Hebron. ("Jibril Rajoub is a terrorist who is presently Arafat's right hand man.  He is presently in charge of palestinian security in Hebron.")

Concession to American pressure will only lead to more and more capitulation.  Concession to terrorism will only lead to further terror. Arafat has proven his ineffectiveness in preventing terror attacks.  He was responsible for the attack on Israeli soldiers last September, when 15 Israelis were killed.

Benyamin Netanyahu - today will be remembered as is the 9th of Av, a day of weeping for all generations to come.  Too much damage has already been done.  If you have any sense of national responsibility, if you have any sense of Jewish heritage, if you have any sense of the significance of Eretz Yisrael, STOP NOW - DO NOT CONTINUE TO CONCEDE - DO NOT ABANDON ANY MORE OF ERETZ YISRAEL. RECTIFY THE ERRORS YOU HAVE ALREADY MADE - BEFORE YOU CREATE A PALESTINIAN STATE AND PLACE THE STATE OF ISRAEL IN MORTAL DANGER. Presented by The Jewish Community of Hebron

Bottom Line

We urge you to take the time and care to get into God's Word for yourself and see what HE says about His People and His Land. The above writings are not just personal opinions. The facts are clearly laid out in the Scriptures.  Don't take what anyone else says about the Scriptures at face value. (The face in question may be two-faced!) Study the Word of God with the invited Presence, Direction and Revelation of His Precious Holy Spirit. Find out for yourself what is the TRUTH! Then you will find that herein has been the TRUTH!

Jesus told us that the Holy Spirit would bring us Truth.  Trust Him to do it!

Choice

There are choices before all of us daily. We move so fast and furious that we don't even realize that we are making choices. We make a choice to get up each day, to do the chores ahead of us, to go to school or work or church or synagogue, to come home, to eat, to go to bed...  We don't even think of them as choices but they are!

Today is a day like any other...it is filled with choices. The greatest "choice" you will ever make is whether or not to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour and Lord. It is a free choice that you and you alone can make for yourself. God will not force you to accept Him. He asks for your "choice" to accept Him. He loves YOU and Jesus died to save YOU. Do you realize that if you had been the only person on Earth Jesus still would have died for YOU? It's true! His Love for YOU is Boundless, without restraints, Pure and Holy and ETERNAL.

You say you've led a sinful life? So have we all...He still died for YOU and me.  He died for us, knowing we are sinners!  You know, Jesus loves us, YOU, so much that He doesn't ask us to clean up our act and then come to Him.  He knows we can't do it without Him!  He says to us that He loves us, He knows our sins and knows our needs, come to Him and He will be all we need.

HE IS WHO YOU NEED!

Just reach out to Him in your heart.  Accept as fact that He died for YOU!  That the Son of God came to Earth, born of a virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit, lived, died, rose from the dead and ascended to Heaven for one reason....so YOU could come to HIM. Ask Him to forgive you of your sins and become the Saviour and Lord of your life.

He's the best CHOICE you'll ever make!

In Jesus' Name, Be Blessed!
Baruch Haba B'Shem Adonai

Blessed Is He Who Comes In The Name Of The Lord!

Please visit the Hebron Community at: http://www.hebron.org.il/
You may also correspond with the community via e-mail: hebron@hebron.org.il
To the Hebron, Israel Community, our thanks.  Hebron, our prayers are with you.