Aliyah Diary 23: The West Bank. (Shomron)

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Aliyah Diary

01. Aug 19, 2024: Preparation In America
02. Aug 25, 2024: First Few Days
03. Aug 29, 2024: Moving In
04. Sept 4, 2024: First Day of School
05. Sept 8, 2024: Two Weeks In . . .
06. Sept 16, 2024: Getting Comfortable
07. Sept 22, 2024: Ready for Yom Tov
08. Sept 25, 2024: Jerusalem Concert
09. Sept 30, 2024: Nasrallahed on the Floor
10. Oct 8, 2024: Driver’s License
11. Oct 13, 2024: Packages. (חבילות.)

12. Oct 25, 2024: October Sun and the Jew
13. Oct 30, 2024: Bureaucracies and Stories
14. Nov 2, 2024: The Kindness of Strangers
15. Nov 10, 2024: Safety Fourth
16. Nov 17, 2024: Where People Look Like Us
17. Nov 19, 2024: Jewish Identity and Outlook
18. Nov 24, 2024: Learning Language – l’at, ‘lat
19. Nov 28, 2024: Taxation for Americans
20. Dec 5, 2024: Tel Aviv Art Museum
21. Dec 11, 2024: Let Freedom Ring
22. Dec 23, 2024: Doctors & “Choleh Chadash”
23. Dec 29, 2024: The West Bank. (Shomron)

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The Scary Place

Little more than a mile from me is the barrier to the “West Bank”. Since I moved here, the barrier in my head has also moved:

Month 0: “I’m never going to cross that barrier – that’s scary.”
Month 1: “You live 20 minute drive past that barrier in a Jewish settlement surrounded by Arabs?!? A Molotov cocktail was once thrown?!? You crazy.”
Month 3: “Hmm … save drive time to go that way? Okay, here goes nothing … only during the day and no stops.”
Month 4: “I was invited to a Chanukah party past the barrier? At night? Well … a month ago I said I’d never drive there at night and two months ago I thought I would never drive there at all … I really want to go to the party though.”

It is as we say in America, “no big deal” anymore. The area near me, the Shomron, is very underpopulated and mountainous. The roads cut through the mountains and could be in rural New Jersey except that the pavement and lighting is perfect.

Economics and in the Best Interest of Everyone

… then you get to the community you want to go to and it’s like driving into what in America would be a gated community for the very rich with personal guards at the gate (only this one with a bigger gun than in America). It’s like … I thought you guys living here were crazy … though … land is cheaper, you have a great sense of community, and you’re in a rural area that’s just … chill. With an extra 20 minute of commute time to Jerusalem or Tel Aviv you live like a super rich person for 1/3 the price (I’m guessing). It’s just economics.

It’s also a matter of national interest. In a world where Arafat accepted the ‘peace process’ and the Palestinians had their own state and we lived side by side in security and peace, Jewish towns need not be past the barrier and if they were, they’d be respected anyway … I mean, the way any good liberal democracy is filled with citizens that live and let live. In reality, I don’t really want Hamas or other terrorist groups able to ferry missiles around and position them at me. Having Jewish towns smattered around there means there’s a constant Jewish presence observing vehicles driving on the roads which now can’t hide missile launchers so well around the fortified “forward bases” of the Jews who prevent attacks elsewhere.

That’s not fair you elitist

Is that just and fair to the Arabs living there? First, no one is taking their homes away. We’re talking about a whole lot of empty land.

Second, it’s the least bad option for Arabs as well because they too live in more peace and security than they’d have otherwise and have a better standard of living, on average, than Arabs in any Arab majority country … though Israeli-Arabs have it best in the world. The women are also all our pharmacists, it seems. <shrug>

It’s not politically correct to advocate for social stratification and talk down to others – agreed. It’s not okay. The problem is that it’s the best of a bad situation and far better for them than the alternative … where the authoritarian Palestinian Authority were even stronger and were paying even more terrorists “compensation” for time in Israeli jails. Worse, according to polls, the Palestinians would vote for Hamas takes over and turns it into another Gaza which is precisely why the Palestinian Authority won’t hold elections and the situation is best as it is.

There’s a reason Israeli-Arabs in the Galilee don’t want to be part of Palestine in any land swap based peace treaty.

Finally, stopped at a security checkpoint

After leaving the party and crossing back into Israel proper – finally! A security guard stops me for the first time on the road! I’m not that special because they stop everyone there. Still, finally I could have my chance to feel special in front of the authorities, said no black person ever.

I get the, “slow down” signal at the security barrier (basically, toll booths without tolls when you come into Israel proper) and stop with a big smile. The security guard says, “ma koreh?” What’s happening? I give him a big hearty, “Shalom!” and without even a pause he waves me forward and says I’m clearly not a security threat. Sigh.

In Conclusion . . .

Do I think there should be separate courts for Israeli citizens and non-Israeli citizens living side by side? No. Same judicial system should apply to everyone.

Do I think Jewish settlements should be built everywhere in the West Bank? No. … in Rammalah, the capital for the Arabs, I don’t think the city should be surrounded / hemmed in by Jewish settlements. Yeah, I don’t believe in “self-determination” for people who have a knack for choosing authoritarian rulers who are more interested in hurting me than having running water – I also don’t think we need to antagonize. However, take Hebron as an example: Jews lived there for hundreds of years until Arab pograms in 1926 killed dozens and forced the rest to leave for Jerusalem. These Jews had nothing to do with the modern Zionist politics. Even until that time Jews weren’t allowed to go more than seven steps up to the burial place of our patriarchs. It’s one of the few “we know for sure” validated sites of antiquity so sure, Jews should buy property there without restriction and live there.

We can go on and on discussing particulars of location after location … the driving factor, larger than political or religious views – which gets a handful of Jews moving here or there – is economics. Also, when Hamas, Hezbelloh, Iran, and the Houtis are attacking … guess where they don’t aim? – they don’t aim for the “West Bank”. (Sometimes they miss. Iran’s kill ratio in Syria was 200 dead per missile. In Israel it was 200 missiles to kill one Palestinian in Jericho.)

Seems if you want a high standard of living and a safe place to live, the “West Bank” has become very attractive.