An Insider’s Version of the Adei-Ad Incident

As my readers know, I live in Shiloh and one of the satellite communities in our bloc is Adei-Ad.  Of Adei-Ad much has been written and this past Friday, there was a diplomatic incident.

I received this piece from a resident I know and can vouch for and am publishing it anonymously as it also dovetails with the other information I have gathered.

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“I read a news story and its byline reads: “Settlers from Adei Ad Stone American Consulate Convey!” Those settlers are up to it again! How can it be that a handful of people can act so brazenly against the desire of a billion Moslems, the European Union, President Obama, the Israeli public, the Israeli military? Who are these people, and why are they causing such a headache to the whole world?!!!

Well, this is your opportunity to hear from a genuine radical extremist fundamentalist Adei Ad settler. If you would meet me in person, I don’t think I would fit the picture you imagine. I’m generally calm, soft spoken, I have kids, I work. Instead of getting riled up against the Arabs, I usually just feel sorry for them.

So then it happens. I’m putting my kids to sleep, or I’m just about getting into bed myself, and I get a text message: “there are Arabs under the house of so-and-so, everybody needs to come immediately.” Or I’m at work, and I get a message, “Arabs and Anarchists are ripping up a vineyard by Esh Kodesh, come immediately.” I don’t come running each time, but I feel guilty when I don’t. Yes, there is a cycle of violence even as we argue who initiated it.

I don’t expect them to accept our presence here just because the Torah tells us to be here. But I do expect them to respect the Koran itself, which has a number of sources giving the Jews the right to the Land of Israel. Once I thought we should compromise with them. But then I found out that in English they talk peace, but in Arabic the talk about destroying us. Once I thought that only the terrorists are our enemy, but then I found out how that a large majority of Palestinian civilians votes for leaders who call for the destruction of Israel.

There are those who think they can be placated with land, but didn’t former President Bill Clinton announce recently that, at Camp David, they were offered almost every part of the West Bank and Gaza, but even that they refused? Because their jihad isn’t about land, or economics, or personal wellbeing rather it’s about saving face. They will never accommodate to having a Jew rule over a Moslem. This is an affront to their pride and an affront to Islam; and they are willing to suffer every hardship for the sake of their pride. With their mentality, “peace” and compromise is nothing but appeasement until the next round of attack. It’s them or us.

This most recent round of violence in Adei Ad began when they stole my neighbor’s horse. I don’t know what our guys did in retaliation, but I do know that something that day riled up the nearby village. So that night, at about ten o’clock, dozens of Arabs came up to the farm where the horse had been stolen. As usual, I missed all the action.

This is how it works. The Arabs don’t bring firearms. They know that if they do, they will be pursued by the Shabak and put in jail. The Jews also don’t bring firearms, for the same reason (but often someone from our side with an M16 will watch from afar, but even firing into the air is enough to cause a police investigation and confiscation of the weapon, so it‘s really the last resort).

The enemy’s main tactic is rocks. No, not gravel from a school yard but rocks the size of baseballs thrown with the velocity of a baseball pitcher and with high accuracy. These rocks can kill. The Jews, for some macho reason, don’t use rocks, and don’t bring shields. The Jews come with crowbars or the like, and run through the bombardment of rocks, dodging while they can, until the Arabs run away. Occasionally an Arab will get beat up, but not enough to endanger his life. Occasionally a Jew will get hit by a rock; I once required medical treatment.

So, getting back to that night. Can you imagine the heroism, maybe eight to ten guys, being bombarded by rocks which can’t be dodged easily because of the darkness, chasing off a mob of Arabs much larger than them (both in number and body size). It was a true miracle that the Jews left that round unscathed. I think we may have chased them all the way back to their village. And also, it wasn’t just heroism, it was faith. Faith in our path, faith that if we get hurt or die, then at least we’ve lived our life the way it should be lived: not bowing down, not to the Arabs, not to the police, not to Obama, not to the EU— to only fear G-d. That’s what enables a small group of guys to chase away a whole mob of Arabs.

And now, to return to the incident with the Consulate this past Friday, which was at the same place where the previous incident occurred.

Close to that farm, cars were spotted driving down into the valley very close to Adei Ad. The group included both Arabs and non-Arabs.
You should know that for the past several years there is an arrangement in force whereby any time Arabs approach Adei Ad to work what they claim is their property, they come with an IDF escort to keep the two sides apart. Additionally, a message is sent out to us beforehand, so that if Adei Ad residents see Arabs nearby or inside the community, instead of thinking that they are here to steal or commit an atrocity, we will know ahead of time that this is coordinated with the IDF.

So I guess the US Consulate thinks that they are in charge here, and not the IDF. Because they just came driving up near Adei Ad without telling anyone. When Arabs were sited, along with their helpers, the Adei Ad residents knew that they needed to distance them. Why? Because if our small community shows weakness towards the thousands of Arabs surrounding us, the next time they will push us another step back. If we let them steal a horse, and just let it go, the next time they’ll steal a car, and after that, try to kill someone.

But why this so-called ‘vigilantism’? Why not let the police take care of things? Well, you see there’s a little jurisdiction problem. The military takes care of terror. When the Arabs file a criminal complaint (and they love to file complaints, sometimes real, but very often contrived) the police call us in for interrogation. But the Arab villages are outside Israeli police jurisdiction. They steal whole herds of sheep, cars, destroy vineyards, harvest our olives, and the police? What police? Unless they try to kill someone, they have a free hand. And you can also count on the international press to ignore everything they do to us. So nature abhors a vacuum; without vigilantism, we could be done for.

So regarding the Consulate officials with the Arabs, I was told that the Adei Ad guys went down to confront the intruders as they should not be near here without an army escort. I was informed the Americans drew a pistol, and showed a rifle.

Someone really could have been killed. As I mentioned, the Arabs come without firearms. When the Jews see someone with a firearm approaching the community, the person may be considered a terrorist and he could be shot at. By not coordinating their visit, the US Consulate endangered their lives and ours. If the residents had known ahead of time, that a group of Arabs were nearby under the auspices of the US government, we certainly wouldn’t have been thrilled, but no one would have thought that they were approaching our community to do damage or worse. And this whole incident could have been avoided.

So the story with the Consulate really got around. Articles in the New York Times, the Guardian, a statement from the State Department, etc., etc. But you know, it just doesn’t faze us. First, it is encouraging that the world thinks this is even newsworthy. There could be massacres going on all over, but when a few settlers are accused of throwing rocks at a car, that’s really news. The world’s obsession with us underlines the fact that deep down, everybody knows the true importance of the Jewish People being in the Land of Israel.

Also, we see the blessings in our everyday lives. We see the miracles that happen in our own conflicts with the Arabs. On a national level, we see how instead of being threatened by Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran, they just fight each other and leave us alone. Israel felt so threatened by the military buildup of Egypt, and now Egypt can’t even feed itself.
We feared the anti-Semitism of Europe, but see that the more anti-Semitic they become, the worse they themselves suffer from the Moslems and from economic decline. We see the hand of G d before us. He is returning us and protecting us in His land. And eventually, the Arabs and the Europeans will come to understand, that by our thriving here in the Biblical heartland, this is how the Jewish People will one day fulfill its destiny to be a “light unto the nations.” And we will ultimately help save them from themselves, and help them rejuvenate their lives.”

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Just to be clear, my publishing this does not mean I agree with the opinions expressed or any of the actions taken, past, present of future. But I do champion the right to be given a fair hearing, which this does, especially since the reactions have been rather one-sided.