It’s Time

Today I was reading on social media a description of the recent hostage release ceremony in Gaza. One of the terrorists gave a hostage an hourglass with a written message that said Time is Running Out. 

It was directed toward the spouse of another hostage still in captivity. It was meant as a threat.

But the hostage holding it didn’t seem to notice. He wasn’t really paying attention. 

It was all a performance for the cameras anyway. The hostages, when released, all appeared stunned. For sure they are…for good reason. They have been kept underground for over a year, and underwent unimaginable horrors. Why should they act any differently? It’s likely they were given drugs or performance enhancers upon their release. Anything to have the process run smoothly.

For years I have been saying that our cousins, the arabs living here, have been working their plan. And that plan is to build. They are constantly building homes. Schools. Buildings.  I am behind a cement truck every time I’m on the road. You can hear them drilling into rock early in the mornings and late in the afternoons. They are determined to spread out across Yehuda and Shomron…in our Ancestral Homeland…and they are not rushing. They are taking their time. 

And nobody is paying attention.

When I moved to Susya almost 20 years ago there were a handful of tents out there behind us on the Hevron side. Today those modest tents have grown into several clusters of structures, what they consider neighborhoods. They even have a playground. And that is just one side of our community. On the west and south there are real houses, lots of them, two stories high. 

We, on the other hand, struggle to build. Lots of bureaucracy. Only one company builds neighborhoods in Yehuda and Shomron.  And a new neighborhood could mean 10 houses…not hundreds. For so many years it was considered risky to build at all. The International Community complained, claiming that Jews were disrupting the peace of the region. Ridiculous.

Luckily, the Jews keep coming. And today we are at 600,000 in Judea and Samaria.

In the last year, both my parents have passed away. First my dad, then seven months later, my mom. She was only a widow, for a short time. 

We had all these plans. To travel together to Greece, a family cruise, and more. Even moving to Israel was on the list. My mom was extremely active with a real love of life. Always optimistic. Like a little girl. She was more like a sister than a mother.

Aliyah was never a prospect with my Dad, but Mom was all for it. 

So many potential olim, people who want to move to Israel, put it on hold. They think there will be a perfect time…and they delay.

But I will say it clearly….there is never a perfect time. Time doesn’t wait. 

And when people ask me about Aliyah, I say so.  “Don’t wait. Come to Israel now” I tell them.

When we came, we had two little boys ages 2 and 3. I was seven months pregnant. We now have five tall strong young adults. It was a struggle, but we put one foot in front of the other and did what we could, without family or familiar surroundings. We saw it as a necessary adventure.

The U.S. flip-flops through administrations….one is friendly to Israel, the next less friendly, and back again. 

Aliyah numbers reflect this and I’m pretty sure the Jews of the U.S. will not be rushing to Israel now. President Trump has given them all the confidence to stay Jewish in America, and as we see him loudly proclaiming how stance against anti-semitism, we will see the Jews dig in their heels even more, and postpone Aliyah. They will say “not now. It isn’t the right time.”

But they are wrong. HaShem gave us this Land to live in…not to watch from a distance. If we don’t live in every inch of it, guess who will.

It’s Time.