The Negev and Hebron

This week’s Torah portion – Lech Lecha – describes Avram’s maiden journey to eretz Canaan. His first stop is the Negev, before famines causes him and his wife to go down to Egypt. When they return to the Land, “Avram moved his tent and came to dwell at the terebinths of Mamre, which are in Hebron” (Genesis 13:18). So begins the Jewish people’s profound relationship with the city of Hebron – the first of the four holy cities of Israel.

The intensity of Zionism comes from the interrelationship of these ancient places with a modern time. The Negev and Hebron are clearly two such places.

Ben-Gurion commanded, “Settle the Negev,” and his own home was in Sde Boker, a glorious site with visages of mountains, canyons, and desert.

We did not settle the Negev as Ben-Gurion commanded. Hebron and other places – “settlements” – east of the Green Line, gained attention – instead  – from religious Zionists after the Six Day War. I say this as someone who does not regard any of these communities as “illegal.”

On 10/7, the Negev was naked and bare save some communities in the Gaza Envelope.

In The Gates of Gaza, Amir Tibon tells us that twenty-four battalions stood in Judea & Samaria (the area east of the Green Line) on 10/6/23 and only four were in the Negev. One reason is the relative population concentration: Judea & Samaria is more populous with Israeli citizens than the Gaza Envelope in the Negev.

While I do not regard any of the communities in Judea & Samaria (the West Bank) as illegal, I make a firm distinction between Israel proper and disputed territories. The failure of 10/7 is intimately related to the failure to make that distinction.

I’m one of those old-time AIPAC guys. Any government that is freely elected by Israelis, I will support. And! I love Ben-Gurion, the second longest-serving Prime Minister in Israeli history. And! I love our father Abraham, who showed us the Negev for the first time.

May our Israeli friends and families make the best choice and choose the Negev.